Sanchez Set For Elimination Bout

Sometime late this evening, mixed-martial arts fighter Angelo Sanchez will climb into the octagon at Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino.

Chances are, as a native of the Pojoaque Valley, he’ll get an appropriately thunderous welcome.

“I’ve got a good fan base, and I get a lot of people who come out and give me support,” Sanchez says. “It’s a great feeling; I love it.”

The clash between Sanchez (11-3) and Californian Richard Schiller (8-4-1), to be contested at the 145-pound bantamweight limit, is the main event of a 12-fight King of the Cage card at Buffalo Thunder. The resort has a Santa Fe street address but is actually about 20 miles northwest of the capital city in the Pojoaque Valley.

Sanchez, born in San Ildefonso Pueblo, trains at Santa Fe Brazilian Jiujitsu Academy but lives in Pojoaque with his wife and their two children.

Since losing to Albuquerque’s Donald Sanchez (no relation) in May 2010, Angelo Sanchez has won three straight. Two of those victories have come at Buffalo Thunder, and he’s 3-0 overall performing at that venue.

Fighting in front of the home folks can be stressful, but Sanchez doesn’t see it that way.

“To walk out there in the middle of the stadium and to feel the crowd’s energy and hear everybody cheering for you, you know it helps,” he says. “It feeds you. It makes you want to perform better and do your best.”

His fight with Schiller tonight is a title-elimination bout. That and a co-main event between Donald Sanchez and Californian Chris Culley are intended to produce the combatants for a King of the Cage bantamweight title fight this spring.

Angelo Sanchez says his focus is solely on Schiller, a dangerous fighter who has taken seven of his eight career victories by submission.

Yet, he adds, the two Sanchezes have unfinished business. Both, in the recent past, have held the KOTC title that will be at stake this spring.

In May 2009, Angelo Sanchez defeated Donald Sanchez by five-round decision for the KOTC belt at the Inn of the Mountain Gods in Ruidoso.

A year later, at the same venue, Donald returned the favor.

Angelo says a rubber match between the two New Mexicans is a given. When and where, and for what title, is almost irrelevant.

“We need to settle that sooner or later,” he says.

Angelo Sanchez made his MMA debut just 3 1/2 years ago, but his career has been more than a decade in the making.

“I started wrestling in high school,” says Sanchez, who attended Pojoaque High School but graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell.

“Then, when I went to college (at UNM), I started boxing and kickboxing. After that, I got into jiujitsu, and then I started doing MMA.”

Fighting at home, and with so much at stake, are there nerves? Sure, he says – but that’s good.

“It keeps you on your toes,” he says. “It humbles you, and keeps you on your edge.

“I’ve had a long camp, and I’ve trained very hard, so I’m really excited to actually get in there and test myself.”
— This article appeared on page D5 of the Albuquerque Journal