James Te-Huna
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The following fighters were awarded $75,000 in bonus money after the completion of UFC 127.

"Fight of the Night" went to Brian Ebersole and Chris Lytle. The bonus is Lytle's eight fight bonus in the UFC.

"Submission of the Night" went to Kyle Noke who stopped Chris Camozzi at the 1:35 mark of round one.

"Knockout of the Night" went to Mark Hunt who KO'd Chris Tuchscherer at the 1:41 mark of round two.

The attendance for UFC 127 was 18,186

The live gate for the event was $3.5 million, $1 million more than last year's event in Australia.

James Te-Huna announced that he would donate his purse to the help the victims of the Christchurch earthquake. The UFC announced that they would match the donation.

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A lot was at stake in this fight as UFC president Dana White said the winner would be the number one contender in the UFC's welterweight division.

Penn looked pumped up as the fighters stood in their corners while Fitch looked focused.

When the fight started Penn surprised everyone by rushing Fitch and going right in for a takedown and then leaned his body weight into Fitch.

Fitch then reversed Penn and used the same tactic, holding Penn against the cage. Fitch then changed levels and looked for a takedown.

Fitch then briefly disengaged, landed a few punches and then attempted a takedown on Penn.

Penn avoided Fitch's takedown and got a takedown of his own, taking Fitch’s back and sinking  in a body triangle.

Fitch then forced Penn to hold his weight and turned into him.  Penn then pushed Fitch off and regained his feet.

Fitch moved right in on a takedown to start round two.

A Penn elbow had Fitch bleeding from his nose.

Penn got another takedown and again moved to Fitch’s back. Fitch once again rotated out and landed on top of Penn throwing punches to the head and body.

Penn regained his feet at the bell

Fitch landed a big right to start the third round was right on top of Penn.

Penn was able to push Fitch off, but Fitch once again worked the takedown and had Penn’s back as they stood against the cage.

They drop to the ground and Fitch began putting a beating on Penn on the ground, landing punches, and elbows. Penn looked bothered by the onslaught of strikes that Fitch was throwing.

In the third and final round, Fitch put an almost five minute long beating on Penn. 

The fight goes to the judges and they score it 29-28 Fitch, 28-28, 28-28 a majority draw…

That result leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

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The grudge match of UFC 127 was clearly going to be Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera.

A ton of trash talk was exchanged leading up to this fight. Rivera used the trash talk to hype the fight and it worked well, creating a great deal of interest in the bout.

Bisping clearly took the trash talk personally, getting into Rivera's face at the weigh in and having to be separated by UFC president Dana White.

There was no glove touch to start this fight, which was no surprise.

Bisping was clearly a better wrestler, taking Rivera down at will. After a takedown Rivera was down on both knees when Bisping landed a big illegal knee to the head of Rivera and the referee immediately halted the fight as Rivera tried to recover.

The doctors came in to look at Rivera who looked unfocused and glassy eyed as they spoke to him.

At one point it appeared that the referee said he was going to stop the fight until he asked Rivera if he could continue. Rivera, of course said, yes.

That move was a mistake as any fighter worth his salt will not quit. The doctors and referee were obviously concerned about Rivera, but yet they let the fight continue, which in my opinion they should not have done.

Not a lot of action after the fight resumed.

Rivera stunned Bisping with a right early on in the second, but Bisping did not stay hurt for long, moving in and working Rivera over with hands and knees, hurting Rivera and dropping him to the ground. Rivera had no defense and the fight was stopped via TKO at 1:54 of the round.

Bisping showed very little class after the fight, getting into Rivera's face and demanding an apology, which did not seem to come.

After the fight, while he was being interviewed by Joe Rogan, Bisping apologized for his antics, but the damage had been done and he came off looking pretty foolish.

In my mind, a questionable win in a fight that could have very easily have been stopped.

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A big fight for both fighters between George Sotiropoulos and Dennis Siver. A win would put Sotiropoulos in the mix for a UFC lightweight title shot. A win by Siver moves him into top ten consideration in the lightweight weight class.

To start the fight Sotiropoulos caught a Siver kick and Siver was able to avoid going to the ground. Sotiropoulos then moved in and looks for a takedown, but a Siver flurry kept him at bay.

Sotiropoulos again attempted a takedown and was absolutely stuffed by Siver, who astutely avoided following Siver to the ground, forcing Sotiropoulos back to his feet.

