UFC 127: Penn vs Fitch review (DVD) ★★★

Welterweight Bout: Chris Lytle vs. Brian Ebersole
It was a clash of the veteran Midwesterners in Sydney as UFC débutante Brian Ebersole defeated Chris “Lights Out” Lytle after three outstanding rounds. The two had crossed paths before, but never faced each other, in their pre-UFC days.

Kickings things off – no pun intended – with his signature cartwheel kick, although it was thrown pretty weakly, Ebersole found himself on the receiving end of a few big right-handers from Lytle, before his opponent had a very tight Guillotine choke locked in, and for quite some time. Ebersole, who has resided in Australia for the last four years, showed off his excellent ground technique by escaping the choke and attempting an unsuccessful knee bar to finish an exciting first round. Submissions were the theme of the fight as both competitors attempted multiple Guillotines and knee bars throughout all three rounds, but apart from Lytle's hold in the first, none of the attempts really came to fruition.

Up until the end of the second round, it was a back and forth fight, but a huge knee from Ebersole that connected to Lytle's jaw really changed the direction of the action for the remainder of the battle. Despite a number of submission tries in the third that “Lights Out” just could not cinch in through lack of energy in his arms, the UFC's then-newest face rode the remaining minutes out to a well-deserved victory via unanimous decision.

Lightweight Bout: George Sotiropoulos vs. Dennis Siver
The fans weren't able to chase Kyle Noke's big-time win with the same level of vocal appreciation and excitement when Aussie George Sotiropoulos left the Octagon, losing by unanimous decision and breaking his seven-fight winning streak in the UFC, with the Russian-born Dennis Siver's victory ironically being his seventh in the company. Sotiropoulos was knocked down by a heavy jab in the first round and remained dazed until the second, where he recovered really quite well – a testament to his great cardio – and managed to fire back a few shots for the rest of the fight, although he failed to do much, if any, damage. On three separate occasions he caught kicks from Siver, but all of his takedown attempts were immediately stuffed and the fight, which was largely a boxing match, never went to the ground apart from briefly in the first round. A disappointing loss for the Aussie, but a clean, easy win for Siver.

Middleweight Bout: Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera
A perhaps overly-emotional Michael Bisping entered UFC 127 with a score to settle after the hype for his fight against Jorge Rivera got a little too personal, resulting in a tonne of raw intensity once the fight got started. Midway through the second round, Bisping took the victory all the way back home to England after landing a series of hard rights to the head of Rivera to force the referee to put a stop to the action. But what is a fight involving “The Count” without a slice of controversy? He absolutely rocked Rivera with a huge illegal knee in the first round, instantly breaking his opponent down into a fragile state, understandably, for the rest of the bout. Perhaps, and likely, the fight would have gone in another direction had no such strike connected.

Welterweight Bout: BJ Penn vs. Jon Fitch
Ending the night with a majority draw verdict from the judges, BJ Penn and Jon Fitch fought three rounds of entertaining action in the main event, but with a title shot promised to the winner, it was an outcome that could only have been a disappointment for fans and combatants alike. With the only logical resolution to this championship conundrum resting in the scheduling of a rematch, the fight was booked for July 2 at UFC 132, but unfortunately it never took place due to an injury suffered by Fitch. Only time will tell when we'll see these two match-up once again inside the Octagon, but hopefully it'll be an as-enjoyable war that actually decides a victor.

In addition to the main card, all seven preliminary fights are featured in this release: