Colton Smith vs. Robert Whittaker
Round 1
Whittaker takes the outside with his left hand hanging by his side and his right hand cocked. He shuts down a shot from Smith, who moves back out and throws a leg kick inside. Whittaker steps out of the way of a Smith right hand and counters beautifully with a pair of punches. Smith catches Whittaker with a hard right, but Whittaker seems unfazed and denies another takedown attempt seconds later. Whittaker sticks Smith with a pair of hard jabs, then drops his left hand back to his waist. Smith circles counterclockwise, away from Whittaker’s power hand, and has a high kick blocked. Whittaker lands another jab and backs out of the way of a Smith flurry. Two minutes left in the round and Smith misses with another bunch of punches, eating another of the jabs which has reddened Smith’s face. Whittaker shuts down two more takedown attempts and goes back to walking Smith around the outside. Smith strays low with a leg kick and is warned to be careful by ref Chris Tognoni. A left straight from Whittaker has Smith covering up briefly, but Smith comes back to sting Whittaker with a punch of his own, then drops the Australian with a big right. Smith tries a kimura, but Whittaker stands and rolls out of it to finish the round on his feet.
TJ De Santis scores the round 10-9 Smith
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Whittaker
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Smith
Round 2
Smith rushes forward to strike and has the legs taken out from under him by a Whittaker left hand behind the ear. Whittaker lands an uppercut as he tries to follow-up, but Smith is able to get his wits about him and stay on his feet. Smith’s right eye is looking rough as he sparks Whittaker with a clean right cross. Whittaker, for his part, keeps walking Smith around the outside with his hand cocked. Smith lands a right and takes a hard hook in return, then eats a combo from Whittaker as Smith moves forward. Smith nearly gets Whittaker down on the next takedown attempt, but Whittaker limp-legs him and stays up. Whittaker stands stock-still until Smith rushes him with a flurry of punches and a knee that lands low. Whittaker recovers quickly and the fight resumes with 2:00 on the clock. Smith rushes in to strike and the welterweights clash heads. Whittaker gets out of the way of a Smith combo and snipes back with a straight left, further banging up Smith’s damaged eye. A left hook staggers Smith, then a right hand, and now Smith is bleeding from his left cheek as well. Whittaker denies a takedown try and mugs Smith with uppercuts in the clinch in the final 20 seconds.
TJ De Santis scores the round 10-9 Whittaker
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Whittaker
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Whittaker
Round 3
Whittaker pops Smith with a pair of jabs early on, moving out of the way of the American “TUF” winner’s punches. Smith rushes forward and gets caught with a left hand on the chin that sends him falling to his back. Whittaker follows up with a couple punches, but ref Chris Tognoni is already running in to halt this fight. Smith protests the stoppage immediately, as he was still moving to roll over and avoid the punches when Tognoni stepped in. Nonetheless, this one goes to Robert Whittaker, the winner via TKO at 41 seconds of round three.