Siver dropped Sotiropoulos with a punch on the button and he then let Sotiropoulos stand. Once Sotiropoulos was back on his feet Siver dropped him again and followed the injured fighter to the ground. Siver was unable to finish the fight and let Sotiropoulos up again. Sotiropoulos was hurt as he stood on very shaky legs.

Siver was very patient and showed a huge amount of respect for Sotiropoulos ground game by not engaging him on the ground for a prolonged time.

Siver really imposed his style in round one.

Sotiropoulos opened round two with another takedown attempt that was shook off by Siver.

Sotiropoulos was able to hurt Siver with some punches with 1:20 left in the second and Siver looked like he may have started to run out of gas.

Sotiropoulos then landed some strikes and a nice head kick with 15 seconds left in the round.

Sotiropoulos looked fresher as the third round began, but Siver looked far from gassed.

Sotiropoulos came out fast, but Siver again avoided the takedown. 

Siver threw and landed a spinning back kick that briefly doubled Sotiropoulos over.

The judges score it 29-28, 30-28, 30-27 for Dennis Siver

While I would give the fight to Siver, the 30’s are puzzling as Sotiropoulos looked to have round two

The fight revealed a huge gap in Sotiropoulos game, his takedown attempts were very sloppy and telegraphed.

A huge win for Siver who moves to 18-7 while Sotiropoulos tastes his first UFC defeat falling to 14-3.

Brian Ebersole came into this fight, his UFC debut as a late replacement for Carlos Condit, who was forced from the card due to a knee injury.

Ebersole, while fighting in the UFC for the first time was far from a newcomer to mixed martial arts when he stepped into the Octagon, sporting a pre-fight record of 46-14-1-1.

Lytle, is a UFC warrior, fighting in his 19th UFC fight on the UFC 127 fight card.

Ebersole came out with an odd cartwheel kick and Lytle countered with some big punches.

Ebersole was very unorthodox early on and that style may be something that makes him popular with UFC fans is he manages to stick with the promotion.

An exchange between Joe Rogan and Mike Golderg during the fight went as follows, Rogan said, "He's just being weird," to which Goldberg replied, "Well, he's good at it."

Ebersole went  for the takedown and landed in a Lytle guillitone attempt, which he was able to nicely roll out of.

Ebersole looked to stand and once again landed in a guillitone, but not for long as Lytle released it to  take his feet.

Ebersole did a good job of avoiding most of Lytle’s big punches, fighting in a defensive, but not boring style.

A big knee to the chin dropped Lytle and Ebersole went for a choke as he corner yelled “patience.”

Ebersole then dropped some hammer fists and the fight went back to standing as Lytle, clearly hurt and tired, looked for the clock.

The second round was huge for Ebersole.

Lytle acknowledged Ebersole’s effort with a nod and a tap as the round ended.

Lytle started the third round throwing some big fists that Ebersole was able to avoid; for the most part.

When the fight ended Lytle had a nice gash above his eye that he admired on the in arena monitors.

The fight went to the judges and they got this one right, giving Ebersole the unanimous decision win. (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Mark Nolan/Getty Images

The UFC 127 pay-per-view card opened up with Australian Kyle Noke meeting Chris Camozzi in a middleweight bout.

Noke came to the cage to strains of "Land Down Under" by Australia's Men at Work.  The crowd clearly approved of both Noke and his song selection giving him a huge round of applause.

Camozzi came out looking to land some kicks and forced Noke into the cage. Noke spun out of that and was able to take Camozzi to the ground, landing in full mount.

Camozzi was working hard to get out  from underneath Noke, scrambling and looking for an opening. That opening never came and Noke was able to transition to take the back of Camozzi and move into a rear naked choke.

The choke was in tight and it forced Camozzi to tap at the 1:35 of round one.

A loud cheer went up for Noke who moved to 19-4-1 with the win. The loss dropped Camozzi to 14-4.

The third and final fight on ION television featured a lightweight bout between Ross Pearson and Spencer Fisher.

At the weigh in these two fighters said they were going for "Fight of the Night" accolades.

Referee Herb Dean got a big cheer from the crowd inside the Acer Arena before the fight began.

To start the fight the combatants circled each other throwing fast hands that looked like they were intended more to find range than to hurt.

Fisher got Pearson to the ground where Pearson sank in an armbar, but released it before Fisher was able to lift him and slam him to the ground.

The fight was back to standing as both fighters threw strikes with Fisher throwing his hands in the air looking to get Pearson to engage and possibly make a mistake.

