UFC 155 results: Constantinos Philippou stops Tim Boetsch via blood-soaked technical knockout

In a twist that is certainly apropos for the cursed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 2012 campaign, Tim Boetsch trained to fight Chris Weidman tonight (Dec. 29, 2012) at UFC 155, while his opponent, Constantinos Philippou, was "Promised" Nick Ring one month ago at UFC 154.

Neither fight panned out for different reason, so this match was made.

It started out slow, with Philippou closing the distance and the pair jockeying for position along the fence. The referee had to stand them up and separate the pair, and when space was created, is when the magic happened -- Philippou landing a brilliant uppercut and Boetsch responding shortly thereafter with a front-kick to the face knockdown.

As the men headed to their corners, it appeared that Boetsch was complaining of a potentially broken right hand.

"Barbarian" shook it off and came out for the second, slinging it cautiously; however, he could not escape an inadvertent head butt that split open his forehead and then an accidental eye poke that momentarily paused the action -- all this illegal/legal damage for Boetsch in less than seven minutes.

Philippou capitalized as the second round ended, getting Boetsch to the ground and delivering significant ground-and-pound damage until the buzzer blared.

In the third and final frame, Boetsch -- who admitted to his corner that he could not see out of his injured eye -- was stung once again, getting his forehead split open, which was ultimately the beginning of the end. Philippou continued his ground assault and Boetsch simply could not intelligently defend himself.

The in-ring referee stopped the action midway through the third round, awarding Philippou the bloody technical knockout finish.

A broken hand, head butts and eye pokes likely played a factor, but just how much, we may never know.

For complete results and blow-by-blow coverage of UFC 155 click here.