Diego Sanchez unloads on ‘dangerous and unstable’ Josh Fabia: ‘This is real Charlie Manson-level craziness’

UFC Hall of Famer Diego Sanchez said he’s fighting back after being victimized by his former coach, Josh Fabia.

In an Instagram video released Friday, Sanchez accused Fabia of years of abuse, claiming the self-awareness guru made him fear for he and his family’s safety as their professional and personal relationship ended.

Sanchez also claimed to have filed a restraining order against Fabia, whom he claimed is a “trained killer,” “ex-hitman” and “ex-contract worker for the cartels.” A search by MMA Fighting of court records in New Mexico did not reveal any such order.

“For the past 2 years, I have been running from a very traumatic experience,” Sanchez said in the video. “You know, words cannot even explain how traumatizing this was. It involves a very evil man that manipulated, blackmailed, extorted me and eventually put an end to my UFC career. I’ve been dealing with this psychopath for, s***, it’s been three years, four years. I paid him out. I paid him money to get out of my life, because the situation had become so volatile, and so evil and dark, that there was no other option. Either he was going to kill me, or I was going to have to kill him.”

Sanchez ended his coaching relationship with Fabia in May 2021, one month after his dramatic departure from the UFC. “The Ultimate Fighter 1” winner was pulled from a fight with former teammate Donald Cerrone at UFC Vegas 26 after a seeking medical records from his UFC career to document the “long-term effects of … being a UFC fighter,” which prompted the promotion to require he certify he was not suffering from any health complications, including issues with his brain.

Fabia subsequently blasted Sanchez after their breakup, claiming he was taken advantage of as a coach and business partner.

Recently, Sanchez reposted a video that appears to show Fabia severing their business relationship by ordering a six-figure payout from the former UFC fighter.

In the video posted on Friday, Sanchez confirmed that he paid “psychopath” Fabia to “get out of my life, because the situation had become so volatile, and so evil and dark, that there was no other option. Either he was going to kill me, or I was going to have to kill him.”

Sanchez said he chose not to physically retaliate against Fabia because he feared he would be sent to prison and miss his daughter’s childhood.

“Everybody wants to tell me, ‘Why didn’t you just snap his neck, why didn’t you just crush this guy. If I was you I would have just snapped him,’” Sanchez said. “Yeah, I would have loved to do that, but I’m dealing with a very unstable, mentally unstable, sociopathic psychopath, that is, basically, the best way I could put it, you’re dealing with a Charlie Manson-type of mind, where he’s so far gone that it makes him unstable and dangerous.

“And the manipulation that was put on … to me was also that he’s an ex-trained killer, an ex-hitman, an ex-contract worker for the cartels, and just so much darkness on this guy that it put me in a state of fear that I was worried for the safety of not only my life, but also my daughter, my mother, and even my daughter’s mother, too.”

Sanchez claimed that during his professional relationship, he was blackmailed by Fabia and subsequently abandoned when his finances didn’t measure up for the guru and coach.

He said confronting Fabia after all this time is necessary for him to move on in his life and career.

“Dude, I have lost sleep over this,” he said. “I have gone countless nights with no rest, sleeping in the mornings to feel safe, because there’s a true psychopathic person out there that wants me dead, that believes in his mind that I was the source of ruining his life, when ultimately, this man came into my life and did the opposite. He ruined mine. But in his opinion, I ruined his reputation. I ruined his company. And I wasn’t the one that had the greed in my heart. He had the greed in his heart.”

“Once he found out I didn’t have as much money as he thought, he lost his mind, implemented slavery on me, put me into some of the harshest conditions of torture that people could not even believe. This is real Charlie Manson-level craziness. Out of the love for my daughter and my mother and my family, I was put in these situations and forced to comply with everything he said and did.”

Sanchez included a call to potential promoters for another fight in MMA, bare-knuckle MMA or bare-knuckle boxing; he most recently competed for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, where he faced ex-boxing champ Austin Trout and lost a bloody decision in February 2023.