Emmanuel Sanchez – Page 6 – Syndication Server

Bellator 241’s Emmanuel Sanchez: ‘Daniel Weichel will be done in one at the Mohegan Sun’

Emmanuel Sanchez thinks he’s changed a lot since he first met Daniel Weichel inside the cage three-and-a-half years ago.

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – [autotag]Emmanuel Sanchez[/autotag] thinks he’s changed a lot since he first met Daniel Weichel inside the cage three-and-a-half years ago.

Friday, the two featherweights will meet again – this time at Bellator 241. The stakes are raised, as this is a quarterfinal matchup in the Bellator grand prix. The victor will move a step closer to winning the $1 million prize slated for the winner of the tournament, during which the 145-pound title will also be up for grabs.

“I’m just incredibly ready in every which way,” Sanchez told MMA Junkie at a pre-fight media day Wednesday. “We’re on such a bigger platform now from the first time that I fought him. The stakes are so much higher. There’s so much more on the line. I love that pressure. Pressure does two things: it crushes cans and makes diamonds. I’m ready to shine.”

While Sanchez (19-4 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) is confident he’s improved since Weichel took a split decision in July 2016, he doesn’t think the same about Weichel (40-11 MMA, 9-3 BMMA).

“I believe I have (improved),” Sanchez said. “I don’t believe he has. He’s maybe grown in some fights that he’s had as of late since we fought, but I’ve fought about seven different opponents. He’s only fought about two or three different opponents. … I thought that was the best me back then almost five years ago. The me now would absolutely destroy the young kid from back then. You know that old saying? I wish I knew then what I know now – but I don’t I’m actually very thankful for the losses. I’m thankful for the lessons that have put me in this place I am now.”

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The winner of Sanchez and Weichel will face the winner of the Bellator 241 main event between champion Patricio Freire and challenger Pedro Carvalho. While he said he’s not looking past Weichel, Sanchez knows a potential to avenge his third promotional loss could be on the horizon.

“In a perfect world, yes,” Sanchez said. “That’s exactly what I’m going to look out to go do. First thing’s first, of course. That’s Daniel Weichel this Friday night. Then after that, it’ll be two down, two more to go. Then, on to everything else I want. We’re going to wait and see. … Daniel Weichel will be done in one inside the Mohegan Sun.”

Bellator 241 takes place Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

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Daniel Weichel wants to leave no doubt in high-stakes Emmanuel Sanchez rematch at Bellator 241

“It will be pressure and domination” this time around, says Daniel Weichel, who lost a close fight to Emmanuel Sanchez in 2016.

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – [autotag]Daniel Weichel[/autotag] is looking for a much more definitive win over [autotag]Emmanuel Sanchez[/autotag].

The two first fought in 2016, with Weichel (40-11 MMA, 9-3 BMMA) edging Sanchez (19-4 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) in a fight that Sanchez is adamant he won.

They will rematch Friday at Bellator 241 in the quarterfinals of the featherweight grand prix, where the stakes are much higher this time. Weichel knows that he’s likely facing a different fighter than the one from almost four years ago, but the goal this time is to leave no doubt.

“Yeah, of course, I have the experience. I fought him,” Weichel told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “To be honest, I prepared for him like for completely new fight. Of course, like I said, I take the experience that I know how he moves, that I know how his body feels, but I analyzed his last fights with my team, and we create a game plan, and it was more on developing my skills and becoming a better fighter for myself to be more dominant and put more pressure on him.

“It will be pressure and domination.”

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The grand prix has given Weichel new life after he dropped two in a row, a failed attempt to capture the Bellator featherweight title against Patricio Freire followed by another split decision loss to Goiti Yamauchi at lightweight.

In the opening round of the tournament at Bellator 228, Weichel defeated Saul Rogers, setting him up with the Sanchez rematch.

“I simply love it,” Weichel said. “The tournament format, especially when you have a couple of months in between, and you can prepare exactly who you know. The opponent you know, you know when, you know where. You have the goal right in front of you the moment you fought, so I love it. Also, you fight the best featherweights on the planet plus you get to earn one million dollars.”

Bellator 241 will take place Friday at Mohegan Sun Casino. The main card is expected to stream on DAZN after prelims on MMA Junkie.

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Bellator 241: Emmanuel Sanchez pre-fight interview

Bellator 241 pre-event facts: Numbers reflect Patricio Freire as an all-time great

Check out all the facts and figures about Bellator 241, which takes place Friday with a Patricio Freire vs. Pedro Carvalho main event.

