Australia may be my favorite host city to watch a UFC take place in. The crowd is intense and you can practically feel the energy through the TV. The UFC tends to fill overseas cards up with mostly European and Australian fighters. Sometimes the cards lack star power and are almost considered afterthoughts to a lot of mainstream casual US fans. When I saw that Fitch would headline and Bisping would co-headline, I have to admit I wasn’t that excited for UFC 127. I’m not a big fan of either fighter and unfortunately I also figured both of them would win. I was right to pick both fighters to win but I was wrong about the overall entertainment value of this event. It ended up being a pretty damn good card.
The BJ/Fitch fight started out with Penn out-Fitching Fitch. This was the last thing that Fitch thought was going to happen and I think it surprised him so much that it actually worked. BJ even secured a takedown and worked his way into a backmount but to no avail as Fitch reversed position and worked a little ground and pound towards the end of the round. I had Penn winning this round easily. 10-9 Penn
Round 2 was a much more even round as each had their moments. I thought the most impressive strikes of the round were Penn’s short elbows that busted Fitch’s nose open. The grappling was pretty much even with both securing a take down but neither of them getting that much done afterwards. I gave round 2 to Penn but I wouldn’t have argued to much with anyone that gave the round to Fitch. 10-9 Penn
The third round Jon Fitch remembered that he was Jon Fitch and did what Jon Fitch usually does. He took Penn down early in the round and beat him up for 5 minutes. Fitch never gave Bj a chance to do anything but get punched in the face. As a Penn fan it was sort of depressing and hard to watch. I gave Fitch this round by utter domination. 10 - 8 Fitch
The judges agreed with me and the decision was a majority draw. If this fight was judged as a whole instead of round by round then Fitch would have won. The last round was so dominate that I’m pretty sure even Bj would admit that although the match resulted in a tie, he lost the fight. Considering I would usually rather watch flies fuck that watch a Jon Fitch fight, I thought this ended up being a hell of a war.
Michael Bisping and Jorge Rivera hated each before their fight and I’m pretty sure nothing has changed afterwards. Bisping used his wrestling to score points in the first round as the stand up was basically a wash. Rivera landed one good shot in the first but for the most part it was all Bisping including a vicious illegal knee that will be used as an excuse for Rivera’s loss. Although it was clearly illegal and I’m sure it hurt like a motherfucker, Rivera agreed to continue the fight when he didn’t have to. I’ve never been kneed in the face by a professional fighter so I will reserve judgement as to if it effected him later in the fight but Rivera should have called the fight if he thought it would impair his ability. Bisping survived a scare early in the second round and responded by beating the shit out of Rivera until the ref stopped it. The always classy Bisping celebrated by spitting on Rivera’s corner men and talking some shit to Rivera himself.
George Sotiropoulos may have been heavily favored and supported by his home country but it became painfully obvious early that he was fucked if he couldn’t get his fight with Denis Siver to the ground. Siver must have spent the last few months doing nothing but practicing his take down defense and it paid off with one of the biggest wins of his career. G-Sot has improved his standup greatly in the last few years but its still not at the level of Siver who won this fight rather handily. MMA is a game of matchups and I still think Sotiropoulus could possibly beat either Maynard or Edgar but that won’t matter for awhile because he won’t have that chance. Siver and his improved take down defense is a nightmare for fighters such as G-Sot who lack wrestling and rely heavily on their bjj skills to win fights.
Ebersole surprised everyone but himself and looked like he was having fun as he beat Chris Lytle. I don’t know how Lytle even survived after a savage knee in the second round sent him falling to the canvas. Eversole clearly won rounds 2 and 3 in an exciting fight.
Kyle Noke won the most impressive victory ever by a fighter coming out to a Men at Work song. He deserves a step up in competition after winning 5 in a row and 9 of the last 10.
Chris Tuchscherer reminds me of a fat Rick Flair and he did his best nature boy impersonation by bleeding all over the place. The uppercut knockout by Mark Hunt was a thing of beauty as he walked away immediately after landing the shot. The best line of the night was heard during this fight. Tuchscherer told the ref, “theres something hanging in front of my eye.” The ref responds, “that’s your eyelid.”
Fights that I would make:
- GSP is going to beat Jake Shields and probably vacate his belt to move up and challenge Silva at middleweight. GSP has said all along that once he moves up that he plans on staying at that weight regardless of the results of that fight. That means that the welterweight belt will need a new home so why not stage a tournament to decide who the next champion will be. Since both Fitch and Penn were promised a title fight with a win and neither of them won then why not let them both have first round byes in a 6 man tournament. I would match up Josh Koscheck and Carlos Condit with the winner taking on BJ Penn. I would then match up Jake Ellenberg and Thiago Alves with the winner taking on Jon Fitch. Everyone loves a good tournament and I think this would be a great way to hype up the eventual champion.
- Michael Bisping vs. Chael Sonnen - This would be a great first fight back for Sonnen and it would have an epic shit talking buildup. Put this fight in England and watch Sonnen receive the loudest negative reaction of all time. I think promising the winner a title shot after Okami would kill two birds with one stone. It would set up an eventual Silva/Sonnen rematch as well as remind Bisping that he isn’t a top 5 fighter.
- George Sotiropoulus vs. Donald Cerrone - I think this fight would tell us a lot about each fighter. Cerrone probably has better standup but wouldn’t be as hard for G-Sot to get to the ground as Siver was. Both fighters have very exciting ground games once it hits the floor.
- Denis Siver vs. Melvin Guillard - Siver deserves a step up in competition after his win over G-Sot and a Guillard fight would be dynamite. Under the guidance of Greg Jackson, Melvin could decide to fight smart and take Siver to the ground but chances are that he'd want to stand and bang.
- Mark Hunt vs Pat Barry - Pat Barry isn’t going to win a title anytime soon so why not put him in fights that fans would love to watch. This would be one hell of a kick boxing fight with 4 oz gloves.
- Chris Lytle vs. Dan Hardy - Both fighters will be hungry coming off a loss and would be looking to bring it.
- Brian Ebersole vs Brian Foster - In a battle of the Brians we will find out which Brian will continue to climb the ranks.
