UFC 173 results, photos: Vinc Pichel dominates Anthony Njokuani

LAS VEGAS – Unintentional fouls made Anthony Njokuani‘s life hell in the opening round of a meeting with Vinc Pichel, but a smothering ground attack did the same job the rest of the way.

Pichel (9-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) thoroughly dominated Njokuani (16-8 MMA, 3-4 UFC) on the ground to take home a unanimous decision and pick up his second straight UFC win.

The lightweight fight was part of today’s UFC 173 preliminary card at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims on FOX Sports 1 and prior to the pay-per-view main card.

The final scores were 30-27 twice in favor of Pichel, while one judge awarded Njokuani a round for a 29-28 tally. It was a curious tally given Pichel’s rout over three rounds, which probably was aided by a couple accidental fouls in the first five minutes of the fight.

Pichel accidentally poked Njokuani in the eye and then landed a hard shot to the groin against the fence, necessitating two timeouts for the striking specialist to recover.

Njokuani looked to catch Pichel coming in, but was repeatedly stuffed against the fence and slammed to the canvas, where he was ragdolled and nearly stopped by a flurry of punches in the second frame.

Exhausted by a high pace grappling match, Njokuani, who returned to action after more than a yearlong injury layoff, could do little but survive against his more grappling-savvy opponent.

After a debut loss to Rustam Khabilov, Pichel picks up his second straight win while Njokuani dips to a sub-.500 UFC record, having alternated between wins and losses since his transfer from the now-defunct WEC.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 173 results include:

• Vinc Pichel def. Anthony Njokuani via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Sam Sicilia def. Aaron Phillips via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
• Jingliang Li def. David Michaud via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)

For full coverage of UFC 173, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

(Matt Erickson and John Morgan contributed to this report on-site in Las Vegas.)