The best and worst from UFC 239: Jones vs. Santos

#3 Worst: Diego is probably done

Diego Sanchez was thoroughly dominated by Michael Chiesa

Coming into last night’s show, veteran Diego Sanchez – the winner of the original season of TUF some 14 years ago – had been making a lot of noise about how he wasn’t done yet and how he could still become a title contender at 37 years of age. I even picked him to win his fight with Michael Chiesa; admittedly I’m biased because I adore Diego, but the fact was that nobody had truly outgrappled ‘The Nightmare’, and Chiesa was about as pure of a grappler as you’d find at 170lbs in 2019.

Well, after last night we can now say Sanchez has been outgrappled. Chiesa firmly dominated him on the mat for the full 15 minutes and although he wasn’t able to finish the veteran off, he came close with various submissions and never really let Sanchez get a foothold on the fight. There’s no shame in a loss to Chiesa, even in this way, but Diego’s problems may run a little deeper.

Prior to the show it was revealed that Sanchez had left Greg Jackson’s camp for the second time in his career; when he did this the first time he hooked up with famed trainer Saulo Ribeiro and developed his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game, but this time, he’s hooked up with a largely unknown trainer called Josh Fabia.

Fabia – who doesn’t appear to have a martial arts background as such – is more of a lifestyle guru than anything and more worryingly, he acted as Sanchez’s lone cornerman last night. When you add in his somewhat erratic interviews lately – he’s even stated he’s willing to die in the cage – I think there’s enough evidence to truly worry about Diego’s future, and as someone who’s been a huge fan of his since his TUF days, it makes me sad.