Diego Sanchez has been a constant presence in the UFC ever since the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. Now 17 years since that UFC debut, Sanchez is finally getting ready to hang up his gloves. However, he has one last fight against a fellow legend first.
Retirement
Speaking in a MiddleEasy exclusive interview, Sanchez discussed why he has decided to finally retire. He stated the following:
“At 39 years old, I feel like this is a great fight. Cowboy Cerrone, another legend. He’s close to my age, I believe he’s only 1 year younger. So to have a matchup like that, it just feels right, like it’s the right time. I’ve witnessed a lot in these 17 years with the UFC… I’ve seen fighters that just go out not on their own terms. They go out, most of the time, desperate, just needing money for a fight or just trying to ride the wheels until the wheels fall off. Like Rashad did or many others. Chuck Lidell. There’s just been so many that I witnessed, that they’ve just got knocked out and knocked out and knocked out. And they cut, and they get pushed out by the UFC. They get cut and dropped by the organisation. And they just end on a low note.”
“I’m looking to end on a high note and end on my own note. And be like, you know what, I was in the UFC longer than any other fighter.”
The Final Fight
Sanchez also discussed his upcoming opponent, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone. Cerrone is another legend of the sport and is also a former training partner of Sanchez. He had the following to say about Cerrone:
“I never really saw myself fighting Cowboy. As we were both either fighting at 155 or at 170. Sometimes I was at 170 and he was at 155. Sometimes he was at 170 and I was at 155. So I never, we never really thought we were really gonna have to fight. We were actually cool with each other. We were never buddy buddy, and we never hung out. But we have respect in the martial arts community. We have respect in the New Mexico community, as what we liked to consider ourselves as warriors. Warriors of the octagon. If we had to fight we would fight, but it was never something that we ever planned on doing. It just happened to work out that way in the end. You know with Sean Shelby and the difficulties I was having in coming to an agreement with Sean and getting a just opponent for my final outing in the Octagon, it was struggle to be honest.”
A Life After Fighting
Whilst the Cerrone fight will be his last, Sanchez says that he still has a multitude of plans for the future. He stated the following:
“I have a lot of things in play. And I’m gonna have to keep that private. I have to keep that private because I do live a private life also. My life after the UFC, my life after the octagon is going to be a Diego life. Not Diego Sanchez the Ultimate Fighter, not Diego Sanchez the Nightmare, not Diego Sanchez the ultimate UFC champion fighter whatever. It’s gonna be just plain old Diego. My life. And my life is gonna be private. But I do have some things in store.
OnlyFans Account
Diego shed some light on his Onlyfans account.
“I have tons of free content, It will blow your mind.” Diego said. “For all the people who don’t know, it’s really, it’s a platform that’s verified. We’re using this platform as something that you know, almost everything on there is free. So you’re basically just like going to youtube, going to Instagram and watching some videos behind the scenes. The stuff that you have never seen before on Instagram or youtube. When you go to onlyfans, you know you’re gonna see more than you ever would see on Instagram or IG, because Instagram and IG you know their money system and if you ain’t playing them money, they’re not letting your posts get seen. Your likes aren’t the real true likes, the youtube views aren’t the real. The internet is not what you think it is all you people out there and when this does eventually truly get exposed, people are going to be like where we can see the real. I will tell you right now one place the only place that I have found is only fans and It has nothing to do with sexual. This is non-sexual site for me and what I do on there and It’s really truly about the fans.”
