UFC welterweight Joel Alvarez released a statement following a second-round submission loss to Yaroslav Amosov at UFC 328.
Alvarez was dominated by Amosov in their UFC 328 preliminary card bout. The Ukrainian took the Spaniard down at will in the first round to take it on the scorecards. In the second round, Alvarez began to land some strikes at distance, but just when you thought the tide might be turning in the fight, Amosov slammed Alvarez to the mat with a powerful takedown, and then he immediately submitted him with an arm-triangle choke. Following the impressive finish, UFC president Dana White awarded Amosov a $100,000 bonus for Performance of the Night.
Joel Alvarez Releases Statement Following UFC 328 Defeat
After the event was over, Alvarez took to his social media to release a statement concerning his loss. According to Alvarez, he has absolutely no excuses for his defeat and praised Amosov for his incredible showing.
“No excuses. Good camp and good weight cutting but it wasn’t my night. Congratulations to my rival and his team for a perfect job. Thank you very much to everyone for the support and messages, you are truly amazing. Sometimes there are bad days at work and in my job have a day bad is really (expletive) up. This isn’t over, there’s still work to do,” Alvarez wrote on his Instagram.
What’s Next for Joel Alvarez After UFC 328?
As for what’s next for Alvarez after UFC 328, it’s hard to say where he goes from here.
On one hand, losing the way he did to Amosov is not a good look, and it makes you feel like Alvarez is not a legitimate contender in the UFC welterweight division. On the other hand, maybe Amosov is actually really good and could be a future UFC welterweight champion, as his teammate at American Top Team, Dustin Poirier, said this week. So it’s truly difficult to say what to make of this performance by Alvarez. Yes, it wasn’t a good showing, but it might have more to do with his opponent being incredible rather than him not being very good.
Also, keep in mind that Alvarez used to fight at lightweight, where he was normally much bigger than his opponents. At welterweight, he does not enjoy that size advantage as much as he used to, so it could be a problem for him moving forward as he faces big and strong foes like Amosov, who can take him down and control him on the mat.
While Alvarez will likely want to keep fighting ranked opponents, he will probably have to take a step back after this loss to Amosov. The UFC should probably try to find him another striker to fight to create a fun matchup for the fans to watch, because if Alvarez fights another grappler, the fear is that he will just get taken down again and grinded out. That was his problem at lightweight in the past, and it looks like his lack of takedown defense is going to be an issue at welterweight, too.
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