Former UFC champion Conor McGregor is the latest fighter to put Joshua Fabia on blast for his training methods involving Diego Sanchez.
The unorthodox Fabia has launched himself into the public eye over the the past few weeks following Sanchez’s release from UFC. Not only did video footage surface of Fabia slamming UFC’s commentating team for comments he thought were “disrespectful” to Sanchez, but the MMA head coach was also heard badgering UFC officials for Sanchez’s medical records on a “smoking gun” phone call, which ultimately prompted Sanchez’s release.
On Friday, video footage surfaced of an old training session between Fabia and Sanchez. Fight fans have seen some wild techniques before, but Fabia had Sanchez hanging upside down like a bat and beat him about the head with short punches and kicks. It was quite odd even for a guy who often wields a knife inside of the cage for training purposes.
The recent footage is already receiving negative feedback within the MMA community and that includes some backlash dished out by McGregor. The Irish superstar has always paid significant respect to Sanchez and the path he helped blazed, which is why “Notorious” went in on Fabia during a recently-deleted Twitter outburst after witnessing the strange training video.
“This is just madness. I’ll break this things nose in half. This not the move Diego, my bro. I been with ye the whole way, and still am. But this is not on. It was unfair treatment by commentary and fans on your last performances imo, for sure. But not on this guy, 0-0. Ditch.”
“I’m actually on the side of body hardening work also. Working the body etc. But doing it hanging upside down, and getting the dome of the head struck repeatedly, while covering vision, is preposterous! Grab this guy by the ears and head butt him at his front door first thing.”
“I watched the engagement with the broadcast team with an open minded judgement and an understanding that there was disrespectful comments made against you. You were right to pull this up. But the other guy took over the convo. Made it all about him. This is not his story Diego.”
“Box his nose in and ditch him.”
Unsurprisingly, McGregor isn’t the first fighter to speak out about Fabia and his sometimes dangerous training methods. Other UFC fighters and MMA veterans have publicly come out urging “Nightmare” to get rid of Fabia and get back to things that made him such a great fighter to begin with.
This certainly isn’t the last time we’ve heard of Fabia or his wild training methods, but hopefully this is the last time it involves Sanchez. The former Ultimate Fighter winner is far from what he used to be and fellow fighters, like McGregor, believe some of that has to do with his head coach.