What happened to Diego? Where is the 2006 version!

Seriously...Of all people you eek out a SD against Ross Pearson? Pearson, who got KTFO by Melvin but won on technicality, and got absolutely handled by a featherweight.

Pretty disappointed in Diego, I remember thinking back in 2006 when he knocked Karo's fake tooth out and KOing Riggs, that he was going to be the future WW champion.

 

Mma has evolved there really isn't many careless brawlers like Diego everyone is tactical and Diego isn't fighters stay on the outside and pick him apart it's sad because he had such potential

 

Diego Sanchez hasn't been that fighter in years.

He might not have even been that fighter in this decade.

 

His fight against Melendez?

 

People forget that Diego has been doing this professionally for a decade. That takes a toll on you. There's a lot of diminishing skills a fighter has to deal with, and Diego is dealing with them now.

I hope he retires soon or he's gonna be spitting baby food on people by the time he's 45.

 

100% agree with you here. The guy has willingly taken a beating over and over and enough is enough. He was ecstatic at the press conference in getting the "win". He is such a nice guy, hate to see him take anymore punishment like he has and continues to do.

 

Diego started going downhill once he stopped blending stevia and H2O, you should have never gotten off the pure ny migga

[YT]xiJEeg0yEN8[/YT]

 

Diego hurt Gil once and was beaten soundly for the entire rest of the fight.

 

prime Diego was actually a pretty good fighter

but I think Diego is in love with the idea of becoming MMA's Arturo Gatti, so he'd rather do that instead of fight intelligently

 

I specifically meant the "he was going to be the future WW champion" bit. It's been a long time since he was anywhere near a belt.

 

he got old

 

2006 was a long time ago in fight years.
Alas, time makes fools of us all.

 

He tried to strike with a technical striker in Pearson and everyone thinks he lost, not surprising really man. Oh and if your talking about Cub, saying he got handled by a featherweight aint relevent considering hes a really good striker and Diego is more of a brawler

 

Fighters age and they get out of their Prime. Sport evolves and the competition gets tougher. The biggest problem with Diego is he hasn't changed much since TUF.

 

Ever since the BJ loss he hasn't been the same. He used to be a pressure fight who specialized in opportunity submissions and he developed decent kickboxing. I remember when he picked Stevenson apart.

He fell in love with the fan favorite brawling style in the Guida fight or just before it. Then he brought it with him to his titleshot against Penn and Penn took his soul. But he was still the best pressure brawler and he continues fighting that way despite losing to technical strikers who take advantage of it and Diego's toughness. If you notice in the Gil fight, Diego's best work besides the uppercut that floored him were body kicks that looked to hurt Gil. He only threw like 2 body kicks and didn't follow up on them and started head hunting again.

He needs to use his kickboxing to set up his average takedowns then GnP until he gets a TKO or opportunity sub.

 

This, and also he has not changed his style AT ALL. It blows my mind how he can't come up with something new. He always goes in with the exact same game plan for every single fight and it's ridiculous. He has almost no fight IQ anymore. I saw someone compare him to Leonard Garcia early and I completely agree. He's pretty much at that level now.

 

8 years of hard sparring and fighting.

 

yup

 

diego was a monster grappler. I really think when he was raw coming out of TUF (he still had like 15 fights, undefeated), he was at a crossroads. he was a beast grappler (still is); he was a guy who would take someone down and just kick his ass from the top and work for subs.

but he ran into two fighters whom he couldn't bully around (fitch and kos), and he probably started focusing more on his standup. also, let's face it.... fighters hit speed-bumps every day against training partners. he started gearing himself more toward striking (also, i'm sure the riggs ko didn't help).

from there, he retreated and has been reduced to more of a brawler. it's almost sad, because I think if he had focused more on wrestling, he could've been more of a threat these days. fighters evolve and devolve; it happens. I think diego went in a direction that did not serve him well. sure, his versatility has helped him, but his one distinct technical advantage (bjj) can never be utilized because the wrestling just isn't there. I think Kenny florian would've beaten diego any time in the last 5 years.

like I said, shit happens. maybe his wrestling wouldn't have mattered much anyway because there are too many better athletes who can stuff his takedowns. that could be true. perhaps, the sport was going to evolve and pass him by anyway. I just don't like how his heart, chin, and tenacity are relied upon instead of being used as something to fall back on. it's a fine line, and I can only guess. I mean, afterall, I think that 2006 riggs was a fighter whom he couldn't bully with his wrestling and his improving striking came through and stole that fight.

 

I agree. And is it just me or is he slow for that size? His striking just seems slow and telegraphed.