UFC 127 Penn vs. Fitch

UFC 127 BJ Penn vs. Jon Fitch Saturday February 26th, 2011 from Sydney Australia


James Te-Huna donated his fight purse to the relief fund in New Zealand. This donation is being matched by the UFC. They are also donating funds raised by memorabilia from UFC 127 sold. 

Now on to the fights, the weirdos were definitely out to play tonight. And by weirdos I mean Aussies, Kyle Noke and Brian Ebersole made some very interesting entrances. Fortunately for both of them they redeemed themselves by winning their bouts but good grief please do not ever do that again. My picks didn't pull through in most of the fights but it was a great card for sure. Gross moment of the night came in the fight between heavyweights Chris Tuchscherer and Mark Hunt. Hunt landed a huge punch on Tuchscherer and opened up a big cut above his eye. The ref stops it to have the doctors look at him and as he is walking back to his corner Tuchscherer says “There is something hanging in my eye” and the ref responds with “It’s your eyelid” eww! The doctor lets them fight and Hunt ends up winning, ouch.

Kyle Noke vs. Chris Camozzi - middleweight

Weirdo number one of the night, Aussie Kyle Noke makes his entrance wearing some sort of gas mask! The fight didn't take long to get going, both guys throwing kicks right away and about one minute in Noke gets a big takedown. Camozzi tried pretty hard to get out from under Noke but in his maneuvering Noke is able to grab his back and finish with a submission via rear naked choke win at 1:35. He's a classy guy for sure and I'm not disappointed with this win but maybe leave the mask at home next time. 

Chris Lytle vs. Brian Ebersole - welterweight

Enter weirdo number two. Another Aussie, Ebersole walks in wearing a sparing helmet (he did joke asking "I can't wear it?" when he gets cage side but still odd). That’s not the best part though. He gets a nice little haircut for the event shaving his chest hair into the shape of an arrow!! At least the arrow was pointing up though. Very interesting opening to the fight as Ebersole tries a cartwheel kick...? This move reminds me of something you would been in a Brazillian martial arts dance called Capoeira, not very effective. The first round was full of submission attempts by both fighters. Lytle seemed to be close more times but Ebersole has excellent submission defence. Ebersole finished the round on top landing some big shoulders to Lytle's face and cuts him pretty good under the eye. I've seen ground and pound with fists and elbows but shoulders looked brutal. Ebersole lands a really nice back kick but Lytle answers back with some big combinations and uppercuts throughout the second round. About a minute and a half left in the round Lytle gets rocked with a huge knee but is able to defend against a submission attempt once he is on the mat. Ebersole finishes this round again slamming Lytle on his back and landing the same brutal shoulders and ground and pound. Ebersole tries his cartwheel kick to start off the third round again but same thing, all flash no bang. They end up on the mat and Lytle is still working for the submission but man Ebersole has some serious submission defence. Lytle keeps working for the last minute but is taken down again and just can't make up for the first two rounds. Ebersole easily wins the unanimous decision. I didn't know that he has replaced Carlos Condit to take on Lytle here. I definitely would have liked to see that fight, but maybe now we'll see Condit and Ebersole meet in the cage. No octagon jitters for Ebersole in his UFC debut, don't mess with the fuzzy arrow. 

George Sotiropoulos vs. Dennis Siver - lightweight

A very patriotic Aussie entrance as Sotiropoulos enters to AC/DC's TNT. Siver shows some great takedown defence hopping on one leg for like 20 seconds while Sotiropoulos tries to take him to the mat. Siver lands a couple big punches and drops Sotiropoulos twice in the last couple minutes of the round. He is obviously hurt but keeps fighting to survive to the end of the round. Sotiropoulos comes out strong in the second round and it is a lot more even but Siver still has the advantage. He is landing more punches and some big kicks too. Sotiropoulos is still not able to take him down. The third round is much more even but its definitely not enough for Sotiropoulos to come back from that first round. Siver wins the unanimous decision. Both fighters are at the post fight press conference. It will be business as usual for Sotiropoulos, he will look at the fight, see where he made mistakes but will continue to train and move forward. They did not mention who Siver would be taking on next but Dana White wasn't there so that usually makes the press conference a little less informative. 

Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera - middleweight

Finally, Rivera can shut his mouth the fight is over and he lost! He asked for this fight, as Joe Rogan says "talked himself into a gun fight". He fought to be on a main card, he got his wish. No surprise the trash talking continues as the two enter the cage and they completely refuse to touch gloves. This fight gets started right away, Rivera throws a few punches easily avoided by Bisping and a weak kick. Just over a minute in Bisping gets the takedown. He wasn't able to keep him there and they stand back up but Bisping seems to have the advantage standing too landing some nice quick punches. He takes Rivera down again halfway into the round and is able to keep him there  a bit longer landing some big punches. Unfortunately getting a little too caught up in the action he lands a big illegal knee right to Rivera's forehead. (Rivera had two knees on the mat making this move clearly illegal). The doctors come in allow the fight to continue. The ref confirms with Rivera if he can continue and I'm not sure if he should but I don't see him stepping down from this fight. The start up again and Rivera actually manages to land a nice kick to Bisping's body. Bisping lands one more takedown with just under a minute left and finishes the round strong. The point deduction for the illegal knee is a little disappointing but since he clearly won the round it was probably 9-9. Rivera starts the second round with a nice right that throws Bisping off balance for a second. But that didn't last long. Bisping went right back on the the offensive connecting with some huge punches about a minute and a half in. He lands punch after punch, shots to the head, to the body and big, totally legal, knees. Rivera is clearly gassed taking huge breaths. He drops to the mat as Bisping continues to throw punches and the ref calls the fight. Bisping wins by TKO!!

