The curious case of Diego Sanchez....

If Diego didn’t become a rockem sockem striker, he wouldn’t have lasted in the UFC. He isn’t a contender and his record isn’t that great. A grappler in his position would get cut for being boring. Grapplers with far better records have been cut. By reinventing himself into an “exciting“ fan favorite, however, he carved out that narrow niche that exists for strikers who aren’t ever going to sniff a title, but will always put on a show. That’s one way to keep your job in the UFC.
 
Jack Handy jr said:
When Diego first left UF 1 he seemed to be arguably more skilled than he is today. I'm wondering how training around and with the best of the best at Jackson's MMA this could have happened.

I will always be a fan of the nightmare... maybe it was the BJ Penn fight that in all honesty should've been stopped that has changed him.

though entertaining Diego's Rocky Balboa style wont serve him well as he ages

thoughts?
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He spent time training with Fernando Vargas, and became a believer that a lot of boxing can be implemented in MMA, at a time when people didn't believe it. It was also during the "Stand and bang" days when entertaining fans was a higher priority than winning... he had crazy wars, and maybe the BJ fight did do it, Idunno. But he got into brawling, and he probably lost more of his wisdom along the way as a result.

He also did have some success early on to reinforce it (stopping Diesel on the feet was not expected).

Diego wasn't a groundhog expert or wise philosopher to begin with, though, so he probably started at a defecit of judgement that made it hard to use enough foresight to consider the best approach to be successful long-term.
 
He’s punch drunk and half retarded. That’s what happens to the human body after getting hit in the head a lot by professional fighters.
 
Agent Mulder's Hair said:
idk man he got Nick Diaz pretty early on in his career, and Nick was pretty good at that point
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yeah but nick was never elite. around that time, nick also lost to jeremy jackson, hironaka, karo parisyan, joe riggs, sherk, and noons
 
He actually spent all of the first round trying to take down Matt brown but couldn’t, and got ko’d eventually. Matt seemed way bigger than him in there though. Ironically, I felt if Diego went his usual bite down on the mouthpiece and brawl style but included body shots he could’ve finished Matt. He almost crumbled Matt with a body shot in that fight.
 
Ham Socks said:
This.


He was a monster on the ground, but abandoned his grappling. I mean the guy went the distance with Marcelo Garcia in a grappling match. If he worked on his takedowns and stuck to his strength, he would have had a much better career.
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I don’t think he abandoned his grappling I think he just wasn’t able to take guys down anymore. Either the level of TDD of everybody improved or diego’s Takedown abilities diminished
 
Ken's Sideburns said:
I don’t think he abandoned his grappling I think he just wasn’t able to take guys down anymore. Either the level of TDD of everybody improved or diego’s Takedown abilities diminished
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I don't think he ever had great takedowns to begin with.
 
Ham Socks said:
I don't think he ever had great takedowns to begin with.
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He spammed them alot. relentlessly wether he got them or not. People wonder what happened to that..but i imagine when you spam 50 takedowns like he did against alexio,you wear your knees the fuck out.
 
Ken's Sideburns said:
He actually spent all of the first round trying to take down Matt brown but couldn’t, and got ko’d eventually. Matt seemed way bigger than him in there though. Ironically, I felt if Diego went his usual bite down on the mouthpiece and brawl style but included body shots he could’ve finished Matt. He almost crumbled Matt with a body shot in that fight.
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I dont think he could have gone blow for blow with Matt and won. Diego's tough but thats not the way to fight Matt.
 
Diego "hold a guy against the cage and swing for the fences" sanchez.
 
Local Plata said:
He realized he could make a lot more money by being one of those stand and bang guys. He's literally hunting for fight of the night like every single time he gets in there.
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Which is crazy because he got FOTN against Diaz and Karo which were grapple heavy fights
 
HHJ said:
I dont think he could have gone blow for blow with Matt and won. Diego's tough but thats not the way to fight Matt.
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I agree except by now everyone who’s slated to fight Matt brown should know to go for the liver shot, it’s almost to a point where bas probably feels tempted to come out of retirement to fight Matt. Once he realized he wasn’t getting the takedown, he should’ve bit down on his mouthpiece, got inside, threw heavy body shots...and maybe THEN reshoot.
 
A lot of good ponts here, really.

Also there is a word that Diego likes to drink and party a lot ( as seen on TUF1)

This, together with brawls, not protecting his head and not thinking tactically
led to his downfall.

He should have concentrated on grappling and takedowns....


Sad story, i used to be a fan.
 
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