Last week Sanchez announced his return to Duke City in Albuquerque, New Mexico at a press conference along side his Mother and Father where he will train with Albuquerque Kickboxing academy.
The Daily Me got the scoop on Sanchez’s return to the city where he will now rejoin his friends and family, “The Nightmare” hopes to regain some of the hunger that helped him land a spot on the Ultimate Fighter season 1.
“Albuquerque has always been my home,” Sanchez said during a news conference at the Hotel Albuquerque. “I had to leave to learn. That’s part of being a martial artist.
“I could only stay away from the family so long. I realized that being away from home, what got me to the Ultimate Fighter, what got me to the UFC was being hungry to be at the top. I had the great city of Albuquerque supporting me. I also had my family supporting me, that family love.”
While Sanchez is returning to Albuquerque, this does not mean he will also return to the Gym of his one time coach Greg Jackson and his training facility. The trainer did not even know that Sanchez was returning to Albuquerque, “I haven’t talked to him at all. He hasn’t stopped by, but I’m sure he will,” Jackson said.
Sanchez did not say it out right, but it appears that he does not want to train out of Greg Jackson’s camp since Georges St.Pierre is also trained by Jackson, which could be a conflict of interest.
“Everybody knows that Georges is an amazing athlete. He somewhat claims to train out of Albuquerque,” Sanchez said. “I know he’s been here once, or he comes once a year for a week or something like that. That’s not being out of Albuquerque.”
While Sanchez may have St.Pierre’s title in his future plans, another hungry welterweight from across the pond intends on pounding him out when they open up the main card at UFC 114 this weekend. London Shoot Fighter’s undefeated welterweight John Hathaway (12-0), who spoke to the official UFC website about his upcoming fight against Sanchez.
“This is easily my biggest fight and my biggest test,” Hathaway says. “Diego’s come along leaps and bounds with his stand-up, and I still think his hustle and his Jiu-Jitsu are his strongest suits. He’s going to come and try to go frantic on me early, and he’ll probably try and take me down. But I just see myself beating him up standing then eventually getting my takedown and staying on top and trying to pound him out.”
While Sanchez will be a heavy favorite amongst fight fans and casual fans who are not familiar with the upcoming UK fighter, Hathaway has all the tools to upset “The Nightmare” in his return to the welterweight division. While the UK’s fighter’s have been given a stereotype of being one dimensional fighters, Hathaway has been adding more tools to his belt to defeat Sanchez.
“Yeah, I think rubber guard is a good style for me and we use that a lot at London Shoot as well,” he says. “They use little bits of Eddie’s system. It was nice to go train somewhere else, too, a little break. A little holiday, you know? I think experiences like that keep you going. Those guys are all great over there.”
This could easily be the best fight of the night at UFC 114, Sanchez and Hathaway’s fight has not received the hype and attention it has deserved since Rampage and Rashad are getting all the attention at the moment, but I expect this to be a war between two fighters who love to scrap for every inch.
Props: urdirt.com
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