Californians move out of comfort zone

By Andy Samuelson

Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Considering only two of their combined 59 mixed martial arts fights before today’s showdown at UFC 95 in London had taken place outside the United States, both Joe Stevenson and Diego Sanchez figured it was a smart choice to get away from their California comfort zones early on in their training.

Sanchez (21-2 MMA) left his San Diego surroundings to tackle the rugged terrain and 7,000-foot elevation that Lake Tahoe offered.

Stevenson (29-9) made an even larger move last year leaving the lights of Las Vegas to return to his hometown of Victorville, Calif.

But for today’s 155-pound bout (which will air tape-delayed at 9 p.m. on the west coast on Spike TV), the main event of the UFC’s fourth show in England in just over a year, Stevenson (who lost to B.J. Penn last January in England) sequestered himself even further away from his family — holing up with just his training staff in a house 20 minutes away from his wife and children.

“Things have changed in my life since then," Stevenson told MMAjunkie.com about his reasons for leaving Sin City. "Moving away from Vegas and staying away from temptation. No one comes to Victorville to party. Everyone goes to Vegas to party.

“I’ve stopped chewing. I've stopped drinking. I feel like I was robbing myself, honestly. There will be plenty of time to do that silly stuff when I'm older and I'm done fighting. I'm robbing the fans.”

While Sanchez, who has won his last two bouts after losing back-to-back contests to Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck in 2007, didn’t feel like he was robbing himself, he said he felt like he needed another challenge.

So the New Mexico-born fighter decided to make a big move down to lightweight.

“The reason I went to 155 is because it's a challenge," Sanchez said. “So now it’s like I’m going to put some discipline in and go down to this weight class and try to win the title at this weight.”

On Christmas Eve, the 27-year-old tipped the scales at 193 pounds, but on Friday the “Nightmare” weighed 156.

“Joey’s not a small guy and he's strong," Sanchez told MMAjunkie.com. "So, I definitely tried to keep my strength up for this fight. I don't want to go down in weight class and lose my strength."

A loss for either of the former “The Ultimate Fighter” winners would seem to put both at a crossroads.

In addition to Penn, Stevenson didn’t last a full round in his fight against top contender Kenny Florian when he was submitted by rear-naked choke at UFC 91 in November.

A setback for Sanchez, who had started his career 17-0 before the losses to Koscheck and Fitch, would second-guess his decision to drop down to a different class.

“It's a big fight for the lightweight division," UFC President Dana White said.

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