Diego Sanchez – “Austin (Trout) Is Coming in With a Delusional Self-Confidence”
Diego Sanchez tests skills with Austin Trout at BKFC KnuckleMania 3 on February 17th.
Sanchez appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts to discuss why he thinks this will be the best performance of his career, the machinations of this matchup, and so much more. Excerpts from our chat are below.
Diego Sanchez
The mentality and overall feelings heading into this bare-knuckle boxing debut for the MMA vet
“I’m prepared, I’m ready, and I’m extremely confident, you know. I’m extremely confident. This is going to be my best performance of my career… It’s due to the dynamics of the sport. The interpretation and the general understanding through experience and personal repetitions. Of fighting with the open hand. The 4 oz, well I think it’s about a 3 oz UFC glove. Where I can use my fingers. The years of experience in the clinch. Coming from a state-champion wrestling background.”
Diego Sanchez vs Austin Trout
Sanchez feeling like he has the strategic upper hand on Trout and his detailed breakdown on that
“It is also the circumference area of the fist that is habitually wrapped into Austin Trout’s game plan. The diagnosis and the analyzation of Austin Trout and his career; his style of being a southpaw, Philly shell fighter. Just the aspect that he’s a boxer and boxing is different than mixed martial arts and boxing is different than bare knuckle. In boxing, your promoters protect you from certain things that go against the profits of the organization. So Austin has fought probably 95 percent orthodox fighters because he does not do well with southpaws.”
“I am a southpaw. The southpaw switch stance is going to change all of the angles of his style. I just feel that Austin is coming in with a delusional self-confidence of arrogance. Because he is arrogant in that his hands are better than everybody’s in MMA and better than everybody in UFC. Well, maybe your hands are better than everyone in MMA and UFC if you’ve got gloves on. If you’ve got mitts to block the punches coming at you. When you decrease the circumference area of the fist by fifty percent and you take the density of the pad.”
BKFC KnuckleMania 3
Sanchez continued, “You change it to the density of a bone, the knuckle, everything changes. Everything changes. I do not see that Austin has the ability to interpret these differences, these adjustments, these changes. I feel that he constantly, arrogantly went into this fight thinking that he’s going to just take off his boxing gloves. Do the same old shit he does in the boxing ring. In his mind, I feel like he thinks that he’s just gonna get in there and do boxing with no boxing gloves. That is not this sport. It is not three-minute rounds, it is not feeling out.”
“It is not trying to parry a jab and do this shit. No, this shit is you’ve got to attack. You’ve got to be aggressive. You have to have an extreme sprint inside of you for the two-minute rounds. Have to be aware of the defenses, you have to be aware of how to defend yourself. You also have to be aware that in this sport, you can break your hand if you throw a punch wrong. You can also get cut very easily changing the whole dynamic of the sport, the competition.”
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship
The lengthy timeline leading into this BKFC foray and Sanchez again navigating a cut to 165 pounds like his last bout in MMA vs Kevin Lee
“It’s different, man. It’s so different and I’ve taken the time to analyze and digest this for three years. Not only the three years of preparing myself for my exit strategy from UFC to the BKFC. I trained bare-knuckle, that was my plan. So I’ve actually put the time in my mind and in my martial arts mentality to break this shit down. Raise my bare-knuckle fighting championship IQ. That’s what’s going to be the difference in this fight is understanding… I have to put the work in and get this shit done. Make 165 pounds again and with that being said, it’s a lot of work.”
BKFC
The prevalence of people calling this Trout fight a massive mismatch and if that gives Sanchez a chip on his shoulder being such an underdog here
“The word that comes to mind is redemption. I am on a redemption path and I am fighting in this fight to redeem myself. Just put an exclamation mark on my careers, you know what I mean? Like I had a career in UFC, I had a career in Abu Dhabi. Had a career in grappling, had a career in wrestling… Now I’m starting a career in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. I’m here to be a winner, number one and I’m here to just do what I did for UFC and expand to this territory.”
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