Diego Sanchez's potential

[Gogaplata]

First off I want to say I'm a big Diego fan, I love watching him fight. He is one of the toughest, most ballsy and overall crazy dudes I've ever seen in my life and watching his many wars in the cage was part of what made me such a huge fan of this sport. However I think he really could've been so much better if he fought smarter and wasn't so inclined to try to make every fight a wild brawl. The guy really could be unstoppable when you look at his physical gifts; he has one of the best chins in mma, insane cardio, and great mental strength and willpower. If he refined his skillset more, (sharpened up his boxing, footwork, fought less stiff and flat footed) fought more conservatively, and came in with better game plans and stuck to them I really think he could have been one of the all time great lightweights.

 

[315MMAFighter]

Pearson v Sanchez....all I have to say bruva.....smh. Back in the day tho when he over to LW he was kinda impressive.

 

[Sonny Qc]

Pearson v Sanchez....all I have to say bruva.....smh. Back in the day tho when he over to LW he was kinda impressive.

Vs Kampmamn & Gomi were pretty bad too.

 

[SirKratos]

Agree on all points.

Big Sanchez fan here

 

[Sonny Qc]

He is a underated grappler/Wrestler.
He just chose to have a reckless style of fighting.

 

[capnlarge]

I think he would've been a champion if he had better wrestling. His ground and pound was always his best weapon.

 

[bjpenngoat]

potential and Diego SAnchez in the same sentence have absolutely nothing to do with eachother unless this is 2007.

 

[El Fernas]

He wasted his prime trying to rip everyone´s head off and it didnt happened, imo it might too late for him to change his style, for a guy that trains at one of the most gameplan-oriented gym he fights with a very careless style.

Having said that, i will tune every god damn time he is fighting.

 

[joeyjoejoe]

I always figured Diego was like Sherk, focused on his stand up because he was hiding a bunch of injuries that stopped him from aggressively grappling.

 

[SixStringSeal]

He has very good grappling and wrestling. I think where he went wrong was when he started to rely in it less and wanted to become more of a stand-up fighter.

 

[wonderbread]

He needs to be more disciplined in his style.

 

[Kingofthestreets]

I just cant understad diegos striking, it's kind of different, he probablyhas the best uppercut in the division. Would have beatrn both gil and rllenberger if it was 5 rounds. If guida could beat rda then so can Diego, i think diego could be champ if the ufc set up that path for him, like diego beats a top 10 guy in say adriano martins or someone like that then tiyle figth, its not like rda is a highprofile champ, optimisticthinking but yeah

 

[Automatic Man]

potential and Diego SAnchez in the same sentence have absolutely nothing to do with eachother unless this is 2007.

Robbie Lawler.

 

[Andre Xiong]

aside from what's been said, I think he should have stayed at 170/WW. He was undersized a bit but powerful and energetic. He went on a 5 win steak that included notable wins over prime Karo, Nick Diaz and Riggs.

He lost to Koscheck primarily due to his newfound love for boxing; he lost a decision to prime Fitch (but so did everyone else not GSP at the time)

he shrunk to compete at LW and never looked the same (literally/physically)

it's too late now, hopefully he makes good income and stays brain healthy for a few more fights.

 

[Gogaplata]

He wasted his prime trying to rip everyone´s head off and it didnt happened, imo it might too late for him to change his style, for a guy that trains at one of the most gameplan-oriented gym he fights with a very careless style.

Having said that, i will tune every god damn time he is fighting.

I frequently wonder if Greg Jackson chews him out after every fight

 

[Rekt 'em]

Was reached a long time ago...

 

[cookdaddy]

I love Diego. His wins over Nick Diaz and Karo are probably two of my favorite fights from that era. Some of the craziest ground transitions in those fights. Sadly, his fight IQ is what hurts him these days, it's way too easy to lure him into fighting your gameplan and his striking has never evolved with the rest of his game.

 

[Tony_Clifton]

I was feeling nostalgic last week and re watched his fights with Nick and Karo. Diego was a fucking beast back in the day and to anyone that hasn't watched those fights they are highly recommended.

 

[Andre Xiong]

I was feeling nostalgic last week and re watched his fights with Nick and Karo. Diego was a fucking beast back in the day and to anyone that hasn't watched those fights they are highly recommended.

versus Paulo Thiago was a crazy fun one too; recall that this was when Paulo came out of the blue and KOd Koscheck and choked out Swick and he was looking to beat another vet in Diego too until Diego turned it on midway through.

 

[jeff7b9]

Maybe I'm an outlier here but I think Diego far exceeded his potential in the traditional sense of the word.

He is awkward, not particularly coordinated, no real KO power to speak of, gets hit a lot and doesn't have great striking yet he was top 10 in two weight classes and fought for the title. He had great scrambles and BJJ, great cardio but not the best overall wrestling and was forced to stand with guys he couldn't take down.

Did more than most with less natural ability, in my opinion.