Prepare for an explosive bout
September 19, 2007

Jon Fitch: 'This is probably the sweetest fight I've had in a while.'

(CP) -- Diego Sanchez won Season 1 of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality TV show. Jon Fitch was dropped from the cast on the eve of filming.

"I was in the airport waiting to get on the plane when I got a phone call telling me not to get on the plane, that I'd been cut already," Fitch recalled.

"I had to get my bags pulled off the plane, actually."

He never got an explanation, although he suspects the cast was reduced in numbers. Whatever the reason, it makes for a powerful motivator for Fitch when he steps into the Octagon on Saturday night against Sanchez at UFC 76 in Anaheim, Calif.

"I look forward to every fight but this is probably the sweetest fight I've had in a while," said the 29-year-old Fitch, who has quietly won his last 13 fights to run his record to 14-2.

"I was ecstatic to get offered this fight."

The Sanchez-Fitch welterweight bout is on the undercard with former light-heavyweight champion Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell taking on Keith (The Dean of Mean) Jardine in the main event.

Like Liddell and Jardine, the 25-year-old Sanchez is coming off a loss -- his first against 19 wins -- after a lacklustre showing against rival Josh Koscheck at UFC 69 in April.

UFC president Dana White said later that Sanchez almost quit on the eve of the fight because of a false test for hepatitis C. The day after the bout he was diagnosed with a staph infection that left a hole in his thigh the size of a coffee cup, White said.

Sanchez now says the problem was more mental. He had lost his drive.

Fined US$500 and suspended for three months after a positive test for marijuana after his California win over Joe Riggs in December, Sanchez said success caused him to lose his hunger.

"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, 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."

Despite that, Sanchez said he still finds it hard to explain his sluggish performance against Koscheck.

"Instead of imposing my will on my opponent, I was trying to play a chess match which is not my style and that's not my game. I got caught up in it."

"I learned a valuable lesson," he added. "I'm still a relatively young fighter and I had a lesson that need to be learned. God taught me with a loss."

Adding to Sanchez's discomfort was that longtime trainer Greg Jackson was now working with Montreal's Georges St. Pierre, a rival in the 170-pound weight class.

"I didn't feel comfortable with that ... `You're helping out the guy I'm coming after?' It just didn't click right in my head and it made me feel like Jackson didn't have the proper faith in me."

Sanchez still speaks highly of Jackson -- "I love the guy" -- but he says having GSP in the same camp was "one of the main final deciding factors in a very tough decision."

So after taking a month off to review his life and the Koscheck loss, Sanchez left his hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., and Jackson, and moved to San Diego, to be with Rob Garcia, his longtime boxing and strength and conditioning coach.

"It's worked out amazing," Sanchez said.

His new ground coach is Saulo Robeiro, whose younger brother Alexandre is defending world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

For his part, Fitch comes into the fight with no such mental gymnastics. And no fear he is going to lose his focus.

"A lot of the guys get into the sport wanting just to be rock stars," Fitch notes. "They want to do all the fun stuff, all the interviews, all the TV stuff. But when it comes down to it, they don't want to go and fight. I'm just the opposite, I'll do the other stuff, but I'm here to fight. I'm here to train. That's why I do it."

A former bartender, Fitch washes dishes two nights a week to help pay the bills. There's no retirement plan in MMA, he explains, and your career could be over in an instant.

"I don't even have health insurance because I haven't been able to afford it," he said. "After this fight I probably will be able to afford it.

"But you have to think longterm. I'm thinking longterm. I want to make sure I'm not one of those penniless fighters who retires and has nothing."

The UFC would cover medical costs if Fitch got hurt in a fight.

"But if I got hurt in the two months that I'm training for the fight, they're not responsible for that," he added.

"It's not a sport for everybody. There's plenty of risk involved."

Koscheck also trains at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, so Fitch can pick his brain on how to deal with Sanchez. But the former Purdue wrestler says his game plan is pretty simple.

"I'm an aggressive fighter," Fitch explained. "I don't just want to sit back and outpoint him and win a decision. That's not me, that's not how I fight. I go out there to finish guys, I go out there to put guys away. So I'm going to be trying to do the same thing with Diego."

At six foot and walking around at 185, Fitch will be bigger in the ring than Sanchez, who is five-foot-11 and normally weighs 175 outside the ring.

Both men expect an explosive bout.

"I think this fight will be all over the place," Fitch said. "This could be one of those fights of the year."

While Sanchez has put his life under a microscope in recent months, Fitch has just got up each morning and trained. It seems like he keeps complications to a minimum.

"This is just a big game for me," he said. "This is just another reason not to get a real job. I'm living my hobby. Not too many people get to do that. So I don't put a lot of stress on it. I don't know too many people who gets stressed out when they're building toy ships or putting models together. It's a way for me to relax, this sports helps me relax. So I just take that day to day and I'm loving life right now."

Even if your hobby can involve getting kicked in the head?

"That's true. But once you're used to it it's not so bad."