Costa Philippou headlines UFC Fight Night vs. Luke Rockhold
Costa Philippou of Long Island reacts after the referee stopped the fight in the third round against Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 in Las Vegas. Philippou won by a technical knock out. (Dec. 29, 2012) Credit: AP
Costa Philippou was on a roll through the middleweight division of the UFC until a lackluster performance against Francis Carmont in September ended his five fight-win streak.
Luke Rockhold was doing rather nicely as the Strikeforce middleweight champion until a leg belonging to Vitor Belfort blasted him in the head in his UFC debut last May.
On Jan. 15, 2014, at UFC Fight Night 35 in Atlanta, Philippou and Rockhold will fight each other in the main event.
This is the first main event for Philippou (12-3, 5-2 UFC), who lives in Massapequa and trains at Bellmore Kickboxing Academy. His trainer, Keith Trimble, has said that Philippou possesses the most power in his striking in both hands that he's seen from any of the fighters he has worked with in his nearly 20 years.
Bellmore Kickboxing fighters are 6-2 in the UFC in 2013.
