TOP NOTCH/CARLSON GRACIE'S-DIMITRIUS WILLIAMS WINS BY SPLIT DECISION; LOOKS FORWARD TO FIGHT AGAINST PEDRO VELASCO

Another interesting fight at Cross the Line was between Abel Alvarado, a member of Team Los Locos who fought against Dimitrius Williams, a member of Team Top Notch and Carlson Gracie.

 

This fight went the distance and after the 3 Rounds of strikes, kicks and slams, Williams won by Split Decision.

 

Alvarado said he feels that he should've won the fight and Williams said he feels he should've won by Unanimous Decision. 

 

Williams: 

 

Performance: 

"As far as my performance, I knew he was a wrestler and I've wrestled for a while. I know this sport and everyone wants to see a good fight. Nobody wants to see two wrestlers, otherwise they would be at the state tournament today. So my whole game plan was that I wanted to stand and bang with him. I saw a couple other guys from his team and they looked like real brawlers, so I figured we would go out in the middle and bang. He wanted to keep his distance with the kicks, which is reasonable since he is a shorter guy, he wants to keep his distance," said Williams.

 

Williams said his game plan was to stand with Alvarado. "I came in and tried to bang with him and he dropped down and shot, after that I tried to give him a little more respect for his shot, then it got kind of boring. I feel that I pretty much controlled it, I know it was a Split Decision but I thought it should've been Unanimous," said Williams.

 

"Just because he got me in a Guillotine and he had it locked for a little bit but I clearly got back out and slammed him. Anytime he tried to put anything in....I slammed him. I cut his nose or made him bleed. I pretty much thought I had it but you never can tell with the judges, you can't really leave it up to those guys," said Williams.

 

"I think at the point in the 1st Round, when he had the Guillotine in because he had it deep in there and locked and then there was this point where he slid off to readjust, that's when I stood up and slammed him. After that, I was able to tell he just wanted to sit back and get a good position. He wasn't really going after me anymore," said Williams.

 

Williams said that after the slam, Alvarado just laid back and that all he did was try to work his position. 

"Then he had me back up against the cage. I took a little break because I got kneed but the referee didn't see it, so he didn't break it. I went down to go grab and he caught me with a pretty good knee in the face but I'm working with some good guys, so I'm used to taking good shots so it really didn't bother me too much," said Williams.

 

Future/ Pedro Velasco: 

"We're in the Bantamweight tournament, so I'm pretty sure that in the next round on March 20th, I think they have me going against Pedro Velasco for the title. I know he's a stand up guy, he does get on the ground and roll and scrambles a lot. I like that, I like guys that want to go out and bang because this is the sport, if you want to wrestle....you go out and wrestle. This is a sport were it's not Boxing, so you're not going to see two guys go and meet in the middle but you're going to see a lot of action and that's what I expect out of Pedro, so it should be good," said Williams.

 

"It's a tough sport. I'm glad we have people coming out. There were a lot of guys that backed out, so I'm glad that he (Alvarado) stuck with it and stayed in the tournament so we can give the fans a good fight," said Williams.

 

 

 

"It was close. I guess I did ok, not as good as I should've done. At one point, I stopped training for a while because all my fights got cancelled and I got a bit discouraged. I then came back to training and with one month of training, I took this fight. I guess I lacked in stamina, strength and my standing. Those are the things that I have to work on, other than that, I think I should've won the fight," said Alvarado.

 

Future Improvements: 

Noticing the need to improve some of his skills, Alvarado said he now knows what to work on.

"Getting out of being controlled. Not letting the opponent control me. I have to keep moving," said Alvarado.

 

Toughest Challenge: 

Alvarado admitted that his toughest challenge in this fight was Williams' strength. "That's what helped him a lot. If it wasn't for his strength, I would've destroyed him," said Alvarado.

 

Alvarado said he feels he the fight was close and thinks he almost had the fight won. "I got him with the Guillotine Choke, I got him with the knee in the face. I was messing up his front leg pretty good. At one point he said I hit him in the nuts but I hit him right on the inside of his thigh. He was complaining, the referee didn't see it, so I gave him a nice one to the face," said Alvarado.

 

"I'm coming back harder and stronger because I didn't like this loss. I strongly believe I should've won that. Next time I won't give them a choice," said Alvarado.