Penn, Fitch Battle to a Draw; Bisping Stops Rivera

Saturday, February 26, 2011

By FCF Staff

BJ Penn and Jon Fitch were unable to add another victory to their accomplished records tonight in Sydney, Australia, as the two welterweights battled to a draw in front of the Acer Arena crowd. Early on, Penn was the aggressor, taking Fitch to the mat on a couple of occasions where he proceeded to threaten the AKA fighter with rear-naked-chokes. Despite the danger, Fitch remained calm and defended well, reversing the position to work from within Penn’s guard. (Pictured: Penn)

While the first two rounds were competitive, Fitch came out aggressively in the third, and after taking Penn to the mat he punished the Hawaii fighter from the top position for the remainder of the round. In the end, one judge scored the fight 29-28 for Fitch while the other two ruled it 28-28, resulting in a majority draw.

Michael Bisping put an end to his heated and public feud with Jorge Rivera, by stopping the middleweight in the second round with a vicious series of punches along the Octagon fence. The opening frame was marred by an illegal strike from Bisping, however, as the British fighter kneed Rivera to the head while the American was still on the ground. Despite being stunned by the infraction, Rivera elected to continue and appeared to recover, but was eventually overwhelmed by Bisping in round two.

Here are the results from tonight’s UFC 127 broadcast.

Jon Fitch vs. B.J. Penn declared a majority draw (29-28 Fitch, 28-28, 28-28)
Michael Bisping def. Jorge Rivera via TKO (strikes) - R2, 1:54
Dennis Siver def. George Sotiropoulos via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-28, 30-27)
Brian Ebersole def. Chris Lytle via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Kyle Noke def. Chris Camozzi via submission (rear-naked choke) - R1, 1:35
Ross Pearson def. Spencer Fisher via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Alexander Gustafsson def. James Te Huna via submission (rear-naked choke) – R1, 4:27
Nick Ring def. Riki Fukuda via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Anthony Perosh def. Tom Blackledge via submission (rear-naked choke) - R1, 2:45
Tiequan Zhang def. Jason Reinhardt via guillotine choke - R1, 0:48
Mark Hunt def. Chris Tuchscherer via TKO (punches) - R2, 1:41