The great run of entertaining fights on the UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs Rockhold card continued with the first three fights of the main card. We’re now up to ten stoppages in ten fights.
Al Iaquinta picked up the biggest win of his career, stopping Ross Pearson in the co-main event. Pearson and Iaquinta both landed some good shots but it was Iaquinta who landed a shot that dropped Pearson in the second round. Pearson popped up quickly, but was clearly hurt.
Iaquinta sensed the opportunity for a finish and opened up with strikes that pushed Pearson back to the cage. As the punches came in, Pearson eventually dropped to the canvas and the fight was over.
Robert Whittaker moved up to middleweight for the first time in his UFC career and put on a pretty spectacular performance, stopping Clint Hester in the second round.
Whittaker and Hester spent the entire fight throwing huge punches and elbows but it was Whittaker who was landing the more consistently damaging shots. Hester would fade from his wide and wild power strikes while Whittaker continued the onslaught. Once Hester couldn’t keep up it was just a matter of time before Whittaker overwhelmed him.
Soa Palelei picked up a good win over a game Walt Harris in the opener of the main card for UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs Rockhold. Both men threw some heavy shots throughout the two rounds of action before Palelei managed to get on top on the ground and pour on some heavy shots that left Harris unable to do anything but cover up.
The stoppage came at 4:49 of Round 2.