...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Tim Boetsch was hoping to end 2012 with his third straight win in the year, which would have given him five straight overall and would have moved him into the title picture in the UFC's middleweight division. However, that's not what happened at UFC 155 on Saturday night.
Boetsch likely broke his hand in the first round, and suffered an eyepoke in the second that affected his vision, with both playing a part in him losing to Costa Philippou by TKO in the third round.
The fight was Boetsch's early on, as he won the first round with a solid striking attack, and continued it into the second. He was working well despite the hand injury, but the fight turned when he took a finger to the eye in the second round. He told the doctor he could see in order to continue, but he clearly couldn't and he began resorting to pulling guard because he had issues judging the depth.
He told his coach Matt Hume in between rounds that he couldn't see, and when asked if he wanted to quit he responded "f*** no." But with his vision impaired, he had little to offer in the third, once again trying to pull guard when his takedowns failed. That allowed Philippou the opening to start raining down shots, and the fight was stopped just over two minutes in.
Philippou, who stepped in for injured teammate Chris Weidman, now has five straight wins in the middleweight division himself, and enters 2013 in a strong spot.
(Attention MMATorch app users: Make sure to upgrade to the latest edition of the MMATorch app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device!)
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
