Former UFC combatant and inaugural winner of The Ultimate Fighter, Diego Sanchez, received a sentence of five years of supervised probation this Thursday from an Albuquerque judge.
This judgment follows an incident in July 2025 when the acclaimed mixed martial artist discharged a firearm into the sky from a vehicle amidst traffic in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Sanchez entered a guilty plea in February to a felony charge. His arrest occurred near the intersection of I-40 and University, where prosecutors alleged he fired the weapon while passing the scene of an accident.
During the court proceedings, Sanchez reportedly stated, “People do make mistakes, you know, this is Albuquerque, the wild wild west, I made a bad mistake.”
Prosecutors had advocated for a two-year prison sentence, though the maximum penalty for the offense is six and a half years.
Sanchez further expressed his remorse, saying, “All I can do is take accountability, own it, you know, and spread positivity to the youth and the next generation to change these ways. Not to be shooting out cows– shooting out windows like cowboys.”