Bellator action resumes on Friday with Bellator 241, which takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., with a main card that streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

A featherweight championship fight headlines the card as [autotag]Patricio Freire[/autotag] (30-4 MMA, 18-4 BMMA) looks to further entrench his legacy as the greatest 145-pound fighter in Bellator history, when he takes on [autotag]Pedro Carvalho[/autotag] (11-3 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) in a matchup that also serves as a quarterfinal bout in the ongoing featherweight grand prix.

The card has more to offer than that, though. For all the numbers, check below for 30 pre-event facts about Bellator 241.

* * * *

Main event

Freire competes in his 23rd Bellator bout, tied with David Rickels for the most appearances in company history.

Freire competes in his 11th Bellator title fight, the second most in company history behind Michael Chandler (12).

Freire’s eight victories in Bellator championship fights are most in company history.

Freire is one of two simultaneous two-division champions in Bellator history. Ryan Bader also accomplished the feat.

Freire is one of three fighters in Bellator history to win titles in two weight classes. Bader and Joe Warren also accomplished the feat.

Freire’s 18 victories in Bellator competition are most in company history.

Freire’s 17 victories in Bellator featherweight competition are most in divisional history.

Freire’s 11 stoppage victories in Bellator competition are second most in company history behind Chandler (12).

Freire’s 10 stoppage victories in Bellator featherweight competition are second most in divisional history behind A.J. McKee (11).

Freire’s seven knockout victories in Bellator competition are tied for third most in company history behind Patricky Freire (nine) and Douglas Lima (nine).

Freire’s six knockout victories in Bellator featherweight competition are tied with McKee for most in divisional history.

Freire’s four submission victories in Bellator featherweight competition are tied for second most in divisional history behind McKee (five).

Carvalho has earned eight of his 11 career victories by stoppage. That includes three of his four Bellator wins.

Carvalho’s four-fight Bellator winning streak at featherweight is tied for the third longest active streak in the division behind McKee (16) and Darrion Caldwell (six).

Co-main event

[autotag]Emmanuel Sanchez[/autotag] (19-4 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) competes in his 15th Bellator featherweight bout, tied for the fourth most appearances in divisional history behind Freire (21), Daniel Straus (16) and McKee (16).

Sanchez’s 11 victories by Bellator featherweight competition are third most in divisional history behind Freire (17) and McKee (16).

Sanchez’s four submission victories in Bellator featherweight competition are tied for second most in divisional history behind McKee (five).

Sanchez’s seven decision wins in Bellator featherweight competition are most in divisional history.

[autotag]Daniel Weichel[/autotag] (40-11 MMA, 9-3 BMMA) was successful in his return to the Bellator featherweight division in September.

Remaining main card

[autotag]Paul Daley[/autotag] (42-17-2 MMA, 8-4 BMMA) has earned all 33 career stoppage victories as a result of strikes. That includes six of his eight Bellator wins.

[autotag]Mitrione Mitrione[/autotag]’s (13-7 MMA, 4-2 BMMA) three-fight winless skid is the longest of his career. He hasn’t earned a victory since February 2018.

Mitrione vs. Sergei Kharitonov marked the third shortest no-contest in Bellator/UFC/WEC/Strikeforce/PRIDE combined history at just 15 seconds. Only Marius Zaromskis vs. Waachim Spiritwolf (six seconds) at Strikeforce Challengers 12 and Kevin Casey vs. Antonio Carlos Junior (11 seconds) at UFC Fight Night 80 were faster.

All of Mitrione’s career bouts have taken place under the Bellator or UFC banners.

[autotag]Ronny Markes[/autotag] (19-7 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) makes his Bellator debut after being a four-fight veteran of PFL and five-fight UFC veteran.

Markes is 3-3 in his past six fights dating back to June 2017.

[autotag]Anatoly Tokov[/autotag]’s (29-3 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) five-fight Bellator winning streak in middleweight competition is the longest active streak in the division.

With his October win over Hracho Darpinyan, Tokov improved to 22-1 in his past 23 fights dating back to April 2012.

Tokov has earned 23 of his 29 career victories by stoppage. That includes four of his five Bellator wins.

[autotag]Nick Newell[/autotag] (16-3 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) has earned 14 of his 16 career victories by stoppage. He’s finished 12 of those wins by submission.

Bellator showcase faceoffs: Champs, headliners, tournament fighters square up in New York

Check out the faceoffs from some of the biggest upcoming fights on the Bellator schedule, including Gegard Mousasi vs. Douglas Lima.