The second round was more of the same with the fighters looking to land strikes and put the other away at a very fast pace.

The third round found Pearson getting off faster and scoring with more effective strikes.

The judges saw it the same way...giving Pearson the win by unanimous decision. (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Doubtful that this one will end up as "Fight of the Night," but it was entertaining.

This was the second of three preliminary fights to be shown on the ION televison network.

A big cheer erupted for the Australian James Te-Huna who said he would donate his purse to the Christchurch earthquake victims.

The fighters go right into the clinch with Te-Huna getting the best of it, muscling Gustafsson
to the ground and then passing and gaining side control.

Te-Huna then worked some head shots as Gustafsson moved to half guard.

Te-Huna then worked elbows and punches before Gustafsson
regained his feet.

Gustafsson  was then looking for a standing guillitone, but he let that go and moved to a nice takedown into side control.

Te-Huna then got back to his feet and had Gustafsson against the cage. Te-Huna then worked a single leg, but he appeared gassed as Gustafsson easily took his back and sank in a rear naked choke that was across the chin of Te-Huna.  He then released the choke and sank it back in after a few punches. T The rear naked was in and across the neck and Te-Huna tapped out at 4:27 of round one.

The Australian crowd was shocked into silence by the loss, but eventually came around and cheered the fight.

Gustafsson moves to 11-1 and Te-Huna falls to 12-5

This was the first of three preliminary fights that were featured on ION televsion.

A middleweight bout between Nick Ring (10-0) , who competed on seven 11 of the UFC's "The Ultimate Fighter," and Rikki Fukuda (17-4), the DEEP middleweight champion.

Ring opened with a leg kick, Fukuda then worked a takedown and got it, Ring attempted to work into an armbar attempt and then transitioned  that into a triangle attempt. Fukuda knew he was in potential trouble and tried to counter.

Ring gave up on his submission attempts and worked to his feet to the approval of the crowd.

Another takedown by Fukuda at the end of the round.

Second round started with both fighters working strikes and Fukuda was stuffed on his takedown attempt.

Fukuda was not discouraged by the stuffed takedown and gained the takedown with his next attempt, but Ring regained his feet and landed a knee to the body of Fukuda.

The crowd began to get restless at the lack of action in this round, but as soon as the fighters started throwing the crowd cheered quite loudly.

Fukuda gained another takedown in the third and worked inside Ring’s guard.

Ring got to his feet, but the wrestling of Fukuda neutralized Ring.

 Fukuda with another takedown, he used very good wrestling technique during this bout.

The referee stood the fighters up with 20 seconds left and Ring looked like he needed a KO, but he did nothing to end the fight.

This was either a dominating performance from Fukada and/or a lackluster performance from Ring.

The judges call it for 29-28 for Nick Ring and as Joe Rogan says , “wow…that doesn’t make any sense..I don’t know what those judges were seeing.”

Another fine example of never let it go the judges. 

The second of two fights that the UFC streamed live on their facebook page saw Anthony Perosh meet Tom Blackledge in a light heavyweight bout.

Perosh received a huge ovation when he was announced as fighting out of Sydney, Australia, the site of UFC 127.

The fighters were tentative to start the fight, with Blackledge looking to land some kicks early in the round.  Perosh then took the action to Blackledge, attempting a takedown one minute into the round. Perosh was stuffed in his attempt and the fighters were back to the feet, but not for long.

Perosh scored a takedown a minute later and then transitioned that to full mount. Blackledge then rolled, trying to buck Perosh off, but all he managed to do was give Perosh his back. The roll opened Blackledge up for a rear naked choke.

Perosh tightened the choke and Blackledge tapped out at the 2:45 mark of round one.

An emotional Perosh was awarded with another huge cheer from the hometown crowd when he stood after the tap out.

Perosh moves his record to 11-6 while Blackledge falls to 10-7.

Tie Quan Zhang and Jason Reinhard met in the first of two UFC 127 fights that the UFC streamed on facebook.

Reinhard walked to the cage, with a look that had Joe Rogan exclaiming, "I would like to give that guy a piss test right now, he looks psycho.”

Rogan is not resorting to hyperbole as Reinhardt was wearing a scowl that looked somewhat disturbing as he looked at the camera and said "watch this."

When the fight began Reinhardt charged Zhang, looking to land, but he was immediately countered and sent backing up into the cage.

