Diego Sanchez Might Be BJ Penn's Worst Nightmare

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on August 10, 2009

Okay, next up for BJ Penn is Diego "The Nightmare" Sanchez. I'll be the first to admit that Diego didn’t do nearly enough to earn this title shot. Two wins by decision at Lightweight? Certainly not enough. Look at what Florian had to go through to get there! There are other Lightweight fighters that are more deserving right now. But what's done is done, and it can't be changed. Diego has the next Lightweight title shot.

Now that we've pointed out the obvious, let's discuss something much more important:

Diego Sanchez is the one UFC Lightweight with the best chance of beating BJ Penn.

Diego Sanchez provides a different kind of challenge for BJ Penn than Florian. Kenny Florian was the guy who was extremely technical and well versed in every aspect of the game. Diego Sanchez is also good everywhere the fight can go, but he’s a different kind of fighter altogether. What does Diego Sanchez have that Florian did not have?

1.) Incredible ferocity, intensity, and relentlessness that Florian and others simply do not have. Sanchez tends to overwhelm and wear out his opponents, as opposed to Florian, who outmaneuvers/outsmarts his opponents. This is where BJ is the most vulnerable.

2.) Diego is a much more powerful striker than Florian—he has proven knockout power. One punch from Diego can change the course of the entire fight.

3.) Diego has a lot more experience as an MMA fighter than Florian did—25 fights to Florian's 15. He’s also a former champion (King of the Cage Welterweight Champ).

4.) Unreal cardio. The guy just never quits, and I've never seen him tire.

5.) In 25 MMA fights, Diego Sanchez has never submitted, and he's never been knocked out. His only two losses are by decision. He's been out-pointed, but never broken.

Consider for a moment, how did Georges St-Pierre beat Penn? He beat him with relentless attack, pushing an obscenely rigorous pace, and never letting up for a moment. GSP overpowered and overwhelmed BJ Penn for four rounds straight.

Diego has the cardio to do that.

Diego has the relentlessness to do that.

He isn't as strong as GSP, but I think he's certainly stronger than Penn.

Sure, he's not GSP, but then again, who is? Yet, Diego certainly can push an unreal pace in a fight. Only folks like Clay Guida and Jon Fitch have had the cardio to keep pace with him.

Endurance has always been BJ Penn's Achilles heel. If you can wear him out, he quits. Penn showed us that his stamina is improving in the Florian fight, but Florian doesn’t have Sanchez’s relentless pace. Diego is called "Nightmare" for a very good reason.

It should also be noted, Diego is also a lot harder to beat than people give him credit for. The only people to ever beat Diego Sanchez are extremely strong elite wrestlers: Josh Koscheck* and Jon Fitch have beaten Diego. Clay Guida almost beat him. All of three of them are incredibly strong wrestlers.

An elite and powerful wrestler, BJ isn't. Where BJ Penn is most dangerous to Diego is quite simple: He's more skilled and more technically sound at every aspect of MMA than anyone Diego has ever fought before.

*Note: Shortly before the fight with Koscheck, they were pretty sure that Diego was sick. They thought it might be Hepatitis C, but tests were inconclusive. The day after the fight, Sanchez had a hole in his thigh the "size of a coffee cup" and was finally diagnosed with a staph infection.

So while Josh Koscheck did beat "The Nightmare," he beat a Diego Sanchez that was sick. If you look at the fight video, you'd almost think that it was a slow lethargic identical twin, and not the REAL Diego Sanchez at all. Rogan and Goldberg repeatedly said Diego didn't seem like himself, and they were just waiting for "The Nightmare" to wake up and unleash his trademark furious attack.

Still, a win is a win, and all excuses suck. But BJ Penn should pencil in an asterisk next to that loss because watching that video will not offer any reliable information on how to beat Diego Sanchez. And that's the only time Diego has ever been beaten in convincing fashion.

Don't expect Diego to use the staff infection as an excuse: He won't. But he wasn't 100 percent for that fight because of it.

The training for this fight begins now. Gameplanning begins now.

Keys to Victory:

Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez: You will have to bring it like never before. You're going to want to do a lot of fine tuning on every aspect of your game and leave nothing for BJ to exploit.

Most critical area: Submission defense. BJ Penn keeps submitting guys that just don’t get submitted by anyone. If you can train with somebody with insane Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu skills, do it. Your Brazillian Jiu-Jitsuis very good. To beat BJ Penn, it needs to be much, much better.

By the way, work on your takedown defense, it's terrible. Since Penn will be pushing his cardio-training, you need to push your own cardio and pace to a whole new level if possible. If Diego comes with a five round non-stop furious assault and doesn’t make any critical mistakes that BJ can exploit, he stands a very good chance of wearing out the Champion. If he can do that, he wins.

"The Prodigy" BJ Penn: Time to push your cardio training to a whole new level BJ. Keep up all the training you had going into the Florian fight. If possible, get several training partners who can offer the same pace and relentless attack as Diego, and challenge them to wear you out.

Every other aspect of BJ Penn’s game is excellent, so this is where Diego Sanchez will try to break you. Your challenge is simple. Don’t let yourself be broken and simply outfight Diego. Watch for the chance to finish the fight early, but don’t count on it. Be ready for a five round war of attrition.

If BJ can outfight Sanchez with his superior skill set, and keep it up for all five rounds without gassing, he'll win. If he can exploit Diego's mistakes at any point in the fight, he might win that way too.