Point of interest: Potential grappling pitfalls
Between Weichel’s point-scoring propensities and Sanchez’s submission savvy, there plenty of potential pitfalls within the grappling realm of this fight.
Sanchez, who is much more of a transitional threat, comes to life when fighting through scrambles and slicing through positions. The Daniel Wanderley black belt can play from topside or secure a back mount just fine, but his arguable bread and butter lie within his ability to improvise inside the chaos of a fight.
Even when Sanchez slips a position or misses an attack, the 29-year-old is quick to creatively parlay his motion into other opportunities, whether they be mid-scramble or otherwise. As Sanchez’s skills have grown, so has the validity of his submission threats in these scenarios – something that Weichel can’t afford to sleep on.
The potential problem for Sanchez, however, may lie within the wrestling department.
Sanchez has shown to progress his wrestling abilities (both defensively and offensively), but this is, without a doubt, a hurdle that the Roufusport product will need to clear in this contest.
Weichel, who is the more process-driven man on paper, typically keeps level-changing takedowns in his back pocket to help dissuade pressure and has a knack for kick-catch counters (e.g. catching an opponent’s kick and tripping them to the floor).
Once topside, Weichel – who is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Din Thomas – does a good job of keeping his hips tight to his opposition, shutting down a large portion of butterfly hooks and get-ups that the person on bottom may be working for. This approach, coupled with the appropriate passing and shoulder pressure, helps Weichel cook his counterparts into either giving up chokes or their backs in transit.
Weichel’s defensive sensibilities translate well to the mat (as he hasn’t suffered a submission loss since 2012) but he’ll still need to respect the opportunistic creativity that Sanchez brings to the table.
Next point of interest: Odds, opinion and prediction