Diego Sanchez Hungry Once Again

Posted 20 Sep 2007 in Diego Sanchez, Jon Fitch, UFC 76

Some fighters have trouble recovering from their first loss in MMA, while others slide back into the state they were in when being an undefeated competitor. Diego Sanchez is looking to become the latter tomorrow night, and American Kickboxing Academy’s Jon Fitch stands in his way. Looking for an opportunity to prove he is a top welterweight, Fitch is more motivated than ever. Sanchez himself feels that needs to reignite the intense hunger he had coming up the ranks and storming onto the UFC scene. It’s a hunger Sanchez feels faded as success and fortune flourished for him over the last year. He told the Canadian Press:

“It was like something that happened over time. I just got satisfied and was going through the motions. Wins were still coming and I had some great fights. But it’s all about the hunger. I look back to my days in King of the Cage (a smaller MMA circuit), when I was young and I didn’t have nothing. I was a young guy, no health insurance, no money, just grinding it. That toughness, that ‘I want this so bad, that nothing’s going to stop me getting this, I want this. I remember looking up at Matt Hughes as the champ and saying ‘I could beat this guy, I could do this.’ That is what inspired me. It motivated me, the hunger, and after a while, a little taste of fame, and famous lifestyle kind of took me away from that. I slowly was taking steps away from that, taking steps away from that tiger, that hungry tiger that just wants to eat. It took a loss for me to figure that out and accept it myself.”