Battle With a Former PFL Champ in Their Hometown “Makes [Andrew Sanchez] Feel Alive”
PFL marches along with their 2025 schedule this Thursday and a fighter who previously bested Khalil Rountree Jr. in the UFC is confident heading into his clash with a former PFL champion in the ex-titleholder’s home town. Andrew Sanchez will battle former PFL champ Impa Kasanganay inside of the confines of the PFL Smart Cage on August 21st. Sanchez recently appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts and touched on several subjects within the fight world.
While this Kasanganay clash is a short-notice fight in a timeline sense, the former TUF champion is describing himself as being in a more optimal headspace heading into this big PFL fight. When describing how this fight is one where he can conceivably implement a more free-flowing approach, Sanchez said,
“You said it, man, free flowing. Free flowing because that’s the one thing I kind of messed up in my career. I would just think so much, and I would train so hard. Train too much, and overtrain, and like it was my downfall. Because I had to win for myself because this was what I built my whole ego and personality on, right?”
“Now it’s like; what I discovered later in my career because I was always scared to take short notice fights. I wanted to like have the perfect camp, it’s eight weeks, whatever. But that’s all kind of nonsense. You don’t need eight weeks, right?”
“So later in my career, I started taking short notice fights, and I’m like, this is great. So I’m not totally burnt out. It hasn’t been 8 to 12 weeks where I’m burnt out mentally, physically. I’m fresh. You just need a few weeks to get in shape, you know. Like fight shape if you’re already in good baseline shape.”
“I realized because I had people pull out on me and then, you know, you get the stress of who’s it going to be, who’s it going to be? Then you get this new opponent, and you may like it, you may not. So I think it’s better to be the short-notice guy stepping in, right? Because I haven’t had this stress of having [to] think I have a fight coming up.”
“Oh my, I have to win. I have to, you know, I haven’t had that stress. I’ve been just training, staying fit in the fire academy, working on technique. Doing my thing, and just free, right, no stress. Then boom, you’re going to fight in a month. Okay, turn it up for a month. Get the weight off, get your mind right, and go.”
“I feel super fresh. I feel like I’ve been working on like freely what I need to work on, almost having fun with it. Even though I’ve been busy in the fire academy, I’ve still been training MMA throughout the entire time. I’ve been having fun with it and I have improved quite a bit. So yeah, I’m very excited. I feel like, I don’t know.”
“It’s just something feels real good about this. But you said it, the word free flowing. I feel like that’s where I’m at right now. That’s when I get into the cage. That’s what I want to do. I just, I don’t care about winning and losing so much anymore.”
“Basically, I just want to let it fly because first of all, winning and losing, thinking about this doesn’t help the situation at all, right? It’s just going to limit your performance. If you can go in there; like all you can do is train to the maximum leading up to the fight. Do everything you can do.”
“If you’ve done that, once you step in the cage, it’s like no thought or anything’s going to help you. It’s in God’s hands at that point. You have to just let it go and just free flow, right? Be in the moment and let it fly. If you do that, you’re going to have a much better performance and you’re not going to have the regrets, right, of like, I got to win.”
“So I’m going to try not to lose. So I’m just going to just let it slide, man. Let’s see where the pieces fall.”
PFL showcase bout has roots in Eagle FC years back
PFL is finally booking a fight that has seemingly been discussed on and off for a while now. A few years ago, when Sanchez was fighting under the Eagle FC banner, he had a post around then with the caption, ‘Impa Kasanganay, I see you. Let’s make this fight happen.’ When asked how he feels about this contest finally coming to fruition now, Sanchez stated,
“Yeah, it is funny. I feel like we were supposed to fight multiple times or almost kind of fought and it never quite happened. Then I thought I was never going to fight again and here I am. It’s like you’re going to fight Impa, you know, very kind of coincidental. Yeah, I’ve met Impa and I like Impa. I think he’s a good guy.”
“He stands for; he’s got good purpose, you know, he has a good story. So, I do respect Impa. I think he’s a good fighter. I think we’re both good fighters and it’s going to be a good fight. It’s going to be a good fight and whoever shows up on that day and like I said, it’s in God’s hands.”
Sanchez also seems quite emboldened to be taking on a former PFL champion in their hometown, no less, and when touching on that tendril of this fight’s overall story, Andrew Sanchez quipped,
“I live for it. I’ve always kind of identified with the warrior, being a warrior. Like I’m not, whatever. I’m not like some; I’m striving to be kind of that. It has always been my life path and kind of purpose. Yeah, just, the more kind of; the high stakes, the more almost dangerous, the more, whatever.”
“The odds are stacked against me, something about that gets me fired up. I’m like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” It makes; I like it. I want it. So, yeah, man. We’re going to short notice, going to [a] former champ [in their] hometown. I like this, right? This kind of feeds my fire. It makes me feel alive inside. So yeah, happy to be here.”
