UFC’S Sanchez puts ‘Nightmare’ nickname to bed

Personally and professionally, Ultimate Fighting Championship star Diego Sanchez was living up, or more accurately down, to his nickname.

Now that the 29-year-old thinks he has his life on the right track, a symbolic change was in order.

Sanchez, who will fight Martin Kampmann in the main event of the UFC on Versus 3 card tonight in Louisville, Ky., says he no longer wants to be known as "The Nightmare."

"I was my own nightmare," he said. "The times that I fell off track and got into drinking and smoking weed, got into the things that brought me down and the partying -- that was my nightmare. I'm growing up, and I'm going to let that name go. I just want to be Diego Sanchez. I don't even need a nickname. I'm me, and that's it."

Sanchez said he "hit rock bottom" after losing to BJ Penn in his first title shot in December 2009, adding he was beat up like he never had been before in unsuccessfully challenging for the lightweight belt.

The loss prompted a move up to welterweight, where Sanchez fared poorly. He said his personal issues prompted him to lose focus on training, leading to an uninspired loss to unheralded John Hathaway five months later.

"I was going to the bar and drinking beer after training. I didn't take him seriously," Sanchez said. "I wasn't in the physical shape, or the spiritual or the mental (shape I should have been in). I shouldn't have been in the ring for that fight, period."

Things weren't going much better outside the cage.

Sanchez said he was depressed living in San Diego, away from his native Albuquerque, N.M. He blew through his money, largely due to being bilked out of $175,000 by a "scam artist."

The situation prompted Sanchez to move back home to be closer to family and reunite with trainer Greg Jackson, with whom Sanchez began his career.

He looked rejuvenated in beating Paulo Thiago in October in Anaheim, Calif., a bout that was named "fight of the night."

"I totally changed everything. I went from living in the city to living 8,000 feet in the mountains. I restructured my whole life, and it showed in my last fight, and I plan on it showing in this fight," said Sanchez, who has embraced his roots so much he has taken to practicing with a local high school wrestling team.

Sanchez, the winner of Season 1 of "The Ultimate Fighter," said he has no cable television in his home and is even more spiritual than he has been in the past. Sanchez thinks the reunion with Jackson has made him focus on the basics that helped him find so much early success in mixed martial arts.

"I'm just in a good place in my career," Sanchez said. "I feel like I'm ready to finally just give it everything that I have. I'm not trying to say, 'Oh, I'm going to be the next champion' like some guys do. I'm just saying all I want to do is earn it one fight at a time and just earn it one practice at a time."

He will have the chance against Kampmann, a Las Vegan coming off a loss in what essentially was a No. 1 contender bout against Jake Shields in October.

Tonight's event will air live on Versus (Cable 38) at 6.

A middleweight bout between former standout collegiate wrestlers C.B. Dollaway and Mark Munoz also is on the card.

Alessio Sakara will look to extend a three-fight winning streak despite a year out of action. He had to cancel one fight after the death of his father and another because of the flu. Tonight, he takes on newcomer Chris Weidman.

Former World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion Brian Bowles will meet Damacio Page in the UFC debut for both.

Two fights will stream live on the UFC's Facebook page at 5.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509.