UFC 120 Results: Kongo Fouls His Way to a Tie With Browne

Travis Browne and Cheick Kongo fought to a tie -- 28-28 on all three judges cards.

It was the second ugly war of attrition of the night, marred by clinches against the fence and a third round point deduction for Kongo after he kept grabbing Browne's shorts. 

The point deduction proved the deciding factor and cost Kongo the win.

The first round started off a little slow but Browne began to land with hard left hands with about two minutes left and stunned Kongo. The announcers Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg couldn't believe the way Browne lunged in from way out, winging wild punches and still scored on Kongo. Browne was visibly tired at the end of the round but clearly had the better of Kongo in the first frame.

The Frenchman landed some crisp combos to open the second. Kongo landed one of his trademark knees to the groin up against the fence about a minute in. Brown lunged in again but to no avail. Kongo went for a Thai plum but Browne threw him to the ground. Kongo claimed an eye poke but the ref had none of it. Kongo landed a series of punches off a counter. Kongo forced the fight to the cage and began to land knees to Browne's legs before the ref forced a restart. Browne quickly clinched and ate a knee to the gut.  The ref had to restart the action again but after a quick exchange, Browne once again clinched and pushed Kongo into the fence. Browne got a trip take down at the end of the round. 

Browne shot in immediately in the third. He complained that Kongo was holding his shorts and elicited a warning from the ref. Soon after ref Marc Goddard deducted a point from Kongo for holding shorts. He came out swinging on the restart and then drove in for a double leg take down but got stuffed and they returned to the clinch. Kongo once again grabbed the shorts. Kongo chased a retreating Browne but landed little of note before once again shooting for a fruitless double leg. Once again Kongo gripped Browne's shorts. Again Browne ended the round with a last second take down.

Heavyweight French Muay Thai fighter Cheick Kongo came in to this fight to play his accustomed gate keeper role against the relatively green behemoth knockout artist Travis Browne.

The undefeated Browne had only one UFC win, over James McSweeney at The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale.

Kongo came into the fight off back to back losses to Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir.