Joshua Fabia: Famous Fake Martial Artist & Conman

For a span of a few years, Joshua Fabia and Diego Sanchez were one of the biggest stories in MMA. The fake martial artist and con man destroyed the career of an MMA legend and made him a laughingstock.

If you don’t know the full Joshua Fabia story, then get ready for a crazy ride. Read all about one of the most famous fake martial artists of the modern era below.

Who is Joshua Fabia? 

Joshua Fabia is a fake martial artist and conman, who was somehow Diego Sanchez MMA coach for multiple UFC fights. Everyone who saw him knew he was a fake and a liar, but was still able to con a known fighter.

Diego Sanchez’s New Unknown Trainer?

After suffering a few losses, Diego Sanchez announced that he was moving away from long-time camp at Jackson-Wink MMA. What MMA fans were not ready for was the announcement of The Nightmare’s new trainer.

Diego came into contact with a man named Joshua Fabia. This announcement left a lot of fans and MMA experts scratching their heads.

It turns out Fabia was a fellow resident of Albuquerque, who contacted a struggling Diego. Fabia claimed that he had the answers Sanchez needed to turn his career around.

Nobody had any idea who this person was and how Diego got in contact with him. Unfortunately, we would become fully aware who Fabia is and this fiasco would go on for years.

The Conman, Healer, Guru, & Fake Prophet

Before Joshua Fabia became not only Diego Sanchez’s only coach but guru life coach, he wasn’t even a martial arts trainer. On his website, Fabia claimed to be among many things “a healer.”

At nine, Josh claims he healed his grandfather after he suffered a heart attack. To add on to his claim of being a healer, Fabia has claimed to be an expert in a wide variety of fields.

Everything from:

• Self Defense
• Confidence Building
• Meditation
• Massage
• Physical Therapy
• Human Rights?

To anyone with their senses intact, he’s clearly a lying conman. Unfortunately for someone mentally vulnerable like Diego, Josh saw his opportunity and took it.

 Training Camps For Diego Sanchez

Fabia was in full control of Diego Sanchez’s fight training. When videos began being posted of his training methods, it was clear to everyone that this guy is a fraud.

Some of Fabia’s training methods included:

• Run after students with a knife
• BS flowing movement drills
• Having Diego train blindfolded
• Putting Diego upside-down and using him as a punching bag

Among other things, MMA fans also discovered various other videos that Fabia posted online. Most of which were basically nonsense self-help scams, which had no scientific backing.

The Fabia Era Being a Disaster

The first fight of the Fabia era for Diego started against veteran contender Michael Chiesa. In this fight, Chiesa dominated every facet of the fight and Diego landed less than 10 significant strikes.

He somehow won his next bout against Michel Perreira, but Diego’s skills and conditioning were quickly diminishing. The entire MMA community was mocking Fabia and Diego, but Sanchez stubbornly kept the scam artist in his corner.

For his next bout with Jake Matthews, Diego was clearly out of shape. However, leading up to the battering was the most worrying aspect for MMA fans. 

Fabia was upset at everyone calling him out for clearly being a con artist and made multiple scenes before the fight. He first tried to call out members of the UFC announcers team in a pre-fight meeting 

Commentators Megan Olivi and Paul Felder weren’t having it and waved off the con man. Fabia would later try to confront Matt Serra about a radio interview, but quickly backed down after Serra didn’t back down.

Like always, Fabia was left even more humiliated after the exchange. Unfortunately, Joshua would continue faking insane claims, which would finally lead to the end of the scam.

Joshua Fabia Gets Blackballed

Going into Diego’s last match he was supposed to fight fan favorite Donald Cerrone. But leading into the fight, Fabia claimed that the UFC was knowingly putting Sanchez in matches when he had CTE.

Generally, whenever Fabia made a claim, he was laughed at, but this one got the attention of the UFC brass. They quickly realized what Joshua was trying to do.

He was planning to create a lawsuit to sue the UFC on behalf of Diego Sanchez. Attempting to get a large settlement and take a large portion for himself. Diego himself confirmed that this was the plan after his partnership with Fabia ended. 

This claim led to a phone call with the UFC’s head of talent relations Hunter Campbell. During the call, Campbell stated that if Diego was in poor health, he would cancel the fight and release him.

The fight could’ve gone on since Diego passed all of his pre-fight medical tests. But the UFC wanted Fabia to state in writing that Sanchez was in good health.

Fabia refused, which led to the cancellation of the fight and The Nightmare’s release. This was subsequently the blackballing of the scam artist as the promotion would never work with him again.

Diego and Fabia’s Relationship Ends

Thanks to Fabia, Sanchez would lose everything he cherished in his life. Fabia thought that all the other MMA promotions would be knocking down the door to sign Diego. After witnessing their circus act for 2+ years, no other organization would touch Sanchez.

Diego would go into a further psychosis and release multiple unhinged videos at the encouragement of Fabia. He made numerous claims that the UFC was trying to kill him and they were creating a media blackout.

At this point, Fabia had such control over Sanchez that he cut ties with all of his family and friends. Then after all of this, ruining his career, reputation, and relationships, Diego finally parted ways with Fabia.

Diego would not make any negative comments about Fabia, but Josh would slander Sanchez every chance he got. Calling everything from a brain damaged drug addict, deadbeat dad, and mentally handicapped.

This would finally be the time that the MMA community ignored Fabia and he faded out of the news. 

After parting ways, Sanchez tried to revive his career. Unfortunately for Diego, he lost a decision to Kevin Lee at Eagle FC and a BKFC fight against Austin Trout in Albuquerque.

Now in his 40s, it seems like the fan favorite’s career is about to come to an end.

How was Fabia Able to Con Diego Sanchez?

Many fight fans wondered just how Joshua Fabia managed to slither his way to become a UFC fighter’s coach. If you look at the history of the mental illness of The Nightmare, the answer is clear.

Diego Sanchez is a fan-favorite fighter, who has been in some of the best fights in MMA history. Unfortunately, the original TUF winner is also a bit out of his mind and has been susceptible to scam artists.

Joshua Fabia wasn’t the first scam artist to take advantage of Diego. In 2009, a friend scammed Sanchez out $150k, who was supposed to look after his finances. 

This along with Diego’s heavy partying put him heavily in debt to the sum of $250 in unpaid taxes. Unfortunately, The Nightmare would get scammed many more times in his life.

Later, Sanchez was told by a woman he slept with that she had a child, which she claimed was his. After a few years of raising and supporting the child, it was discovered the child wasn’t his after a DNA test.

Sanchez became even more religious and crazier after these unfortunate events. He was the perfect target for a scam artist like Joshua Fabia.

Where is Joshua Fabia Now? 

Speaking for most of the MMA community, we don’t care where Joshua Fabia currently is. He is a fake martial artist and conman.

It was miraculous how Fabia, being a fake martial artist, lied his way into becoming a known athlete’s trainer. Josh took advantage of a mentally ill Diego, who was clearly suffering from CTE, and stole from him.

Fabia will go down as one of the biggest fake martial artists in history and hopefully, we never hear from him again.