After the fight Bisping is super amped up, yelling and even spits in the direction of Rivera's corner. I couldn't hear completely but it sounds like Bisping in telling Rivera to apologize and tells him to "Go home loser". Rivera's camp wants him to be suspended for the spitting and for the illegal knee but its really just getting ridiculous. Bisping apologizes immediately in his post fight interview with Rogan to the fans and to Mr. White. He shows up to the post fight press conference with no injuries at all, not so much as a cut. He explains that he was caught up in the fight and pulled the trigger on the knee too early, not the first time for this to happen in a fight. As far as spitting in the direction of Rivera's corner he admits he let the trash talking get to him . Rivera and his camp took it too far making videos mocking him on the internet, it was one classless move after another. Bisping says he got on his nerves, he upset him, he embarrassed him but he should have taken it on the chin a bit better. He explained that Dana White told him to keep his cool when he came into the cage after the fight and Bisping is apologetic for his actions. 

BJ Penn vs. Jon Fitch - welterweight - BOGUS majority draw

As you can probably guess I am not happy at all with a draw finish. I thought Fitch clearly had the fight won. Interesting note that Hughes (who Penn just KOd in his previous fight) went to Hawaii to train with Penn to prepare him for the fight. Well at least Penn did one thing right. Fitch has Koscheck is his corner which kinda bugs me but oh well, I guess he's an alright fighter too. Penn comes out strong, shooting for the takedown right away but Fitch wont let him have it. The two fight against the cage and Penn finally gets the takedown halfway into the round. He takes Fitch's back and starts with his arm legs (because his legs are pretty much like arms, he's like a monkey). He works for a submission but Fitch doesn't give it to him. Fitch spins around and lands some nice elbows while in top of Penn. Fitch was slow in the beginning but finished the round strong, I think Penn probably took it but it definitely was close.

The second round Fitch keeps Penn against the cage for the first couple minutes but eats some elbows and gets cut pretty nicely. He takes off to land some big combinations then gets him right back against the fence. Two minutes left Penn gets a takedown and takes Fitch's back. But again Fitch flips it over and gets on top of Penn just like last time. Fitch lands some nice ground and pound and finishes the round extremely strong. Penn got the takedown but Fitch was the only one that did anything with it. I feel like this round was all Fitch. The bleeding doesn't look good on Fitch but I Penn doesn't bleed! He always looks beat up and puffy after his fights but I don't think I've seen him get cut before!

Third and final round is where it will be decided and Fitch comes out strong. He lands a big right hand and takes Penn down in the first ten seconds. They stand up but Fitch takes him right back down with four minutes left. He lands some brutal hammer fists that you can hear cracking against Penn's face. He keeps Penn in this position for 3 and a half minutes! Penn tries to push Fitch off and defend but he is just getting totally beat up. Fitch is relentless, throwing punch after punch and big elbows while Penn just lays there and takes it, trying to hold his arms up to defend. He makes no progression, any attempt to improve his position Fitch easily shakes off. ALL Fitch for almost four minutes, easily a 10-8 round. The decision goes to the judges. They score is 29-28(Fitch), 28-28, 28-28 for a majority draw!! I was shocked! The first round yes I will give that to Penn but it was close, the third round was clearly 10-8 for Fitch and the second was another close one but I gave it to Fitch. 

Penn admits after the fight in his interview with Rogan that he doesn't feel he did enough to win in the first two rounds and he thought he lost the decision. I know that you can't always take what guys say right after their fight too seriously especially when they have lost the third round like when Rampage acted shocked after his win over Machida but this is just typical Penn in my eyes. He goes ahead and annoys the heck out of me some more at the post fight press conference. After the fight when he was talking to Rogan he was saying how he wasn't sure what was going to happen to his career if he lost this fight. He clearly admitted he thought he should have lost but when a reporter asked him about it and preparing himself for retirement Penn just made a smartass remark like "Did I say this was my last fight? No? Okay". All I wanted to hear was heck no I love fighting, its what I do and I will continue to fight until they stop me. Penn says he is "over" trying to box people. Saying he is "over" anything in mma is odd to me. Saying he's over the trash talking or politics is one thing but being over a part of the sport is weird. Especially since no matter where it ends up, both fighters start standing. Fitch expects more of himself and is disappointed in the fight. He was asked if deep down he ever thinks he will get a title shot. Jeeze some people are just brutally honest with their questions. He was well on his way to a title shot before this little speed bump so maybe its not his next fight like it was going to be before Shields stepped in but its not like he has slid back down to undercard fights. There has been no mention of a rematch from Dana White that I know of but some have said maybe the rematch would be for a vacant welterweight belt if GSP moves up to middleweight, which I wouldn't be totally against. Rogan explained how I feel about Penn pretty well. He is a great fighter I know that, but he only likes to fight, he doesn’t like the day to day grind of training and actually being a professional fighter. There is always a question of which Penn will show up and if he is motivated.

Interesting lessons learned at the post fight press conference, Victoria Australia allows MMA but not in a cage. It would be like allowing tennis to be played on grass but not on clay, same sort of concept. But they got Ontario to hop on board so maybe in time they will win over Victoria and there will be another big card in the land down under. Speaking of Australia, there is also talk about a TUF Australia vs. England season. They mentioned Bisping and Noke as possible coaches. Bisping I could totally see as a coach, Noke on the other hand was just on a season as a competitor so I’m not sure he’s ready but we’ll see.

Shop the official UFC store >>click here<<