UFC 133 Results: Constantinos Philippou Defeats Jorge Rivera on PPV

The second bout of the pay-per-view card leaves me (and many other observers) wondering what the hell it's doing on the main card at all, let alone as the second offering.

Jorge "El Conquistador" Rivera and Constantinos Philippou aren't exactly the sport's biggest names. In fact, they're not even real contenders at middleweight. Part of the placement can be explained by the fact that it wasn't the original plan—Alessio "Legionarius" Sakara was initially slated to face El Conquistador, but Legionarius tore his ACL and had to be scratched.

That tussle would've at least featured an epic clash of period nicknames—Legionarius vs. El Conquistador sounds like an offering from Spike's "Deadliest Warrior."

Alas, we get this "fight."

Actually, the two athletes put on a bit of a show during the second round—Philippou crumpled Rivera and came "thisclose" to a stoppage. But El Conquistador rallied, reversed and scored some points of his own.

Outside of that brief orgy of violence, both the first and second stanzas formed a tepid 10 minutes.

The final round began with a bang—Philippou scored with a decent bomb, but Rivera answered with a knee to the body. It looked like Constantinos felt that blow for about a minute and El Conquistador used the window to score some more big points. At one point, Jorge even threatened with a triangle that transitioned into a futile armbar grab, but he could cinch in neither.

In sincerity, Rivera would've been doing everyone a favor by stopping the bout because it was a pretty horrifying task to judge. Both men had their moments, but neither took real control of the contest.

Ultimately, the two of the judges were more impressed with Costa's effort and gave him the split decision.

Constantinos Philippou defeats Jorge Rivera by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

I have nothing more to say about this fight, let's just move on.

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