“The Nightmare” began his training in Kenpo Karate at the age of 9, when he needed to defend himself from bullies. After tournament sparring lost its luster, he took up wrestling (making the New Mexico state championships and winning States as a senior) and played football in high school.
Like most fighters, he competed in numerous local events before making it to a bigger show like King of the Cage. He debuted in KOTC and submitted Shannon Ritch (Pictures) in the first round. In his eight-event run, Sanchez went 8-0 and submitted most of his opponents including, Mike Guymon (Pictures), Cruz Chacon and John Cronk (Pictures). He also beat up-n-comer Jorge Santiago (Pictures) by decision at KOTC 36.
The whole country saw Sanchez pound Alex Karalexis (Pictures) and Josh Rafferty (Pictures) and dominate Josh Koscheck (Pictures) on the Ultimate Fighter show. He made his debut UFC three-rounder on the TUF finale and won a contract by stopping Kenny Florian (Pictures) with strikes early in the first round.
Last August “The Nightmare” stopped Chicago’s Brian Gassaway (Pictures) with strikes in the second round of their bout at UFC 54. And in his most recent appearance, Sanchez took a unanimous decision over Nick Diaz (Pictures) at the Ultimate Fighter Finale 2.
ALESSIO: Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist John Alessio (Pictures) trains out of Millenia Mixed Martial Arts Training Center with Romie Aram and Gabe Ruediger (Pictures) and kickboxing instructors Pete Dickason and Duane Oliver (Pictures). He has also trained with Javier Vasquez, who is now running Showtime Jiu-Jitsu and boxing coach Mikhal Caldwell. Alessio has a pro boxing record of 1-0 and a pro MMA record of 16-7-0.
Alessio began fighting professionally in 1998. He fought in smaller regional shows like the Ultimate Battle, the Bas Rutten (Pictures) Invitational (lost to David Harris) and Neutral Grounds before winning the Extreme Challenge 28 four-man tournament, where he defeated Miletich fighter Ben Earwood (Pictures) in the final.
He traveled to Japan and fought in the Pancrase promotion against former King of Pancrase Kousei Kubota (Pictures). John lost a bout to Egan Inoue (Pictures) but won a four-man tournament title in his next event. He won the Super Brawl 16 tournament taking out local talent Jay R. Palmer and John Chrisostomo. His UFC debut followed and Alessio was pitted against then lightweight (170-lb.) champion Pat Miletich (Pictures).
Pat was already a legend and had no losses in the Octagon at that time. The bout ended about two minutes into the second round when Miletich sunk an impressive armbar for the win.
A return to Hawaii saw Alessio battle Joe Doerksen (Pictures) and John was choked out late in the second round. He debuted in the King of the Cage at KOTC 11 and submitted “The Wildman” Thomas Denny (Pictures) in less than two minutes.
Alessio started really putting the wins together in the KOTC as well as Canadian promotions UCC and WFF. A stunning knockout of Chris Brennan (Pictures) at KOTC 15 got the attention of the brass at Pride and John was in the PRIDE: The Best, where he stopped Eiji Mitsuoka (Pictures).
He went 15 minutes with Miletich fighter Jason Black (Pictures) and lost a decision in the UCC (now TKO) but returned to KOTC to defend his title and beat Ronald Jhun (Pictures) by unanimous decision.
John scored a win in Canada but lost a match with recent UFC addition Jonathan Goulet (Pictures) at TKO 18. He finished 2005 with back-to-back wins in the KOTC. Ironically, Alessio was supposed be in the UFC months ago but planned to honor his agreement to face Joey Villasenor (Pictures) in the KOTC. The match fell through and now Villasenor is in PRIDE and Alessio is back in the UFC.
MY PICK: This is a tough one. These two were both major stars in the King of the Cage and now they meet in the UFC. The edge has to go to Sanchez. He rolled through the reality show and is 3-0 in official UFC bouts. Alessio will be a tough challenger though, definitely the toughest in Diego’s UFC history. We may see a lot of ground-and-pound out of Sanchez because Alessio has some very crisp hands. I think it will be Sanchez by decision in the third.