Full Contact Fighter Database

Home

>

News

>

Article

Media

Monday, Jul 25, 2016

Bellator’s Daniel Weichel: Eddie Alvarez’s UFC Title Win “Wasn’t Such a Big Surprise”

Daniel Weichel (photo via Bellator)

By FCF Staff

Plenty of fans and observers were pretty surprised when Eddie Alvarez secured the UFC’s lightweight championship earlier this month, but fellow Bellator vet, Daniel Weichel, wasn’t one of them.

Alvarez took out Rafael dos Anjos in the opening round at UFC Fight Night 90, who was a considerable favorite heading into the bout. Alvarez was coming off consecutive, decision wins over Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis, after losing to Donald Cerrone in his UFC debut. The latter was quickly taken out by RDA in December.

The championship win served as a reminder that there are top tier fighters outside of the UFC. After all, the 32 year-old Alvarez, a former Bellator champ, didn’t join the UFC until 2014. It also prompted many to reflect on the fact that Strikeforce vets like Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold, and “Jacare” Souza, among others, have gone on to become big UFC stars.

Weichel appeared on Full Contact Fighter Radio recently, prior to his decision win over Emmanuel Sanchez at Bellator 159 last weekend. While discussing Alvarez’s win, and how it reflects on Bellator, the German fighter stated:

“…I think for me, Eddie was always one of the best fighters in the world and it wasn’t such a big surprise to me that he did so well in the UFC,” Weichel said. “So, I don’t know. I think to be the best guy you have to fight the best fighters that are out there and that’s what I want to do, and that’s what I happily do at Bellator right now.”

“Definitely. If you look at the styles of the fighters you can recognize how clean the techniques are, how good they are as a fighter,” added Weichel, while commenting about the fact there are world class competitors outside of the UFC. “You can really see that at the level and Bellator is really high.”

Weichel (37-9) has won two straight now since he was KO’d by Patricio Freire in 2015, and is 9-1 in his last 10 fights.

posted by FCF Staff @ 10:46 am
Have a comment about this story? Please share with us by filling out the fields below.

Comments are closed.