It turned out to be a relatively easy night’s work for Gegard Mousasi in Manila at UFC Fight Night 66 as he dominated Costas Philippou with takedowns and superior grappling on the mat to claim a unanimous decision victory.
Round One:
Philippou with a punch and a kick to start. Mousasi with a leg kick of his own. Philippou lands a right hand.
Another leg kick for Mousasi and Philippou misses with one of his own. Mousasi smoothly gets a takedown and is straight into side control with just a minute gone in the fight.
Mousasi trying to pass to mount, but Philippou locks him back down to half guard for now. He postures up and lands a couple of hammerfists. A couple of body punches now and the stands up landing again, but when he goes back down he’s still in half guard.
Philippou moves him to full guard. Mousasi posturing up and Philippou grabs a hold of his hand. Mousasi shakes him off and is down in half guard again. Philippou trying to manafacture a way back to his feet, but nothing doing.
Mousasi tries an arm triangle attempt, but Philippou is able to escape that immediate danger. Again Philippou tries to get upright and again Mousasi forces him down again before he can successfully manage to do so.
Mousasi back in on an arm triangle attempt again, but Philippou prevents him from moving to the side to finish it and survives the final seconds of the round.
Round Two:
Kick from Mousasi and Philippou loads up on a counter that wings past his opponents head. Philippou hoping to keep this fight standing in the middle stanza, but unfortunately as I type that Mousasi is in on a takedown and completes it.
Credit to Philippou though as this time he manages to get back up again. back to striking range then and the two start to trade a few blows with Mousasi generally engaging first and looking to avoid the counters.
A kick from Mousasi strays to the groin and forces a stoppage. Philippou ok to continue after a brief stoppage and there’s three minutes in the round to work.
Mousasi almost immediately gets Philippou to the mat. He moves into side control quite easily and looks for a kimura attempt. He’s yanking on it, but Philippou defending and he gives up on it. Mousasi to north south position just for a moment and then to side control again on the other side this time.
Philippou gets him to half guard, but Mousasi keeping good posture over him here and trying to pepper him with a few ground and pound strikes. He lands a couple of nice right hands and elbow with less than a minute to go.
Mousasi not fighting at a particularly high tempo on the mat, but busy enough to keep the ref at bay and he’s certainly controlling the action. He manages to lands a few short knees to the chest area and ends the round on top.
Round Three:
Philippou pumps out the jab and then follows up with the straight right and is met with a counter hook from Mousasi.
Mousasi with a leg kick. He lands a nice left hook. Philippou targeting the leg for a kick now. Philippou fires out a few different kicks, but none of them land. Hard one to the leg from Mousasi now.
Phillipou with a legf hook. Mousasi rushes in and secures his latest takedown. Working from full guard he cuffs his opponent’s head with short punches. He mixes a few elbows in there too for good measure.
Philippou largely just locking down on his guard here hoping for a stand-up which doesn’t appear to be forthcoming as Mousasi continues to work. he’s into half guard now with a little over 90 seconds to go in the fight. He gets one arm under Philippou’s neck and the other tagging him with short punches.
Strikes are continuing to get through for Mousasi in the final 30 seconds. he’s not going all out for a finish, but is certainly racking up a solid hit count at this stage as the fight comes to a close.
Decision:
Mousasi controlled the action here from start to finish and earns himself a unanimous decision victory (30-27 x3).
