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Morning Report: Joshua Fabia trashes Diego Sanchez after split: ‘Diego has clearly been taking advantage of me for two years’

May 24, 2021
Diego Sanchez
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Last week, Diego Sanchez parted ways with his highly controversial mentor and coach Joshua Fabia. Now, Fabia has spoken out.

Sanchez has yet to comment publicly on the split aside from announcing that he would no longer be working with Fabia, saying that he would like to take time to gather his thoughts before speaking about it. However, Fabia clearly has no such issues as he recently did an interview on Behind the Scenes with Summer Helene (h/t Bloody Elbow), where he almost immediately began to take shots at Sanchez.

“Diego was definitely a celebrity,” Fabia said. “He had some celebrity asshole tendencies. He didn’t like tipping and he did some weird stuff in front of me that, you know, threw out some red flags. But over time, just talking to him, it kinda just seemed, like I said, the celebrity stuff.

“Things like, you get a divorce and you have a child, but you get a one-bedroom condo. Things just didn’t make sense to me. But I’m thinking, ‘OK, he’s got his own plans, he knows what he’s gonna do. Maybe it’s just super temporary, I don’t know.’ I’m wondering, ‘Why he’s driving around a $3,000 Mercedes?’ Just questions that throw out flags, but I’m thinking, ‘He’s telling me he’s frugal. He’s saving his money. OK.’

“From everything on the outside, as a trainer that’s seeing somebody three days a week and then I moved him into the condo. I helped him in the divorce and this little moment and everything seemed pretty much the same as anybody else under these circumstances, to a certain degree.”

Fabia and Sanchez began working together in 2019 and since then Sanchez’s relationship with the “self awareness guru” has come under much scrutiny due to both Fabia’s unorthodox training techniques and his confrontational personality (Fabia once got into a dispute with the NSAC over an alleged “death choke” he had trained Sanchez to perform). Sanchez, however, was adamantly supportive of his “guru”, even admitting recently that he “disowned” some family members to stay loyal to Fabia. That loyalty is a not a two-way street though it seems as though Fabia mostly avoided answering questions regarding the split, he has no issues at all throwing out very serious accusations and claims about his former protege.

“As I get to more information as I’m with the lawyer, and the lawyer talks to Diego and asks Diego about his education, and he starts talking about he was in special education,” Fabia said. “Holy shit. Huge red flags, man.

“This is not, at all, what anyone who perceived, and Diego is not anywhere near what anybody knows, man. And Diego has been an addict. He hasn’t told anybody for the past five months, I was his sponsor living with him. That I had to live there because he was broke and lost all his money, and strung out on Kratom and alcohol and 30 other substances. That he has sexual abuse issues. No, he didn’t say any of that, man. And I’ve been holding up all this. I’ve been doing everything and everybody’s coming at me.”

In recent weeks, the Sanchez-Fabia controversy came to a head as Sanchez was released from the UFC ahead of his proposed retirement fight against Donald Cerrone which led Fabia and Sanchez to release videos of their interactions with the “bullying tactics” of the UFC. Those videos ended up backfiring and only increasing the public antipathy for Fabia. However, the leader of the owner of the School of Self-Awareness remains convinced that the scores of people who view him as the issue are all part of a larger agenda and that it is he, in fact, who has been wronged in this situation.

“I’ll put it out there, I’ll put out all the proof, I’ll put out all the videos, man,” Fabia said. “Diego has clearly been taking advantage of me for two years, as I have been fighting for him, and putting myself on the line for him with zero benefit. I am the one getting death threats here.”

TOP STORIES

Results. Rob Font outclasses Cody Garbrandt, Carla Esparza mauls Yan Xiaonan at UFC Vegas 27.

Results. Cris Cyborg puts away game Leslie Smith in final seconds, calls out Cat Zingano at Bellator 259.

Results. Karina Rodriguez captures flyweight title, Alesha Zappitella defends atomweight belt at Invicta 44.

Retirement. Paul Felder retires from MMA: ‘That spark that I need to fight … it just wasn’t there anymore’.

Nonsense. Dana White undecided on booking Rose Namajunas against Carla Esparza or Zhang Weili next.

Productive. Oscar De La Hoya challenges ‘little b*tch’ Dana White to fight after allegedly blocking Georges St-Pierre matchup.

VIDEO STEW

UFC Vegas 27 Post Show.

UFC Vegas 27 Post-Fight Press Conference.

UFC 262: Thrill and the Agony.

Paul Felder’s retirement announcement.

Nate Diaz’s best moments.

LISTEN UP

On To The Next One. Matchmaking following UFC Vegas 27.

Severe MMA. Discussing UFC Vegas 27, Bellator, and the best fighter to never fight for a UFC belt.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Farewell.

Bantamweight.

Trolling.

Edmen really needs a better team around him.

Frustrated RDA.

Amusing.

They may have to ban this from MMA for being too effective.

Generic fight poster.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Kevin Lee (18-6) vs. Sean Brady (14-0); UFC 264, July 10.

Juliana Velasquez (11-0) vs. Denise Kielholtz (6-2); Bellator 262, July 16.

Darren Elkins (25-9) vs. Darrick Minner (26-11); UFC Fight Night, July 24.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There’s an old saying: if you wake up in the morning and you run into an a**hole, then you met an a**hole. But if you wake up in the morning and run into a**holes all day, you’re the a**hole.

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

EXIT POLL

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let him know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

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