Diego Sanchez clarifies: Not necessarily done with UFC even though contract expired

Free agent Diego Sanchez says he has not parted ways with the UFC.

Rumors emerged when Lethwei champion Dave Leduc said in a recent interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” that Sanchez (29-12 MMA, 18-12 UFC) reached out to him saying that he’s not in the UFC anymore and wants to get him a Lethwei fight.

Lethwei, which is the art of nine limbs, is also referred to as Burmese bare-knuckle boxing, which is a full contact combat sport that includes head butts.

But speaking on “The Luke Thomas Show,” Sanchez denied saying he was done with the UFC. All he said was that his contract has expired, as he is currently a free agent.

“Listen, ‘done with the UFC’ never ever was spoken out of the words of my mouth,” Sanchez said. “But, as far as being done with my contract, and I assume that is the misinterpretation that Dave was speaking about, my contract was at an end, and it is at an end, and I am a free agent.”

Sanchez, a 30-fight UFC veteran, explains that the UFC actually tried offering him a fight in Australia, which would most likely mean the Oct. 5 UFC 243 card that took place in Melbourne earlier this month, but the timing wasn’t right.

“Right now I’ve been going back and forth with UFC, trying to get a fight,” Sanchez said. “They offered me – I was offered a fight, but the timing of the fight, it was rushed, and it was pressured, and it was overseas in Australia, and I was just fighting the Australian guy, and I loved the opponent, but it was the timing of it. It was going to be rushed, and I was going to be put at a disadvantage, and it was not a fight I could take right now in this transitional period of life.”

The “Nightmare” who recently left Jackson Wink MMA, is currently training with Josh Fabia, who was his lone cornerman for his most recent loss to Michael Chiesa at UFC 239. After that, Sanchez was briefly linked to a bout with former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, with Pettis calling him out and Sanchez agreeing right away.

But the fight never came to fruition, and Sanchez revealed that’s because the UFC for some reason, wasn’t on board with the idea.

“I’m waiting, I’m communicating with Sean Shelby, we know I had the ‘Showtime’ Pettis fight ready to go,” Sanchez said. “Me and Showtime Pettis are the only two 175-pound men in the welterweight division. We’re the only true weight fighters. We’re the only two that are fighting at this true weight, not cutting 25 pounds, and it would have been a hell of an exciting fight, but Sean Shelby chose to go in a different direction with that.”

However, it seems that Sanchez has diverted his attention to another fighter that has respectfully called him out, Demian Maia, who just scored a submission win over Ben Askren at UFC on ESPN+ 20.

Sanchez responded saying he’d love to fight him on the Jan. 18 card set to take place in Las Vegas.