Diego Sanchez
The only limits we have are the limits we give ourselves.
The mind and the body can do anything and there are no limits.
The only person who can stop Diego Sanchez is Diego Sanchez.
I'm doing this to survive. I'm doing this for my livelihood. I'm fighting with my heart and my soul and my passion. I'm going to give it everything I've got.
I give all the credit to God, he's the one who keeps me healthy and I'm just doing what I'm doing. I love this sport. When I got into it I loved it and I've loved it since I was a young child. I'm one of those fighters that just really loved to fight and I embraced it.
I'm not ruling out the possibilities of being an 'Ultimate Fighter' coach.
As long as I'm healthy and as long as I'm good, I want to fight as much as I can.
I'm here to be the greatest of all time, and that's what I'm striving for.
I love to watch that movie 'Cinderella Man.' He comes from the top and he goes to the bottom and he makes it back up to the top. I just kind of see myself as a guy like him.
Those welterweight guys, man, you definitely can feel their punches. They hit a lot harder. They pack a lot more power than a lightweight or a featherweight.
Guys are a little quicker on their feet at '45. As far as wrestling goes, the guys at 155 or 170 are harder to take down.
I've been through the ups and downs and had a lot of different things go on. But the one thing I believe is that when fans bought a ticket to see me fight, they got their money's worth every time. I never cheated them. I gave them what they came to see.
I feel a strong victory over Gilbert Melendez makes a definite statement.
I want to be the first one to say I beat both Diaz brothers.
It's been my dream to fight Matt Hughes for the championship.
In the end, if you're in the UFC, you are a professional, you paid your dues, and you know exactly what this job entails. You should go in there as a professional and do what you do.
I'm going to leave it all out in the cage and know that I'm trying to finish my opponent, even knowing that most of my time it ain't going to be a finish.
I live for God and my family.
I want to show my fans what happens when you are focused and what God will do for you if you are walking the narrow path.
I look up to fighters like Vitor Belfort, Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. A lot of the fighters that fought into their older age and for me, as a warrior, I just love it.
I really liked the transition Demian Maia made from 185 pounds to 170. I plan on doing the same thing as a featherweight.
Martin Kampmann, that was a war. Jake Ellenberger, that was a war. Then I didn't take damage until Gilbert Melendez.
I think my fans know everything about me. What they don't know they can wonder about.
I train my mind as much as I train my body.
After weigh-ins you're doing wheat pasta or you're trying to carb back up. This was actually really throwing me off, causing an inflammatory response in my digestive system, in my brain, in my body. Throwing off my mind.
I let 'The Nightmare' go. To me, I feel a negative in it. I don't like it. It's kind of evil. I don't want to represent that.
I want to represent positivity and I want to represent the good.
Over the years, I've tried to find myself, tried to find out who I really was. I ended up coming full circle, a circle that took me back to that street fighter I started as: Diego Sanchez, from 'Burque,' New Mexico, fighting on the streets.
I'm a workhorse.
If you're going to be dominant in this sport, you're cutting weight.
You can only get away with fighting as the lighter guy in a weight class for so long. That's what I was doing at 170 pounds.
I've always been a good submission grappler, but I've still evolved, upped my skills and I continue to get better every day.
I train with the best in the world and it's been an awesome experience.
I just want to be Diego Sanchez. I don't need a nickname. I'm me.
I've worked very hard on improving my speed and my footwork, and I've implemented a lot of specific training to try to fill that hole in my game.
I'm just happy to have my job with the UFC and my bosses, they know the level of heart that I have, what I've put into this sport. They know what I bring to the company.
I got sucked real deep into the fame and the money. I was a bachelor and I got sucked into a bad life of partying.
After my Clay Guida fight, I went down a bad path, man. It was just not a good path. After my loss to B.J. Penn it just got worse. I got really out of control.
I dedicated my life to Jesus Christ, for real.
I've let go of the dream of becoming a UFC champion that I held in my heart my whole life.
I don't get much credit for being the first Ultimate Fighter.
I had a torn labrum as I exited The Ultimate Fighter, and I was 22 years old.
I used to be in the trailer park with one glove on because I didn't have two, punching myself in the face saying, 'I'm Johnny Tapia' to intimidate the other kids that I would box.
I remember when I was 27 I was like, 'When I'm 37 years old I'm gonna look at everything. I'm gonna see where my health is at, I'm gonna see where my money's at, and if it's time, maybe I'll take a couple more fights.' Then I hit 37 and I'm like, I feel better at 37 than I did at 27.
I was never really, truly learning anything at Jackson-Wink. I was just training with a bunch of a group of guys to where it was like a wrestling practice.
Me and Nick Diaz hated each other. Nick Diaz used to send me e-mails. He found my e-mail, he talked to one of the MMA journalists at the time, there wasn't many. Gave him my e-mail and he would e-mail me hate mails.
My motto is, 'Just earn it.'
Before, when I was 19-0, I was undefeated and I was 23, 24 years old. Yeah, I was cocky, I had a little bit of ego. I had to get humbled.
t's important to handle and learn from your defeats. The losses I've had taught me so much because they humbled me. You learn more from them than you do your victories. They can only make you a better fighter and a better man.Collection: Loss