Joshua Fabia on Sanchez split: ‘Diego has clearly been taking advantage of me for two years’

Diego Sanchez’s now former trainer Joshua Fabia shares his side of the story about their split.

Last week, UFC veteran and TUF 1 winner Diego Sanchez parted ways with his mentor/trainer Joshua Fabia, much to the delight of most observers. “The Nightmare” has yet to speak about it and give his side of the situation, but Fabia did in a recent interview on Behind the Scenes with Summer Helene.

The much-criticized “guru” began the interview by making serious claims and pointing out what he calls “red flags” on Sanchez before they began working together.

Diego was definitely a celebrity. He had some celebrity asshole tendencies. He didn’t like tipping and he did some weird stuff in front of me that, you know, threw out some red flags. But over time, just talking to him, it kinda just seemed, like I said, the celebrity stuff… Things like, you get a divorce and you have a child, but you get a one-bedroom condo. Things just didn’t make sense to me. But I’m thinking, ‘OK, he’s got his own plans, he knows what he’s gonna do. Maybe it’s just super temporary, I don’t know.’ And I’m wondering, ‘Why he’s driving around a $3,000 Mercedes?’ Just questions that throw out flags, but I’m thinking, ‘He’s telling me he’s frugal. He’s saving his money. OK.’ From everything on the outside, as a trainer that’s seeing somebody three days a week… and then I moved him into the condo. I helped him in the divorce and this little moment. And everything seemed pretty much the same as anybody else under these circumstances, to a certain degree.

Fabia dodged a lot of the questions pertaining to the actual split, but he took shots at Sanchez and claimed that he soon realized he was “working for a guy that falsely represented himself as a regular person.”

As I get to more information as I’m with the lawyer, and the lawyer talks to Diego and asks Diego about his education, and he starts talking about he was in special education. Holy shit. Huge red flags, man. This is not, at all, what anyone who perceived, and Diego is not anywhere near what anybody knows, man. And Diego has been an addict. He hasn’t told anybody for the past five months, I was his sponsor living with him. That I had to live there because he was broke and lost all his money, and strung out on Kratom and alcohol and 30 other substances. That he has sexual abuse issues. No, he didn’t say any of that, man. And I’ve been holding up all this. I’ve been doing everything. And everybody’s coming at me. I’ll put it out there, I’ll put out all the proof, I’ll put out all the videos, man. Diego has clearly been taking advantage of me for two years, as I have been fighting for him, and putting myself on the line for him with zero benefit. I am the one getting death threats here.

Fabia also went on to accuse the UFC and Nevada Athletic Commission of urging Sanchez to throw his UFC 239 fight against Michael Chiesa. The scenario described seems to be the commission’s reaction stemming from Fabia’s “death move” warning, but the controversial coach still claimed it was all part of a bigger agenda.

From the commission’s response, to Sanchez’s poor performance, Fabia seems to think it’s all just a conspiracy and not at all due to his actions.

So, this moment happens where the Nevada State Athletic Commission comes in and leans on Diego, and he has to throw a f—ng fight. Now, I have them recorded… You go watch the fight, and it’s the only fight in Diego Sanchez’s history that he never threw a punch. The way that they did it, is in the lean, which is in talking to somebody and dangling their license and explaining, ‘Are you really trying to hurt this man? You’re not trying to hurt him, are you Diego? You’re a sportsman, Diego. You’ve always been a good guy, Diego. You’re not gonna do anything with malicious intent, are you Diego?’ You can call that the way you call it, but the Nevada State Commission is not supposed to come in 30 minutes before a f—ng fight, and come and kick everybody out, and come and talk that type of shit to a fighter and get in their head. Then on top of it, the last time Diego was a “sportsman,” he was a wrestler. So the first thing he comes out and does is goes and takes this guy’s leg. And he never throws a punch. So, you tell me. How come my fighter that’s been training for ten weeks to strike didn’t throw a strike?

This one’s a pretty loaded interview and worth a listen if you have 25 minutes to kill. Fabia also explained the controversial video of him hitting an upside-down Sanchez like a heavy bag and how it is part of his “body hardening” technique. He also claimed that the UFC was in on that whole “Hollywood set up.”