When Reinhardt's back hit the cage he shot a double leg takedown, briefly leaving his neck exposed. That short time allowed Zhang an opening to hit a guillotine choke, forcing Reinhardt to tap at the 48 second mark of round one.

The submission came right before Reinhardt went to sleep from the choke.

The win moves Zhang to 13-1 while Reinhardt falls to 20-2.

Mark Hunt and Chris Tuchscherer faced off in the second of two unaired preliminary fights at UFC 127.

These two heavyweights have been around the fight game for quite a while, the 36 year old Hunt, a former K-1 World Grand Prix Kickboxing Champion, entered the fight with a mixed martial arts record of 5-7. The 35 year old Tuchscherer, a training partner of Brock Lesnar's at DeathClutch, came in with an overall MMA record of 21-3-1.

Tuchscherer was unable to use his superior wrestling in this bout, as he was punched at will by Hunt, who opened up a cut over Tuchscherer's right eye. The cut was bad enough to warrant an inspection by the doctor, but the fight was allowed to continue.

The second round only lasts 1:41 as Hunt takes the win via TKO.

Curt Warburton and Maciej Jewtuszko faced off in the first of two unaired preliminary card fights at UFC 127.

Warburton entered the fight with a record of 6-2, while Jewtuszko came in unbeaten at 8-0.

Jewtuszko's lack of a takedown defense really hurt him in this battle. He was taken down in the first round and hit with elbows from Warburton. Jewtuszko was active from the bottom during the round, but when a fighter is taken down and controlled, the top fighter usually gets the round.

The second round saw the fighters working from the clinch against the fence when Jewtuszko was taken to the ground, he attempted a leg lock and was able to regain his feet where the fighters exchanged strikes, but another takedown halted any progress that Jewtuszko was making.

The third round saw Jewtuszko attempt to keep the fight standing, but he failed in his attempt as Warburton worked through the punches and took Jewtuszko down again.

All three judges score it 29-28 for Warburton.

Jewtuszko can view this fight as a teachable moment, he needs more wrestling.

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Jorge Rivera will face Michael Bisping at UFC 127 on Saturday February 26^th at the Acer Arena in Sydney Australia.

The two middleweights will compete in the co-main event on a fight card that will be headlined by a welterweight match between B.J. Penn and Jon Fitch.

The press has had a field day with the grudge match that has developed between Rivera and Bisping.

Rivera started trash talking Bisping as soon as he announced that the two would meet after his UFC 122 fight was cancelled due to his opponent Alessio Sakara falling ill on fight night.

Rivera announced the Bisping fight that night during an interview with Kimura.se, telling them, “I really want this next fight. I not only want the fight, I want to f**k him (Bisping) up.”

Since that time Rivera has released several videos mocking Bisping, trying to get into the head of the fighter who told MMACanada.net, “it would have been nicer to have someone a little more high profile as my next fight.”

Rivera took care of elevating the profile of the fight (as well as Bisping’s blood pressure) with his taunts.

During the pre-fight press conference Bisping took every chance he could get to take verbal shots at his opponent. He then got into Rivera’s face at the staredown after weigh-ins and exchanged a few choice words with Rivera before being separated from his opponent by UFC president Dana White who opined, “I don’t think they like each other.”

The seemingly brash, confident and cocky Rivera has struggled to get to where he will stand on Saturday night, near the top of a UFC fight card.

Rivera grew up tough up in Milford, Massachusetts. The Rivera family was clearly in the minority in Milford.  “Do you know what it’s like to come home and see your neighbors and they give you a look of disgust,” Rivera said during the “Countdown to UFC 127 show. “They call you s**c and n****r, anything you can imagine. Every derogatory thing you can imagine, just to bring you down.”

“My brother and I, we were getting tired of being picked on. We’re like f**k this, we’ve had enough of this s**t. We got together and we just had to beat everybody up,” Rivera recalled.

“I was always in trouble, I was hanging out all the time, I was just doing things I shouldn’t have been doing.” 

Included in those things that he “shouldn’t have been doing,” was car theft. As a young man he ended up in prison and now says, “I was really embarrassed by the whole thing.”

When he was 18, his first child was born, a daughter named Janessa. He admits he was too young and irresponsible to have a child and he eventually grew apart from his first child.

At the age of 25 Rivera started training in MMA, running up a record of 6-1 before joining the UFC in 2003 and winning his first UFC bout by unanimous decision. Today his overall MMA record stands at 19-7.

