Diego Sanchez and Joe Stevenson, who will fight each other Saturday in the main event at UFC 95, were nothing but cordial in speaking to each other on a call to promote their fight last week. But in the above video, Sanchez is highly critical of Stevenson's training habits and his jiu jitsu skills.
Sanchez ripped the ground game (or lack thereof) that Stevenson showed off in his most recent fight, a loss to Kenny Florian.
"Joe's supposedly a black belt and he didn't even know how to do a hip escape, or even try to escape the mount," Sanchez said of Stevenson. "He just turned and gave his back. That's a white belt if you ask me. He has some good submissions, but he has a different style of ground and pound than me. He likes to kind of stay in the guard. ... This is MMA, and if you don't evolve, you're going to get eaten."
Although Florian did make Stevenson look bad on the ground, I think that says more about Florian than it does about Stevenson. Still, Sanchez may have a point when he questions whether Stevenson is really pushing himself.
"I don't think Joe's training with guys that are better than him bigger than him, stronger than him," Sanchez says. "I think he's dominating the guys in his gym."
If Sanchez can get down to 155 pounds without sapping his strength, I think he can be a legitimate contender in the lightweight division. We'll see on Saturday whether he can back up his talk.
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