In typical Palelei fashion, ‘The Hulk’ put away Alabama native Walt Harris with ground-and-pound in the second round in Sydney today. The heavyweight clash opened 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.
Soa wasted no time trying to get the fight to the canvas. Harris, however, had other ideas and defended the single leg to remain standing. The American took centre cage and both heavyweights traded strikes for a period. Harris connected with kicks, while Palelei utilised his boxing. Round one ended without any real damage to either fighters.
Strikes from both fighters found homes at the start of the second round as they both started to open up more. Harris continued to land leg kicks. A half effort takedown attempt from the Aussie was easily defended by Harris. However ‘The Hulk’ finally got what he was searching for and took the American to the canvas with one minute remaining in the second. He found mount soon after with seconds remaining and once again chalked up a win with punches from top position.
Palelei (22-4), 36, bounces back from a lackluster decision loss to Jared Rosholt at UFC Fight Night: Te Huna vs Marquardt in New Zealand and is now 4-2 inside the UFC. Walt Harris, 31, loses in what was his promotional recall and drops to 7-4 as a professional with what was also his third straight loss in the UFC.
Results:
Main Card:
- Luke Rockhold vs Michael Bisping
- Ross Pearson vs Al Iaquinta
- Robert Whittaker vs Clint Hester
- 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