NEW YORK – Bellator hosted a news conference Monday to promote the biggest bouts on its upcoming schedule, and at the end of it the fighters got face to face.

Fourteen athletes from future championship, main event and featherweight grand prix tournament bouts were in attendance, including the headliners from Friday’s Bellator 241 event, [autotag]Patricio Freire[/autotag] and [autotag]Pedro Carvalho[/autotag].

In addition, a number of others got a chance to go toe-to-toe, including: [autotag]Emmanuel Sanchez[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Daniel Weichel[/autotag] (Bellator 241 on March 13), [autotag]Ryan Bader[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Vadim Nemkov[/autotag] (Bellator 242 on May 9), [autotag]Gegard Mousasi[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Douglas Lima[/autotag] (Bellator 242), [autotag]James Gallagher[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Cal Ellenor[/autotag] (Bellator Europe 8 on May 16), [autotag]Michael Chandler[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Benson Henderson[/autotag] (Bellator 244 on June 6), [autotag]A.J. McKee[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Darrion Caldwell[/autotag] (Bellator 244) and [autotag]Peter Queally[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Patricky Freire[/autotag] (Bellator Dublin on Oct. 3).

Watch the video above to see all the faceoffs from the media event, which took place at Viacom headquarters in Manhattan.

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Bellator 241: Make your predictions for Patricio Freire vs. Pedro Carvalho title fight

We want your predictions for Friday’s Bellator 241 event in Connecticut, featuring a Patricio Freire vs. Pedro Carvalho title fight.

We want your predictions for Friday’s Bellator 241 event in Uncasville, Conn.

Our staff picks feature includes the consensus picks from MMA Junkie readers. Simply cast your vote for each bout below, and we’ll use the official tallies that are registered by Wednesday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT).

Those MMA Junkie reader consensus picks will be part of the Bellator 241 event staff predictions we release Thursday ahead of the event. Bellator 241 takes place Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

Make your picks for all six main card fights inside:

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Off Guard: Tywan Claxton eager to run things back with Emmanuel Sanchez

“He said something, he said he doesn’t know how it feels to lose and I can’t wait to let him feel that, to take that away from him so that stuck with me.”

[autotag]Tywan Claxton[/autotag] is dead set on rematching the man who handed him his first pro loss.

Claxton (6-1 MMA, 6-1 BMMA) faced [autotag]Emmanuel Sanchez[/autotag] (19-4 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) in the opening round of the Bellator featherweight grand prix at Bellator 226 in September, where he was submitted by Sanchez in the second round.

He was able to bounce back with a win over Braydon Akeo at December’s Bellator 235 and now finds daily motivation in improving his game in hopes to eventually run things back with Sanchez.

“This is year three for me as a professional fighter,” Claxton told MMA Junkie. “Year three, you got to put up or shut up, so I’m putting in the extra hours and I’m making the sacrifices and making the lifestyle changes that I kind of need to make to beat the (expletive) out of Sanchez because I need that loss back. I need that fight back, so that’s my motivating factor. I don’t want to go to training? I got a picture of Sanchez right there.”

There’s something about a fighter suffering their first professional loss, but for Claxton, it wasn’t just about losing, it was what Sanchez had said prior to the fight.

“He said something: He said, ‘He doesn’t know how it feels to lose, and I can’t wait to let him feel that, to take that away from him,'” Claxton said. “That stuck with me, and that’s something, before it’s all said and done – he showed a lot of respect after that fight, he did, and I appreciated it and because of him, I’m a better fighter – but when it’s all said and done, that statement right there, he’s going to end up on the other end of something that just ain’t pretty.”

Sanchez is scheduled to rematch Daniel Weichel in the quarterfinals of the featherweight grand prix at Bellator 241 in March, so for now, it may be a while before Claxton gets his wish, but he insists it’s on his agenda.

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Video: Bellator’s Jay Glazer and Robin Black administer ‘The Dose’

Jay Glazer and Robin Black team up to deliver a YouTube update on all things Bellator in the promotion’s newest video feature, “The Dose.”

Do you have Bellator fever? Then the only prescription is “The Dose.”

Jay Glazer and Robin Black have teamed up for the promotion’s latest video franchise, with the duo shooting the Bellator breeze as they look back at some of the biggest performances from recent events and look ahead to the big-time matchups to come.

