White addresses ‘unfortunate’ Sanchez and Fabia situation

Dana White at a UFC press event on Fight Island. | Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

UFC President Dana White spoke about claims made against him by Joshua Fabia and Diego Sanchez. Dana White recently sat down (virtually) …


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Dana White at a UFC press event on Fight Island. | Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

UFC President Dana White spoke about claims made against him by Joshua Fabia and Diego Sanchez.

Dana White recently sat down (virtually) with Aaron Bronsteter of TSN to discuss a host of topics. During their chat, Bronsteter brought up the ongoing saga of Diego Sanchez and Joshua Fabia.

Last month Sanchez was released from the UFC after footage surfaced showing Fabia confronting the UFC’s media team. Since then Sanchez and Fabia have made a number of claims about the UFC and Dana White. Included in those claims are that the UFC might try to kill Sanchez and that White, and matchmaker Sean Shelby, are having inappropriate relationships with female fighters.

Recently footage of Sanchez and Fabia ‘training’ together hit the internet. That footage shows Sanchez suspended from the ceiling while Fabia strikes him in the head. That video elicited scorn for Fabia, and concerns for Sanchez, from various members of the MMA community.

When asked for his reaction on that specific video, and the various claims made by Sanchez and Fabia, White shared that he felt there was little he could do.

“Unfortunately, all these guys and girls are grown men and women and can do whatever they want. And all of us, everybody, there’s all these paths that we can choose to walk down in life and Diego has chosen this path. And, uh… I wish him luck.”

When addressing the videos Fabia and Sanchez have released, White expressed that he was quite puzzled by the motivation for releasing them.

“The thing that baffled me even more is that, do they think that those videos make us look bad or them? I don’t know. Listen, the whole thing is nutty,” he said. “I’ve been in this game for a very, very long time and I’ve seen this movie and I know how this movie ends and it’s actually a sad story, but he’s a grown man. He can do whatever he wants to do. He’s free, like they put it. He can do whatever he wants to do. They can say whatever they want to say. Good luck to him.”

White then re-iterated that he had seen situations like this before and pushed back on Sanchez’s claims that he isn’t able to get in touch with White.

This type of stuff, I’ve been dealing with this my whole career. None of this stuff bothers me, I don’t care. It’s unfortunate, I always liked Diego. Diego’s says he’s been trying to talk to me. Diego could pick up the phone and talk to me whenever he wanted to. When he wanted to text me, he would text me. We did have that incident where they were claiming they got left at the airport, as soon as I found out that happened I called, I apologized to him up and down. He knows. He knows what’s going on. He knows what the deal is. As far as that other guy, I don’t even know him. I’ve never met him. Apparently he knows a lot of things about me, but I don’t know anything about him. Yeah… that’s it.”

Sanchez, a UFC Hall of Fame member thanks to his show winning appearance on The Ultimate Fighter 1, was the UFC’s longest serving fighter before his ouster from the company. He joined the promotion way back in 2005 and once competed for the UFC lightweight title.

He fought 32 times for the UFC and was 3-3 in his last six contests. Sanchez’s most recent fight was a decision loss to Jake Matthews at UFC 253 last September.