Kennedy Nzechukwu and Marcus Buchecha’s underwhelming heavyweight fight tonight at UFC On ESPN 73 ended in a draw.

Round One

Buchecha trying to get in on a takedown attempt quickly, but nothing doing there.

Approaching a minute gone in the round Buchecha drives in on a takedown again, and this time he’s able to get Nzechukwu down.

Buchecha trying to work for a leg lock, but it’s not threatening Nzechukwu for now and so he lands some strikes while waiting for his moment to try to get free.

Nzechukwu scrambling to his feet, but Buchecha is staying tight to him and is able to bring him down again. Nzechukwu struggling back up and is quickly back down again.

Buchecha now has the back and is trying to get his body triangle in. Nzechukwu able to work over to the cage and stand back up though. Buchecha still clinched up against the cage though.

Nzechukwu able to reverse the clinch. He looks for a knee to the body, but it strays to the groin and forces a time-out to give Buchecha time to recover.

Back to it they go with a little over a minute remaining in the round. Nzechukwu lands a punch. Buchecha a little desperate as he tries to manufacture another takedown attempt. It’s more of a struggle this time though and he ends up making a mistake by just pulling Nzechukwu down on top of him.

Nzechukwu hoping to stay on top, but Buchecha works back up. Nzechukwu now showing more urgency with his striking and lands some good punches. Buchecha looks very uncomfortable under-fire and goes to the mat where he feels safer just as the round is coming to a close. He’s got a slight cut to his left cheek.

Round Two

Left hand for Nzechukwu. High kick attempt from Buchecha. Another punch from Nzechukwu and Buchecha drops to the mat and raises a hand to signal that he’s hurt, but it appears to be due to an eye-poke. The replay confirms it was a poke as his head was ducking forward, and he’s now has a time-out to try to recover.

A couple of minutes pass and Buchecha doesn’t seem in too much distress now, so it looks as if the fight will continue. In the meantime ref Herb Dean does deduct a point from Nzechukwu and now they get back to it.

Left hand lands for Nzechukwu. Buchecha tries to fire back. Buchecha in on a takedown now, but doesn’t have him down for now. He gets around to the back though with the body lock. Not it’s just a standard clinch and then they break away to striking range.

Buchecha with a failed head kick attempt. Nzechukwu fires off a few punches and Buchecha is uncomfortable again and goes to the mat. Nzechukwu not willing to follow him there so he gets back up.

Buchecha drives into a good takedown attempt and lands it. He gets around to the back and still has a little over half the round to work.

Nzechukwu trying to get to his knees, but unable to. Buchecha lands a few good elbow strikes to the head now as Nzechukwu is on his hip.

Buchecha starting to rain down solid punches now. He opts to try to start working for an armbar instead now late in the round, but Nzechukwu is able to hang on in there and survive to see the final five minutes.

Round Three

Buchecha immediately goes for a takedown. He doesn’t get it immediately, but works around to the back as he continues to work for this. He tries to drag him down, but it’s a bit awkward and Nzechukwu is now half-straddled on top of him in a bit of a 50/50 stalemate position.

Nzechukwu trying to figure out how to get some offense off from this position. He drops down a couple of elbows.

There’s a bit of an adjustment of position, but it’s still a bit of a stalemate. Now Nzechukwu is able to stand and Buchecha is trying to get him back down. Nzechukwu gets on top though and tries to land some punches.

Another awkward tangle of bodies on the mat here now as Buchecha tries to work for a potential leg lock. Nothing really doing there though. Nzechukwu does well to work around to trap an arm and then get to Buchecha’s back. He starts to land a few right hands in the final seconds of the fight.

Decision

Bit of a strange fight all-round then, particularly when you take into account the point deduction for Nzechukwu in the second round and the awkward ground work that didn’t lead to much in the final five minutes. In the end the fight is declared a draw (28-28 x3), and it’s fair to say nobody will be in a hurry to run this one back in the future.