UFC Fight Night 77 results: Bad stoppage gives Gleison Tibau sub win over Abel Trujillo

Gleison TIbau

SAO PAULO – Gleison Tibau moved one step closer to tying UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz’s record and had himself a pretty easy night’s work, even though his win was declared prematurely.

Tibau (34-11 MMA, 17-9 UFC) was all over Abel Trujillo (12-7 MMA, 3-3 UFC) on the mat and was in the process of cinching a rear-naked choke when veteran referee Keith Peterson jumped the gun and declared the fight over, adding a sour note to an otherwise dominant performance.

The lightweight bout closed out the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 77 event at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on FOX Sports 1.

The fight was declared over at the 1:45 mark of the first round as Tibau squeezed hard on his choke, though at the time Peterson intervened, Trujillo was turning his body to escape and immediately protested the stoppage.

Trujillo, who returned from an 11-month layoff due to injury, suffered his second consecutive loss after a rear-naked choke loss to Tony Ferguson in his previous outing at UFC 181.

Tibau, meanwhile, celebrates his 26th fight in the UFC and his 17th win, tying Michael Bisping for the 3rd most in promotional history. Ortiz holds the most octagon appearances at 27.

Trujillo didn’t get much of a chance to throw his heavy hands and was defending a takedown almost from the outset. Tibau managed to bypass a guillotine and advanced to mount, transitioning to back control when Trujillo predictably changed positions.

Although Tibau’s forearm was well under Trujillo’s neck, Trujillo had not tapped when the stoppage was declared.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 77 results include:

• Gleison Tibau def. Abel Trujillo via technical submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:45
• Johnny Case def. Yan Cabral via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Thiago Tavares def. Clay Guida via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 0:39
• Chas Skelly def. Kevin Souza via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:56
• Viscardi Andrade def. Gasan Umalatov via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Jimmie Rivera def. Pedro Munhoz via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Matheus Nicolau def. Bruno Korea via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 3, 3:27

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 77, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Mike Bohn contributed to this report on site in Sao Paulo.)