Former welterweight and lightweight champion, B.J. Penn met perennial contender, Jon Fitch in a high stakes welterweight bout in the main event of UFC 127 at Sydney’s Acer Arena.
In front of 18,000 screaming, shouting and chanting fans, Penn and Fitch fought an incredibly intriguing and tense bout over the full fifteen minutes.
In a surprising move, B.J. Penn immediately began to pursue the takedown against the much larger Fitch.
Heading into the bout the conventional wisdom surrounding this fight was that Penn would opt to keep the distance and strike as to avoid getting in tight with Fitch as he is known for his suffocating, wrestling based style.
The strategy appeared to work immediately as Fitch looked unprepared for the wrestling based attack from Penn. The former two-time champion secured Fitch’s back in the first two rounds and worked for a rear naked choke while Fitch would eventually reverse the position to land in Penn’s guard and pepper him with strikes.
At the start of the third round it was clear that Penn’s notorious gas tank had run empty, and once Fitch secured an early takedown it was all one way traffic as he worked steadily to punish the dead tired Penn.
The fight went to the scorecards and in a surprise verdict one judge ruled the fight 29-28 to Fitch and the other two scored the fight 28-28 (scoring the first two rounds for Penn and the last a 10-8 for Fitch) resulting in a split draw.
Both fighters were surprised at the verdict with Fitch believing he had won the fight and Penn believing he had lost. The decision is no doubt to spark never ending debates on the internet for years to come.
In what was the main event in the hearts of the majority of the 18,000 fans inside Acer Arena, Australian George Sotiropoulos knew heading in that a win over Dennis Siver would rack up his eighth successive UFC victory and cement him as one of the UFC’s top lightweight contenders.
The reception he received on walking out to the cage to AC/DC’s “TNT” was incredible.
Siver came into the cage with the objective of silencing the crowd, and silence them he did as he dropped Sotiropoulos twice in the first round and had the Australian on wobbly legs for the majority of it.
It didn’t silence them for long however, as chants of “Come on Georgie, Come On” echoed around the sold out arena and Georgie did come on, for a time at least.
He managed to finally get his timing down and began landing heavy shots on Siver, possibly taking the second round and levelling the judge’s score cards.
With the fight tied heading into the third round in the crowd’s mind, the cheer that greeted the two combatants was something I haven’t seen rivalled at any other sporting event.
It was the German, however, that regained his timing and returned to the kicks that had served him so well in the first round.
Keeping the distance, Siver peppered Sotiropoulos for the duration of the round and earned himself a unanimous decision with scores of 30-27, 30-28 and 29-28.
In the co-main event of the evening, The Ultimate Fighter 3 winner and Brit, Michael Bisping met Jorge Rivera in a grudge match that at times threatened to boil over.
Having fought in Australia last year at UFC 110 where he was booed mercilessly, Michael Bisping entered the Octagon with a mixed reaction from fans and a bee in his bonnet after his opponent Rivera spent the best part of the last three months mocking him online through videos and interview.
The action in the ring was just as eventful as the pre-fight talk as a heated staredown lent itself into some tense exchanges.
Bisping landed a takedown half way through the round and as Rivera scrambled to his feet, Bisping landed an illegal knee to Rivera’s face.
The fight was halted as doctors checked to see if Rivera was fit to continue. Having successfully regained his bearings, Bisping was docked a point for the foul and the fight continued with both fighters trading hard shots until the end of the first round.
Between rounds, the two shared some words and the referee had to intervene. When the actual fight resumed, however, it was Bisping that prevailed as he bounced back from a big Rivera right hand to land one of his own and a series of devastating follow up punches that put Rivera down and out.
It might be the fight that almost happened after the actual bout that people will remember more than Bisping’s TKO win.
Still filled with emotion after his victory, Bisping had a few choice words for Rivera’s camp who didn’t react to favourably to it.
Security intervened before anything could happen, and it all smoothed over once Bisping apologised for instigating the incident in the post-fight interview.
The main card or rather the start of the pay-per-view broadcast kicked off with Australia’s own, Kyle Noke drawing American and fellow The Ultimate Fighter 11 veteran, Chris Camozzi.
The noise inside Acer Arena was deafening once Noke entered the UFC’s Octagon and he channelled that energy to make it a short night for Camozzi.
After some wild exchanges, Noke blocked a takedown and then scored one of his own. The takedown landed the Australian in the mount position and from there he achieved the back of Camozzi and secured the fight ending rear naked choke. The fight lasted a whole 97 seconds.
American, Brian Ebersole, who now calls Sydney his fighting home, was a late replacement for the well renowned and highly regarded, Carlos Condit. He wasn’t given much of a chance against his opponent, Chris Lytle who was coming off a win over former welterweight (77 kg) champion, Matt Serra.
The occasion didn’t seem to bother Ebersole as he brought the weird early, with firstly a well manscaped arrow in his chest hair and an opening wheel kick that Lytle smirked at.
Lytle stalked Ebersole around the cage and it looked like it was only a matter of time before Lytle landed a series of fight ending strikes. Surprisingly though, that wasn’t the case.
Ebersole’s unorthodox attack and gesturing to the crowd appeared to throw Lytle off. Ebersole used takedowns and even managed a knockdown via knee strike in the second round to earn himself his first ever UFC win and major upset by unanimous decision.
A fantastic night for UFC, in front of a roaring sell-out crowd.
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