A report came out earlier today on how Sanchez and coach/manager Joshua Fabia were acting backstage, but Chiesa didn’t think things were going to be too bad.
“We’re in the back, and the antics are already going on through fight week, so I’m obviously assuming things are going to be a little weird on fight night – not this bad,” Chiesa told MMA Junkie. “It kind of started when Don House came and wrapped my hands, and he was just kind of laughing. He was like, ‘Man, he’s being a wild man back there,’ not really giving me details, but I’m already catching wind that things are kind of weird in the locker room. Then the person that I’m not going to name came to me and was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to tell you, there’s talks of this crazy submission that he wants to try on you.'”
The aforementioned report also stated that Fabia and Sanchez were working on a deadly new submission hold which resembled the Stone Cold Stunner, a finisher used in professional wrestling.
Chiesa held about the supposed deadly submission hold, but Chiesa says the whole situation was nothing but funny.
“I got a demonstration of what it was, and I mean, I immediately started laughing,” Chiesa said. “I was like, ‘If you think for a second you’re going to like reverse ‘Stone Cold Stunner’ me in a high-level mixed martial arts contest, you’re off your (expletive) rocker – pardon my language. But yeah, I knew what the move was. It was like if he had my chin, and his chest was on the back of my head like a guy would go for a guillotine, and it was like he was going to rotate and turn his back to me while still holding my chin, basically putting the back of my neck on his shoulder, and drop down. We started laughing. We’re like, ‘This is so funny.'”
Sanchez has been speaking out in defense of his coach in both interviews and through social media.
