Video: Sanchez’s trainer Fabia chases fighters with a knife during training

A peek at the Joshua Fabia fighting system in action.

Early this year, UFC welterweight Emil Meek shared his experience training with Diego Sanchez’s mentor Joshua Fabia. A specific session he recounted was when Fabia supposedly chased him and his training partners with a “real, sharp blade” inside a locked cage.

I went in full-belief mode: everything they tell me to do, I’m going to do it 100 per cent. Man, it was the craziest sh-t I’ve ever done. At one point, Joshua, he was running after us in a locked cage with a real, sharp blade, to make us move.

Turns out he wasn’t lying. Meek shared a clip of the said training session on Twitter, courtesy of Sanchez.

One person even asked if it really was a knife, which Meek provided an answer to.

Fabia later explained the method behind the madness. Apparently, it’s his own way of developing fighter awareness while in combat.

The drill is, they’re all in the octagon, moving, trying not to touch each other, or get touched by each other. So I want you to think of an athletic, high-speed game of tag that allows you to play, but also play with that fear and anxiety space, without getting hurt, without feeling you can’t make a mistake.

And so, this is happening, five, six, seven, eight, guys, and I progressively come in and I say, ‘On top of the game that’s going on, this is to enhance your awareness, now I’m coming in, do not allow me to touch you also. So now I’m like a wild animal, putting pressure on all of them and not allowing them to stay focused on their specific thing, and just moving them.

Now, 20 minutes later, yeah, I chase them around with a knife to make them move, so they realize, I’m not playing around. And if you think the guy in the ring when it’s one-on-one is playing around, that might be why you end up losing an eye.

Well, to each his own, I guess.

The Fabia-Sanchez duo will be back in action at UFC 253 when they take on Jake Matthews in the prelims.