The Ultimate Fighter: Smashes welterweight winner Robert Whittaker made a successful middleweight debut in his hometown today, stopping Clint Hester with strikes in the second round. The fight took place on the main card portion of the event and was streamed live on Fox Sports in Australia.
UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs Bisping took place on Nov. 8 at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia.
The opening period saw Hester land early with a pair of punches. Whittaker stayed composed and came forward. Once again Hester connected, this time with a spinning back-fist to the face of the Aussie. With blood now showing on Whittaker’s face, he dropped Hester with a right hand and quickly followed him to the ground. He eventually gained mount but with just 20-seconds remaining in the round, ‘Headbussa’ scrambled and the round closed out.
Both fighters opened up with punches to start the second period, going toe-to-toe in a crowd friendly fashion. Whittaker then connected with a stepup-up-knee that sent Hester crashing to the ground. After a number of punches the referee waved it off. The stoppage came 2:43 into the second-round.
The win makes it two in a row for ‘The Reaper’ (13-5, UFC 4-2) following his decision win over Mike Rhodes at UFC Fight Night: Te Huna vs Marquardt in New Zealand. Hester, a TUF 17 veteran, drops his first fight in the UFC to go 12-4 (UFC 4-1) with the loss.
Results:
Main Card:
- Luke Rockhold vs Michael Bisping
- Ross Pearson vs Al Iaquinta
- Robert Whittaker def Clint Hester via TKO (Strikes), Rd 2, 2:43
- Soa Palelei def Walt Harris via TKO (Strikes from Mount), Rd 2, 4:49
Preliminary Card:
- Jake Matthews def Vagner Rocha via Technical Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 2, 1:52
- Anthony Perosh def Guto Inocente via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 1, 3:46
- Sam Alvey def Dylan Andrews via KO (Punches from Mount), Rd 1, 216
- Louis Smolka def Richie Vaculik via TKO (Strikes), Rd 3, 0:18
- Chris Clements def Vik Grujic via TKO (Strikes), Rd 1, 3:06
- Daniel Kelly def Luke Zachrich via Submission (kimura), Rd 1, 4:27
- Marcus Brimage def Jumabieke Tuerxun via KO (Head Kick), Rd 1, 2:58
