Diego Sanchez Reunites With Greg Jackson

If you haven't already heard, Diego Sanchez announced yesterday that he has once again joined forces with Greg Jackson, who served as Sanchez's primary trainer from the start of his career and well into his original run as a UFC welterweight.

Usually, this would serve as nothing more than your regular filler news for the week, but I find Sanchez's return to Jackson's camp interesting based on the nasty falling out the two had back in the summer of 2007, spurned on by Jackson's decision to take on then welterweight contender Georges St. Pierre. At the time, St. Pierre had been upset and lost his title to Matt Serra and was preparing to bounce back against Josh Koscheck while Sanchez had just suffered his first professional loss to Koscheck earlier in the year, but was still very relevant in the welterweight title picture.

The move angered Sanchez, who immediately left Jackson's training camp and associated himself with Saulo and Xande Ribeiro as well as The Arena gym in San Diego. He obviously felt slighted with Jackson bringing in GSP as Sanchez wasn't even considering a move to lightweight at that point in time.

The entire ordeal bothered me, and still does, for two reasons. One, Jackson and his crew push comradery and loyalty within its limits to the max. Just ask Rashad Evans, Nate Marquardt and company. All of the fighters under the Jackson's MMA banner would likely never fight each other and take helping each other for upcoming bouts to the next level. If loyalty is so important, then why was Jackson so quick to bring GSP into the fold, despite Sanchez being a win or two away from a title shot.

Secondly, Sanchez's early success in the UFC served as a platform for Jackson and his system to grow into the successful entity it has become today. During Sanchez's six-fight win streak in the UFC, others started to notice the success of other Jackson-trained fighter such as Joey Villasenor and Keith Jardine and a wealth of fighters from all over soon began to request to learn under the tutelage of Jackson. In my opinion, you don't leave your top pupil hanging out to dry, even if the best welterweight in the world wants to join the fold.