UFC
QUOTABLES: Diego Sanchez details drinking, partying and embezzlement that decimated him after 2009 loss to B.J. Penn
Aug 30, 2011 - 6:00:22 PM QUOTABLES: Diego Sanchez details drinking, partying and embezzlement that decimated him after 2009 loss to B.J. Penn

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"After I lost the B.J. Penn fight, I lost control. I lost control of life. I had just made my biggest payday and I was just down about the loss. That was my dream to become world champion, and it still is. But it was at my fingertips and the way I lost, getting cut, so brutally cut, I was beat up... I took the wrong path. I took the path of partying, and I was just drinking away my sorrows. I was handling the problem the wrong way...

I let some bad influences get into my life and it was a downward spiral. It was like a tornado sucking everything in. I let a person that I thought was a friend, a real close friend, someone that would help me with finances, I had him helping me out with stuff. Turned out I got embezzled for over $170,000. He conned me. I got conned so bad. And in the same time when I got conned, I was just wasting the money that I had earned... I was sucked into a life of sin. I was smoking weed, I was drinking, partying, and it just really, truly held me back from my potential.

You know what I did? I grew up. I stopped living that little young life that I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it, and that's how I want to do it. Now, I'm [living] a different life, a real adult life."

-Diego Sanchez talks to MMAWeekly.com and opens up about the pitfalls he went through after his loss to B.J. Penn at the end of 2009.

Penick's Analysis: After the loss to Penn, Sanchez looked the worst he's ever looked when he was defeated by John Hathaway, but the turn around he's shown in his last two fights is obvious. He's changed his life around, and he's looked good in his last two wins, even if he more than likely should have lost the decision to Martin Kampmann. Still, It's a depressing story to hear what he went through after that loss to Penn, but it can be an inspiration to others in that he's been able to rebound and get himself away from those things that were destroying him. He's got a huge fight at UFC 135 with Matt Hughes, and as long as he continues to keep himself in a good place mentally and physically he'll be in a much better spot in his life and his career.