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UFC 135 Preview: Diego Sanchez Says He "Grew Up," Focused on Facing Matt Hughes

After an unsuccessful stint at lightweight, Diego Sanchez transitioned to the welterweight division where he has found more promise for himself. Now, following back-to-back victories over Paulo Thiago and Martin Kampmann, Sanchez has been granted the o…

But his current win-streak didn’t come just through hard work and dedication in the gym.

Sanchez was a guest on MMAWeekly Radio where he revealed some details about his personal life and how he was previously living a “rockstar life.” He said his life began to take a wrong turn following his loss to B.J. Penn at UFC 107.

“After I lost the B.J. Penn fight, I lost control. I lost control of life,” Sanchez told MMAWeekly.com.

“I took the wrong path. I took the path of partying, and I was just drinking away my sorrows. I was handling the problem the wrong way.”

Along with his drug and alcohol use, Sanchez admitted he aligned himself with the wrong crowd.

“I let a person that I thought was a friend, a real close friend, someone that would help me with finances, I had him helping me out with stuff. Turned out I got embezzled for over $170,000,” he said.

Since then, Sanchez has relocated to Greg Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts in Albuquerque, N.M. It was a place where he felt comfortable and maintained a close relationship with Jackson, who Sanchez said would welcome him back regardless of the circumstances.

“Greg Jackson always told me that if I ever wanted to come back, the door was always open,” he said.

“That gym was my gym. He said, ‘this is your house, no matter what. This will always be your house.'”

And since reuniting with Jackson, Sanchez now feels reborn and rededicated to a career which he recalled at one point prevented him from reaching his potential as a fighter. He will now look to focus on his upcoming bout with Hughes, which could see him become a perennial contender at 170 lbs.

After a long road to recovery, Sanchez said he has put his past behind him and has matured as a fighter and a human being.

“You know what I did? I grew up,” he said.

“I stopped living that little young life that I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it, and that’s how I want to do it. Now, I’m (living) a different life, a real adult life.”

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UFC 135 Fight Card: In Victory or in Defeat, Jon Jones Will Test Rampage Jackson

When Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has his switch flipped “on;” there’s very few guys in the light heavyweight ranks that can come anywhere close to touching him. As a matter of fact, the run of the PRIDE legend in the UFC alone shows that only Rashad Evan…

When Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has his switch flipped “on;” there’s very few guys in the light heavyweight ranks that can come anywhere close to touching him.

As a matter of fact, the run of the PRIDE legend in the UFC alone shows that only Rashad Evans truly handled Rampage easily, as history says Forrest Griffin took the title from Rampage, but some in the MMA world say Rampage did enough to beat Griffin.

Otherwise, it has been Rampage that has been the one testing many fighters’ mettle in the UFC since his debut, and if you don’t believe it, ask everyone he’s ever beaten in the sport of MMA.

Nobody’s arguing that Rampage can test out elite fighters, nor will they accuse him of not giving UFC Light Heavyweight Champion the greatest test of his young MMA career yet at UFC 135. However, as much as you can stack the excuses for Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s UFC 128 performance in the same way Donald Trump stacks his money, the fact remains that Jon Jones is not the only man that will be tested greatly in Denver next month.

Don’t believe it? Just ask Shogun yourself.

Yes, Shogun underwent major surgery to remove his appendix and had a major knee surgery done, but when the world found out that “Suga” Rashad Evans blew his own knee out and Jones took Evans’ spot, nobody mentioned a bummed knee or cage rust for Shogun when they swiftly underestimated Jones merely because he took the fight on six weeks’ notice.

Shogun fought as healthily as he could, but at the end of the day, Jones thoroughly outclassed and annihilated Shogun, all the while testing Shogun’s will to battle forward despite receiving some legitimate punishment, and also making Shogun look like he was making his pro MMA debut.

He did the same thing to Ryan Bader, Vladimir Matyushenko, Brandon Vera and, despite the 12-6 elbow, he did the exact same thing to Matt Hamill.

All of the above are credible guys, and Rampage should know as much about the fact that Hamill is tough as Jones does because while it was expected by some that Rampage would defeat Hamill at UFC 130, Rampage was not able to knock Hamill out or put him at risk of losing by TKO, so Rampage is not facing a non-credible champion.

If anything, Rampage is facing arguably the most credible challenge he’s faced in quite some time, and that’s not just to hype the fight, folks.

Jones is young and, to Rampage’s credit, he is accurate in saying Jones is the least experienced holder of the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, but while the 33-year-old sports icon may be another test of Jones’ so-far-iron jaw, think of what Jones will be testing.

Not only will Rampage be tested against a younger fighter who has taken hard shots before and likely will survive even the strongest of Rampage’s power strikes, but in all blatant and deliberate honesty, Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva were not as crafty or innovative as Jon Jones.

Ruthless, dominating and destructive they were, but pulling moves ranging from Greco-Roman back suplexes to spinning elbows and backfists all the way to superman elbows, Jet Li-style flying kicks—and even things ranging from power guillotines to facially reconstructing elbows and forearms from a modified Salaverry position—both the Iceman and the Axe Murderer were not.

