On Saturday night, Karin Williams taught Carlston Harris a valuable lesson: Don’t look too far ahead when you’re facing a dangerous opponent.
“Chaos the Ox Fighter” finished off Harris with a brutal right hand just 90 seconds into round one in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 241, earning his fourth knockout victory of the promotion. After the match, Williams admitted that he found more motivation than what Harris had said before the match about his future opponent.
“He was looking behind me. Don’t look in front of me,” Williams said in a backstage interview at the UFC. “You’re here talking about who you want to fight after me. You have to defeat me. To get to them, you have to go through me first. That’s just the way it is. did.
“I don’t really pay attention to interviews, but the team said to me, I was like, ‘He said he wanted to fight this guy.’ [and] this person. ‘Come on, dude. I’m a candidate myself, so you have to get past me. I had no choice but to do what I had to do. ”
Harris entered this fight having won four of his first five fights inside the Octagon, but Williams knew he would have an advantage if he could get his opponent up and trade with him.
“My game plan was to do what I’ve been doing and just leave it standing. I knew I had an advantage over him when it came to the standings,” Williams said. . “I was pretty much ready for wherever the fight was going to go. I saw that he was a heavy grappler, so I thought he would show more of that.” I was practicing a little bit more, wrestling a little bit more, but overall I was working on everything.
“When he came out there, [decided to stand] We stayed together a little bit longer, and even though we didn’t shoot together, we were like, “Let’s go.” This is it. ‘That’s all I needed. ”
Williams, 34, is currently 4-1 in his past five UFC fights and hopes to continue climbing the welterweight ladder this year.
“No matter who they throw in front of me, I want to smoke all the smoke,” he said. “I want to continue to make progress and break through the rankings by the end of the year.” [is] It’s over now. ”
