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Last week, Diego Sanchez parted ways with his highly controversial mentor and coach Joshua Fabia. Now, Fabia has spoken out.
Sanchez has yet to comment publicly on the split aside from announcing that he would no longer be working with Fabia, saying that he would like to take time to gather his thoughts before speaking about it. However, Fabia clearly has no such issues as he recently did an interview on Behind the Scenes with Summer Helene (h/t Bloody Elbow), where he almost immediately began to take shots at Sanchez.
“Diego was definitely a celebrity,” Fabia said. “He had some celebrity ******* 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.’ 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 and Sanchez began working together in 2019 and since then Sanchez’s relationship with the “self awareness guru” has come under much scrutiny due to both Fabia’s unorthodox training techniques and his confrontational personality (Fabia once got into a dispute with the NSAC over an alleged “death choke” he had trained Sanchez to perform). Sanchez, however, was adamantly supportive of his “guru”, even admitting recently that he “disowned” some family members to stay loyal to Fabia. That loyalty is a not a two-way street though it seems as though Fabia mostly avoided answering questions regarding the split, he has no issues at all throwing out very serious accusations and claims about his former protege.
“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,” Fabia said. “Holy ****. 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.”
In recent weeks, the Sanchez-Fabia controversy came to a head as Sanchez was released from the UFC ahead of his proposed retirement fight against Donald Cerrone which led Fabia and Sanchez to release videos of their interactions with the “bullying tactics” of the UFC. Those videos ended up backfiring and only increasing the public antipathy for Fabia. However, the leader of the owner of the School of Self-Awareness remains convinced that the scores of people who view him as the issue are all part of a larger agenda and that it is he, in fact, who has been wronged in this situation.
“I’ll put it out there, I’ll put out all the proof, I’ll put out all the videos, man,” Fabia said. “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.”
Sanchez has yet to comment publicly on the split aside from announcing that he would no longer be working with Fabia, saying that he would like to take time to gather his thoughts before speaking about it. However, Fabia clearly has no such issues as he recently did an interview on Behind the Scenes with Summer Helene (h/t Bloody Elbow), where he almost immediately began to take shots at Sanchez.
“Diego was definitely a celebrity,” Fabia said. “He had some celebrity ******* 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.’ 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 and Sanchez began working together in 2019 and since then Sanchez’s relationship with the “self awareness guru” has come under much scrutiny due to both Fabia’s unorthodox training techniques and his confrontational personality (Fabia once got into a dispute with the NSAC over an alleged “death choke” he had trained Sanchez to perform). Sanchez, however, was adamantly supportive of his “guru”, even admitting recently that he “disowned” some family members to stay loyal to Fabia. That loyalty is a not a two-way street though it seems as though Fabia mostly avoided answering questions regarding the split, he has no issues at all throwing out very serious accusations and claims about his former protege.
“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,” Fabia said. “Holy ****. 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.”
In recent weeks, the Sanchez-Fabia controversy came to a head as Sanchez was released from the UFC ahead of his proposed retirement fight against Donald Cerrone which led Fabia and Sanchez to release videos of their interactions with the “bullying tactics” of the UFC. Those videos ended up backfiring and only increasing the public antipathy for Fabia. However, the leader of the owner of the School of Self-Awareness remains convinced that the scores of people who view him as the issue are all part of a larger agenda and that it is he, in fact, who has been wronged in this situation.
“I’ll put it out there, I’ll put out all the proof, I’ll put out all the videos, man,” Fabia said. “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.”