Rampage has never faced a guy who was so unpredictable in every realm of the game the way Jones is, as nobody has been so willing to throw the entire neighborhood—foundation and all—at Rampage the way Jones will be.

As tough as the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion will be for the younger Jones, it’s not the champion that will be facing such a great test in Denver, and the reason is very simple:

With or without a spy sent by Malki Kawa, we all know what Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will throw at Jon Jones.

What we don’t know—and won’t know until Sept. 24—is what Rampage will have thrown at him by Jones, but fans of both the legendary challenger and the polarizing young champion can rest assured that whatever Jones throws at Rampage, it will be something that not even Jones’ camp sees coming.

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Maybe Jade Bryce is the Wolfslair Spy…

Earlier today it was widely reported that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson believes he’s exposed Jon Jones‘ manager, Malki Kawa for having a spy inside the Wolfslair training camp. Jon Jones has since chimed in via Twitter.

Earlier today it was widely reported that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson believes he’s exposed Jon Jones‘ manager, Malki Kawa for having a spy inside the Wolfslair training camp. Jon Jones has since chimed in via Twitter to dispute the claims by tweeting:

Well, it’s very diplomatic of Jon Jones to end on a hashtag of Respect. Let’s see what Rampage does with that. So far, there’s been no response on his Twitter. But we think it’s awfully coincidental that Bellator Ring Girl, Jade Bryce tweeted this pic of herself in a wolf’s disguise today. She’d be pretty unsuspecting. Very clever move, Kawa.

Tweet of the Day: Jon Jones Responds to Quinton Jackson’s Spying Claims

Jon Jones jumped on Twitter to respond to Quinton Jackson’s claims that the UFC light heavyweight champ has employed a spy in Rampage’s camp to feed him gameplan and training secrets being used for their upcoming UFC 135 bout. According to Jones, Jackson’s assertions are BS and he doesn’t need to use dirty tactics to win the fight.

Your move, Quinton.

Is There a Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing at Wolfslair? Rampage Cries Spy!

The old adage when it comes to a traitor among friends is called a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” but given that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson trains out of Wolfslair MMA Academy, it seems there may be.

The old adage when it comes to a traitor among friends is called a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” but given that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson trains out of Wolfslair MMA Academy, it seems there may be a spy disguised as a loyal Wolf teammate. Rampage claimed to Yahoo Sports! that he made up a hand injury that he only spoke of in his gym when four hours later, his manager, Anthony McGann received a phone call concerning the “injury” from Joe Silva . When McGann assured Silva the hand was fine, he asked who had informed him of the injury, to which Silva replied, it was Jon Jones‘ manager, Malki Kawa. Rampage says:

One of my friends was talking to Jon Jones’ manager recently, and Jon Jones’ manager was saying that he knows everything that is going on in our camp. He said he had spies in our camp and he knew everything that was going on. That got me thinking. How did he know about my hand injury that fast? It wasn’t on the Internet, and yet he knew about my hand injury right away. The UFC people were in Brazil, which is why it probably took them four hours to call me.

That shows me two things: They have spies in my camp, one, and two, they’re dumb as hell, because they didn’t know how to use the information correctly and to wait. He called right away, running to Joe Silva. Joe Silva called my manager right away.”

Rampage made up the hand injury story after receiving a message from someone via Twitter that Jones had a spy in Rampage’s camp. Coincidentally enough, Jones’ manager, Kawa disputes he has any spies and that he only learned of a hand injury via Twitter. Kawa claims:

“I promise to God, I have no spy in that camp,” Kawa said. “It’s completely and totally untrue. There is nothing to it at all. It’s funny he said that, though, because we’ve heard he has had old training partners of Jon coming in to work with him. We don’t care and it’s kind of hilarious he’s doing this. But I can guarantee you there is nothing at all that is true about this other than that I called Joe Silva after someone put out a thing on Twitter that Rampage was injured and pulling out. I wanted to know what was up, but it was no more than that. That is it.”

Rampage, who feels betrayed and thinks he knows who the spy is, doesn’t want to call out the person, but he does want this story out for the fans to respond via Twitter. Rampage said : “Of course they’re going to say they aren’t doing it, but we’ll put the story out there to the fans and let them decide.” He says he wants fans to send him messages via Twitter on whether or not they believe Jones has a spy.

Sounds like a Twitter bonus could be in Rampage’s future and an army of Rampage Twitter fans may help get into Jones’ head. Ah… the many useful wonders of social media.

UFC 135: Early Breakdown of Jon Jones vs Rampage Jackson

With UFC 134 in the books, all eyes are pointed toward Jon Jones’ first title defense at UFC 135.He was originally slated to face Rashad Evans at UFC 133, but that fight was scrapped when Jones thought he had to have surgery on his hand. Evans en…

With UFC 134 in the books, all eyes are pointed toward Jon Jones’ first title defense at UFC 135.

He was originally slated to face Rashad Evans at UFC 133, but that fight was scrapped when Jones thought he had to have surgery on his hand. Evans ended up signing up to fight Phil Davis instead, and Jones signed up to fight Rampage just two events later.

Will Jones handle Rampage the same way he handled Rua and Bader before him, or will Rampage put an abrupt end to the Jon Jones hype train with his first knockout in years?

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