Uncasville, CT — A little banged up following a successful title defense at Bellator 262, Juliana Velasquez came away happy with her win over kickboxer Denise Kielholtz.
“It was exactly the way that I pictured it to be,” said Velasquez, who revealed during the post-fight press conference that she injured her leg at some point during the second round. That wasn’t the only injury she incurred during the bout. “I was very effective, I saw my jab was hurting her, but looks like it was not just her, as I broke two of my fingers in my right hand.”
The Bellator 262 main event was undeniably close, with Kielholtz taking more damage, but also finding success and out-gunning the champion in the opening round, and potentially the fifth and final frame as well.
“In the first round she was coming strong, she was being able to get close and to hit me. But I was circling away, and many of those shots were missing. But I saw that it was a close round.” As the fight wore on, “I was able to fight a little bit more, I was hitting her, I was stopping her in her tracks, and I think I was being much more effective, especially starting from the third round.”
Velasquez was confident she’d won “at least three rounds of the fight” when it came time to announce the decision, she added. She also shut the door on the possibility of a rematch. “If I was going to rematch someone, I think that the one who deserved it was Ilima-Lei [Macfarlane], because she had many title defenses,” stated Velasquez. “After this fight, we just move forward.”
Moving forward means one of two opponents. “I think that the fight that makes sense the most would be fighting Ilima-Lei again, or Liz Carmouche. Those are the fights I would like to [have],” said Velasquez.
Velasquez also had an inspiring message for anyone going through loss, as she did with the death of her brother. Velasquez has dedicated each of her wins to him, and sports a tattoo in his honor on her bicep. “Life goes on. It’s hard to be here and it’s hard to go through it, but you can do it,” she said.
Watch the full Bellator 262 post-fight press conference with Juliana Velasquez above.
