PEDRO VELASCO- NEW FCE BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMPION

In the Main Event of the night, Pedro Velasco, a member of Team Ramrod out of Gurnee, IL fought against Dimitrius Williams, a member of Team Top Notch/Carlson Gracie.

At Ruthless, the fight was scheduled for five, 3 minute Rounds and the winner would become the FCE Bantamweight Champion.

Both fighters put on a good performance on their previous FCE fight and both also came out victorious over their opponents.

At Ruthless, some fans thought the fight would last more than one round but in just 1:29 of the 1st Round, Velasco defeated Williams by TKO, due to Strikes.

The round opened with both fighters engaging and quickly exchanging numerous strikes and kicks. Williams slammed Velasco, but Velasco was able to recover quickly and started pounding onto Williams until the referee stopped the fight.

Velasco: 

In the post-fight interview, Velasco said that the fight did end up going the way he expected. 

Performance: 

"I came in with a plan and I have to thank Ginger "Snaps" for the kicks that she showed me. I hadn't really been confident on my kicks. I've been trying to kick but the confidence hadn't come out but today, I went out there and that was my plan right there. Use my kicks," said Velasco.

Velasco said that at one point during the fight, he didn't know why the referee was stopping the fight. The referee then told him that he had thrown an elbow.

Velasco said,"I think it was an upper-cut that slipped and that's why it may have looked like an elbow." 

Velasco admitted his frustration, after not being able to quickly finish Williams, due to a hand injury. 

"I have an injury on my left hand, so I really couldn't use my left hand too much. So I was frustrated because I couldn't finish him. I was trying to jab him and jab him. I then tried moving his hands out of the way. I remember my last fight, I caught so many nasty elbows on my hands and that's where my injury came from. Those elbows but I tried keeping control of the whole fight and it worked," said Velasco.

Improvements: 

"Well, now I'm going to incorporate more kicks. I'm definitely going to be more aggressive and I like the aggression that I came in with, so I'm going to try to include a little bit more. I only look forward to coming across good fighters. They push me to fight better and make me use my techniques that I know. So I'm pretty excited," said Velasco.

Future: 

"I'm going to take some time to heal. Finishing people kind of hurts. I wish Dimitrius good luck. He's a good stand-up guy. He stood up with me. Good slams. Those two slams, I thought they weren't going to hurt me but the second one, he did pick me up pretty high but I kind of got the good motion of landing and the reversals.  The ground game is my game. I was looking forward to what he had," said Velasco.

Final Comments: 

"I just want to thank everybody for supporting what I do and believing in me," said Velasco. 

Williams: 

Performance: 

"I feel like I did well, sliding a couple punches, ducking under-that's the real thing. Everybody can tell I'm a wrestler, my boxing was kind of laxed and I got used to slipping some punches, I had good take downs. I feel like I was doing good. He was throwing some wild punches, I was ducked them and threw a couple back. As soon as he threw it again, I ducked under and took him down," said Williams.

Toughest Challenge: 

"I think my toughest challenge is learning to settle in to place and not try to rush in and finish it. If a fight has to go 5 Rounds, 3 Rounds or whatever, I have to be ready for it and not look for the finish as soon as I get in there. That's exactly what happened, I got too tight, I tried to go for the mount and as soon as I did it, he slipped through," said Williams.

"Pedro is a smart fighter. He knew exactly where to go and what position he needed to be in to finish it," said Williams.

Future: 

"I may take a couple weeks and go back and work on my jits to make sure I get my mounts down. Then I'll be back to fight. I took like 3 fights in a month so I'll be back, for sure. I'll take any fights whenever they want me to go: 45, 35 or 25, I'll get back into the cage. It's a tough loss but I have to get back in there and train," said Williams.