Midnight Mania! Sanchez’s Blade-Wielding Guru Chased Emil Meek In Training Exercise

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Is this the 17th story about Diego Sanchez and his crazy guru, Joshua Fabia, to run this week? Yes, yes it is. However, when my options boil down to a story of Fabia chasing professional fighters around with a “real, sharp blade” or the barely noteworthy news that Edmen Shahbazyan’s bout with Derek Brunson was delayed a few weeks … well, the choice is clear.

Tonight’s wild anecdote comes courtesy of UFC Welterweight Emil Meek, who spoke with South China Morning Post about his experience training with Sanchez and Fabia. At one point, the two were looked at as potential opponents, but when they were booked against different foes, they instead trained together in Las Vegas.

Meek explained, “… [Sanchez] wrote me on Instagram and asked if I wanted to work out when he was in Vegas, and I figured, hell yeah, let’s do it. Then I asked him if his ninja coach is going to be there with him on he’s like, ‘yeah, there’s no other way’.”

“How can I put this,” Meek added, laughing. “I went in full-belief mode: everything they tell me to do, I’m going to do it 100 per cent. Man, it was the craziest s*** I’ve ever done. At one point, Joshua, he was running after us in a locked cage with a real, sharp blade, to make us move.”

Meek also predicted that these strange methods of training were unlikely to lead to future success for Sanchez, “I’m not going to slam them too much, but I think he kind of lost his grip on it. I even reached out to him after the fight [with Pereira] and I was like ‘hey, I’m sorry to see you perform this way, and I think you can do a lot better. Please at least consider what I’m saying.’”

“I think this is the problem,” Meek said. “He’s always been out there, he’s always been doing his crazy s***, but he’s always been able to supplement it with his MMA training because he’s been a hard worker. Now he’s stepping away from that and just doing the crazy things. I don’t think he’s going to do very well in the UFC with this stuff.”

In the last few days, Fabia has faced a ton of criticism for his complete lack of qualifications and “fruitcake moves” from media (including myself!) and fans alike — and this is before we knew he was chasing people with knives! Sanchez, however, is staunchly defending his coach, so it seems that common sense is unlikely to kick in just yet.

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Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.