It’s been a sensational few weeks in the world of boxing and MMA! From Jon Jones’s controversial split decision win over Dominick Reyes, Tyson Fury’s masterful performance against Deontay Wilder, Dan Hooker’s solid effort against Paul Felder and of course, Diego Sanchez and his colorful coach Joshua Fabia.
Boxing and mixed martial arts are as relevant as it was during the 90’s when Tyson, Trinidad, and Gati were at their primes. With the recent events now in the rear view mirror, we have new fights to talk about. Does Fury take on Anthony Joshua? What about that rematch clause in the Fury contract? Don’t forget about Dillian Whyte who is set to face off against Povetkin May 2 in the famous Manchester Arena! Whyte had some word…..errrr feelings about the Fury/Wilder match.
On an evening where most of the world had predicted Wilder knocking out Fury, we saw something completely different. Both fighters came in noticeably heavier for the second fight. Fury claims the extra weight would help him KO Wilder (which it did). Wilder did not make a spectacle of his weight gain instead he said he barely noticed the extra weight (famous last words).
The fight started and right away you could see the tone. Wilder was clearly looking to land his signature 1-2. He danced around for a little bit and began shooing the combo. It was landing early but without much success. Much was made about the ability for Wilder to generate the necessary force to KO his opponents with the quick step 1-2 combination. Max Kellerman of ESPN described it clearly. The trade off Wilder’s signature move is that in order to generate that much power and torque with that quick step is to sacrifice accuracy. Time and time again the combination would miss ever so slightly however that did not stop Deontay from shooting.
This would prove to be a big mistake. An unforeseen consequence was that he would end up being in holding range of one 273lb Tyson Fury. Fury used his weight almost immediately to snuff out Wilders offense and it began to show early, Fury landed a couple of shots which somehow ruptured one of Wilder’s ear drums and caused some complications with Wilder’s jaw. Fury kept pressing and wearing Deontay down. At the end of round 6 you could clearly see Wilders corner begging for him to come back to life. Sadly it never happened. At 1:39 of round 7 Fury unleashed an assault that forced Wilders corner-man Mark Breland to throw in the towel.
Wilder was visibly upset however many boxing pundits such as myself feel that this was the right thing to do. With all due respect to Wilder’s courage, he was close to being out on his feet. It was expected that Wilder would remove Mark Breland from his cornerman duties however he has decided to keep Mark on board for the potential trilogy match.
I for one commend Wilder. It takes a big man to step into the ring with someone as big as Fury not once but TWICE. Knowing full well that a rematch would involve a much smarter Tyson Fury. Fury trains out of the same camp as one Billy Joe Saunders whom I feel is one of the smarter boxers in the middleweight/ super middleweight division. Speaking of Billy Joe, I WANT TO SEE HIM VS CANELO ALVAREZ! To close out this segment all I hope for with Wilder is this: work on the fundamentals, now that his game plan has been figured out, go back to the drawing board and come back with a more technical approach. If he could create more angles with that power he still could be considered as one of the HW’s heaviest hitters.
“I didn’t know there was a necessary qualification. That’s the first thing that I’d say”
-Joshua Fabia
Let me ask you something? What the heck is up in the Diego Sanchez camp? I’m not even going to pretend to want to talk about the rest of the UFC Fight Night 167 card…. All I’m interested in right now is a man called Joshua Fabia. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Fabia is a guru who at the age of 9, observed and understood the science of western physical therapy so much so, that he was able to rehabilitate his grandfather who suffered a heart attack and aneurysm to a “85% Full Recovery”…??? He has specialized experience in defense protection and human rights and physical therapy.
Listen, I don’t want to go on a bashing spree. That’s not my thing. Let’s talk about what we saw at UFC FN 167. Diego looked strange. He strafed the outer edge of the octagon in what seemed to be a funky “Kung fu” like stance. Doing research on his coach I come up with videos like the one below. You be the judge.
There are quite a few of these videos on the inter-webs. Again, I don’t want to bash Diego’s training methods or whatever, but I am genuinely concerned for Diego’s well being. Fabia claims that since he has been in Diego’s life, Diego’s net worth has gone up. I cant argue that. Diego recently signed a new UFC contract. He did look great against Mickey Gall, another point i cant argue. That being said, his fight against Pereira left us Diego fans scratching our heads. I understand that Diego has been goring through a very difficult time having gone through a divorce and all. Fact of the matter is, Diego has always been “out there” when it comes to his training and nutritional habits, but this one seems to take the cake.
In closing, I just hope Diego knows what he is doing. I will flat out say that I genuinely worry that he is risking his health should he continue with Fabia in his corner. We can only speculate what happens from here. LORD, PLEASE PROTECT DIEGO SANCHEZ!!!!!!!!!!!
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