With 51 professional fights to his name, Bellator featherweight contender [autotag]Daniel Weichel[/autotag] has seen plenty of crazy things over the course of his MMA career. But nothing prepared him for the rollercoaster ride of his most recent fight week.
Two-time featherweight title challenger Weichel (40-11 MMA, 9-3 BMMA) was all set to take on American Emmanuel Sanchez in the quarterfinals of the featherweight grand prix at Bellator 241 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn. on March 12. But, as fight week evolved, the world became a very different place as the enormity of the COVID-19 outbreak became apparent across the U.S.
It meant the event went from a full arena show to a behind-closed-doors event during the course of the week. Then, on the morning of fight day itself, the event was called off.
It was an unprecedented fight week for Bellator, and one that Weichel had never seen anything like before in his seasoned career.
“This was definitely the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced in a fight week,” he told MMA Junkie from his home in Frankfurt, Germany. “I was watching the news a little bit at that time and I was aware that this was possible, but I put it on the side. I had 100 percent focus on the fight. So it was fight day, my weight was good, everything was good, training camp was good, diet was good, weight cut, everything. Then we went for the workout that we do on fight day, and there were rumors that the event was going to be canceled.
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“We were like, ‘OK, no. We don’t listen to this. We will go, we will work out and we will see from there.’ And we went to the workout room, and there was one other guy on the phone and he said, ‘No way! The event is canceled.’ Then it was like, ‘Oh! It seems to be real.’ Then a load of fighters came out of the office and, yeah, we found out that it’s going to be canceled.”
Weichel had done the hard work, completed his training camp and had even made weight for the fight before eventually being told the event was off. Understandably, for a fighter who had spent months preparing to peak for an event that night, the news came as a body blow.
“Man, you’re in the middle of nowhere, and I was ready to go to war,” he recalled. “Now we are just going back to Germany without fighting. It was really strange.”
Weichel is now staying safe and staying at home in Germany as, like the rest of us, he is adapting to life in quarantine. But he said that he hopes to pick up where he left off in Uncasville and eventually meet Sanchez in their quarterfinal bout once Bellator is able to start running events again.
“I still have this fight in my mind, and I’m looking forward to going for it, but at that time, it was a really, really strange situation,” Weichel said.
To hear the full interview with Weichel, check out the video below.
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