Constantino Philippou has been in the UFC for almost a year putting in a few impressive showings but moving up against Court McGee was a big step-up from Jared Hamman but he passed the test with flying colours.
Philippou entered the cage on a two-fight win streak but he had a tough test in Ultimate Fighter 11 champ who was undefeated in the UFC with three-straight wins, most recently edging Dongi Yang.
Philippou showed what he was made of early moving forward, controlling the pace that had all three judges score him the opening two frames because of his high-volume of strikes that damaged McGee.
He showed that his stamina remains an issue slowing down dramatically late into the second and noticeably in the third as McGee took control of he round but it was too little, too late.
McGee was self critical post-fight, heres what he had to say:
I’m really upset about the loss. I couldn’t pull the trigger on my strikes and it cost me the fight.”
Philippou was happy with his performance but sees room for improvement:
“He tried to match my boxing, but realised after the first round that I had the superior striking, so was happy to keep the fight standing until the end of the fight.”
“I didn’t come in with a game plan, I just wanted to react well and stick to my strengths. I limited my kicks to avoid the takedowns and mixed it up with my punching combinations.”