Rivera has often thought about quitting MMA, telling UFC.com, “I remember going into the Osterneck fight thinking if I lose, this is it.” 

The fight against Nissen Osterneck on April 1, 2009 was especially difficult for Rivera as it was his first fight after his 17 year-old daughter had died.

“I got a phone call on the 4^th (August 2008), and it was from her mother and she said she was very sick and I could tell by the tone of her voice that it was serious. I went to go see her and I never got to talk to her. It’s horrible, I do not wish that upon anybody.”

Janessa died due to complications from her birth control medication. According to “The Boston Herald,” the medication she was “on increased the risk of deep vein thrombosis, a condition in which blood clots form in a vein. The clots can break off and get lodged in the lungs causing a pulmonary embolus, which decreases the ability of the body to get oxygen into the blood stream.”

Rivera admits that he was gassed during the fight against Osterneck, getting the split decision win on heart alone.

After that he defeated Rob Kimmons by third round TKO and then dropping Nate Quarry by a second round TKO.

Rivera says he is a changed man, “I no longer have the fears I used to have before. I want to knock the guy out and if I don’t knock him out I want to submit him. I want the spirit that’s within me to shine.”

 UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch Results, News and More

B.J. Penn and Jon Fitch will meet in the main event at UFC 127, which takes place on Saturday, Feb. 26 at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.

This welterweight bout will headline the pay-per-view card, which begins at 10 p.m. ET.

There is a great deal at stake in this bout, as UFC president Dana White has said that the winner of this fight will be the number one contender for the UFC welterweight title, currently held by Georges St. Pierre.

The build up to this fight has been fairly uneventful, as both fighters have made it clear that they respect the other, but that respect will not stop them from trying to finish the fight come Saturday night.

Penn (16-7-1), a two-time UFC champion is coming off a big win, knocking out Matt Hughes at UFC 123 in a mere 21 seconds.

Penn feels he is at a different point in his career than Fitch and that he holds the advantage in this fight, “Well me and Jon Fitch are in two different places in our lives. All these fighters are really, really, really concerned about one thing, winning, and it’s not that I’m not concerned about that, but I’ve been in their shoes for a long time that’s all I was concerned about too, but more concerned then 
winning I want to show everybody my fighting spirit, what happens when I step into the ring, it’s either going to be the best win, best loss or best draw you every f#^?ing saw,” Penn told mmasports.com.au. “I’ve stepped into that ring. It’s just that everybody’s in different places in their lives, he’s looking for title shot, George is looking for a title shot, all these people are looking to come up, some people looking to win to keep their job and this and that, I’m just looking to show my fighting spirit.”

Penn came to this new attitude right before the Hughes fight and it served him well in that bout.

To prepare for the grinding/wrestling style of Fitch, Penn brought Hughes into his training camp in Hawaii. "Me and Matt had great workouts, him trying to push me on the fence, him trying to take me down. I definitely think that was the best training partner I could've had for the fight," Penn told MMAWeekly.

"I know he isn't exactly like Fitch as far as height and boxing and kickboxing goes, but on the one area where Fitch definitely pushes all his opponents, his grinding them out and pushing them on the fence and taking them down, Matt really pushed me in those areas," Penn continued. "So I gained a lot of confidence working out with Matt."

Fitch (23-3-1) has only one loss in his 14 UFC bouts, a 2008 unanimous decision loss to welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.

Fitch told UFC.com, “After the loss to St-Pierre in the title fight, I had to take a couple steps back and restructure what I was doing and who I am as a fighter. And that comes with growing pains because getting it done in training isn’t the same as getting it done in the fight. We’ve progressively seen moments of greatness in my past fights in the last two years, but they haven’t been right where they need to be yet. I think all the work and everything I’ve been working for is gonna come together in this fight with BJ Penn.”

Fitch has often been criticized for his grinding style, and he is aware that some see him as a “boring fighter.” Fitch will look to change those opinions when he steps into the Octagon on Saturday night.

Fitch offered the following on what the fans can expect to see at UFC 127, “It’s more of what I’ve been doing, more refined, more pressure,” he said. “It’s tying everything together, having it flow more smoothly, and it will be more appealing to fans without me having to step out and be somebody other than myself.”

Fitch sees this fight as a chance to put his name alongside the all time greats, “You’ve got to beat a legend to become a legend and I think it’s one of those wins that’s gonna elevate my career and my status in this sport as one of those names that’s not to be forgotten.”

 UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch Results, News and More