Even though lightweight Diego Sanchez isn’t in the featherweight division, he wants to shut Conor McGregor up.
Sanchez appeared on Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Hour and went on an eight-minute rant about the mouthy Irish fighter who seemingly has the attention of the entire MMA community.
“The thing is, when he jumped into the spot, he started barking up the wrong dog’s alley,” Sanchez said of McGregor. “Because I’m one of the guys who laid the bricks for this great career that he’s having. I was one of the ones who created this expansion for the sport, I helped build the foundation on this big building, and the guy is just disrespectful. He don’t respect it.
“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, styles make fights, and I’m 100-percent confident that within five rounds, I’ll finish this guy, that I’ll make him tap. I’ll make this guy give up. I’ll make this guy say: ‘I give up.’ And I know this in my heart. See, this guy has a lot of willpower and confidence in himself and the power of the mind and visualizing and mentalizing, ‘I study nine hours a day’ type of s**t. But you know what, styles make fights, man. And I’m a different animal.”
After recently suffering a grade two tear in his LCL, Sanchez looks like he is training for only one fight and it appears to be against Conor McGregor, even with the weight difference.
“That’s the fight that, in my mind, this is the guy that I’m training for,” Sanchez said.
“Come fight me, dude. Yeah, you’re real relaxed. Yeah, you’ve got good conditioning because you’re real relaxed and you know how to relax in there like no other. Well you know what, let’s see if you can relax while fighting me. You’re not going to be able to relax like you do with other guys. I’ll take your shots and I’ll keep coming forward, I’ll keep putting pressure on you. That’s the style, it’s a style match-up.
“He don’t know it. He don’t know it because he’s so young and he’s so cocky. The longer that he goes, yeah, the better that he gets. But in my opinion, he’s at his most dangerous right now. The longer that it goes, I think Conor McGregor is going to be Conor McGregor’s worst enemy. He’s going to be the one who’s his own downfall, and that’s because of his lack of respect.”
