UFC 127 Results: B.J. Gasses Out, While Fitch Can't Get a Break

No one outside of BJ Penn’s camp could have predicted he would go for a take down against Jon Fitch. But it was a good strategy.

Fitch, who’s usually the one taking down guys, did not see it coming. He admittedly said it was the one thing he did not prepare for.

Despite having a good game plan, Penn was not able to secure submissions, and gassed out by the end of the second round.

That's not to take anything away from Fitch, who had more takedowns and heavily outstruck BJ, especially after working him on the ground.

Fitch also showed good submission and ground defense, when he constantly controlled BJ from submitting him and gained top position after Penn had his back.  

Love him or hate him for his style, Fitch grinded out BJ in the third. With almost 150 strikes in the round, Fitch thought he did enough to win the fight. One of the judges agreed, while the other two saw the fight as a draw.

The first two rounds were close, but Fitch easily took the third round. Despite this, the fighting gods were with Penn as the fight went to a draw.

The fight was pretty entertaining when you consider how close it was at the beginning.

A majority of people thought Fitch was going to stay on top of BJ the whole fight, so it was a huge surprise to see Penn on Fitch’s back going for chokes.

The UFC now has the task of figuring out where to go from here.

They could go with the rematch and again have the winner become the No. 1 contender. But this could become a problem if GSP beats Jake Shields and moves up to middleweight.

Both guys are willing to go at it again. If it does happen again, Penn will have to work on cardio and becoming stronger, while Fitch will have to be prepared for anything, and work on finishing instead of smothering opponents.