In the first episode of “The Dose,” Glazer and Black preview the Bellator 239 main event in Oklahoma, as former collegiate wrestling standout [autotag]Ed Ruth[/autotag] (8-1 MMA, 8-1 BMMA) faces off against Ukraine’s undefeated [autotag]Yaroslav Amosov[/autotag] (22-0 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) in a pivotal welterweight bout, while also highlighting the co-main event between [autotag]Myles Jury[/autotag] (18-5 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) and [autotag]Brandon Girtz[/autotag] (16-8 MMA, 8-6 BMMA).

The duo also take look back at flyweight champion [autotag]Ilima-Lei Macfarlane[/autotag] (11-0 MMA, 10-0 BMMA), who enjoyed a memorable win – and a memorable walkout – at Bellator 236, and the throwback fight between former PRIDE FC legends [autotag]Fedor Emelianenko[/autotag] (39-6 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) and [autotag]Quinton Jackson[/autotag] (38-13 MMA, 5-3 BMMA) at Bellator 237.

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We also hear from the fighters themselves, as Jenn Brown chats with newly-crowned featherweight queen [autotag]Cris Cyborg[/autotag] (22-2 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) and featherweight grand prix semifinalist [autotag]Darrion Caldwell[/autotag] (14-3 MMA, 11-2 BMMA) following their winning performances at Bellator 238.

Finally, Glazer and Black run through the current state of play in the Bellator featherweight grand prix, with the second half of the bracket set to play out and produce the second semifinal matchup with [autotag]Patricio Freire[/autotag] (30-4 MMA, 18-4 BMMA) vs. [autotag]Pedro Carvalho[/autotag] (11-3 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) and [autotag]Emmanuel Sanchez[/autotag] (19-4 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) vs. [autotag]Daniel Weichel[/autotag] (40-11 MMA, 9-3 BMMA) set for Bellator 241 in Uncasville on Mar. 13.

Check out “The Dose” via the video above.

Patricio Freire vs. Pedro Carvalho, Emmanuel Sanchez vs. Daniel Weichel set for Bellator 241

Two Bellator quarterfinals were already matched up, but now have a date and location.

The Bellator featherweight grand prix will roll on with its next title fight.

Bellator 145-pound champion [autotag]Patricio Freire[/autotag] will defend his belt against [autotag]Pedro Carvalho[/autotag] in the quarterfinals of the 16-man tournament. Additionally, a quarterfinal matchup between [autotag]Emmanuel Sanchez[/autotag] and [autotag]Daniel Weichel[/autotag] has also been added to the event.

The matchup is set to take place at Bellator 241, the company announced in a press release Thursday afternoon.

Bellator 241 will take place Friday, March 13 at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn. The main card is expected to stream on DAZN after prelims on MMA Junkie.

As part of the Bellator 228 broadcast in September, the fighters who advanced to the second round of the tournament partook in a live draft. After the first seven participants selected their respective opponents and dates via a live lottery, Freire (30-4 MMA, 18-4 BMMA), who also holds the featherweight title, entered the fray.

Due to a surprise “champion’s choice,” Freire, who also holds the Bellator lightweight title, was able to place himself anywhere on the board. After some thought, the longtime Bellator staple decided to take on Carvalho (11-3 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) in March.

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While SBG Ireland’s Carvalho seemed happy about the selection, Bellator president Scott Coker was not. In an unusually critical manner, Coker voiced his displeasure with Freire choosing Carvalho over rival Darrion Caldwell.

“My only thought was that when ‘Pitbull’ had the shot, I thought he was going to fight “D.C.,'” Coker said. “I thought he wanted him really bad. It went the other way, so now we have some interesting fights on both sides. If you keep winning, you’ll fight each other anyway at the end. So it’s going to be fine.”

In the opening round, Freire defeated Juan Archuleta by five-round unanimous decision at Bellator 228 in Inglewood, Calif. The victory marked Freire’s fifth straight. The streak also includes his lightweight title-clinching knockout of Michael Chandler.

Carvalho has yet to lose inside the Bellator cage. The Portugal-born fighter has won six fights in a row, including a submission victory over Sam Sicilia in the opening round of the tournament at Bellator 226 in September.

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Sanchez (19-4 MMA, 11-3 BMMA) and Weichel (40-11 MMA, 9-3 BMMA) were originally slated to fight on a February card to be announced, but instead will fight in March.

In the first round of the tournament, Sanchez submitted Tywan Claxton by second-round triangle choke at Bellator 226, whereas Weichel defeated Saul Rogers by unanimous decision at Bellator 228.

No additional bouts have been announced at this time.

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