The card might not have looked incredibly strong on paper, but UFC 127 delivered another exciting night of fights. This is Cageside Seats' post-fight throwdown, where we run through the event, analyzing and discussing the storylines coming out of tonight's fights.
- Fans world wide asked judges to become more liberal with their usage of 10-8 and 10-10 rounds, and we're getting it. It's insane that two months back to back, we've had two UFC pay-per-view main events be ruled as draws. Solution? Five round non-title main events. It might not always help (Edgar/Maynard was a five round title fight) but I can't help but feel that in tonight's main event, two more rounds would have sealed the deal for either fighter.
- B.J. Penn impressed in the first two rounds of the main event. Coming out and looking to take down Jon Fitch is a slick strategical decision. With Penn working on his boxing with Floyd Mayweather Sr. some believed that Penn's focus would be on striking, and apparently, Fitch was part of that group. Penn working to take Fitch's back was wise, and was a great strategy. I wasn't going to be surprised if he locked in a rear naked choke.
- Fitch is exciting when he fights someone who can make the fight competitive. Penn pushed Fitch harder than he'd been pushed in quite a while, and it resulted in an exciting fight, at least, in comparison to past Fitch performances.
- If sad puppy BJ Penn didn't make your heart hurt in the post fight interview, you're tougher than I.
After the jump, Bisping's post-fight antics after finishing Rivera, and much more!
- Michael Bisping was mega emotional after FINISHING (FINISHING!?!?!?) Jorge Rivera in the second round of the co-main event. He got in Rivera's face, asked for an apology, said "Talk about my family? Go home loser.", then spat at Rivera's corner. Mixed emotions on this.
- Bisping should have been the bigger man, and just let it go. Now, I'm not going to act like 9/10 of the snoody folks who shat on Bisping for all this and say he's classless. No. I'd do the same damn thing. Why?
- I'll tell you why. Because Rivera took nothing less than a huge, steaming shit all over Bisping in the lead up to this fight. It was unprovoked, and obviously, legit. How come there are all these people come out harping on about Bisping being classless, but there were only a handful of people questioning Rivera's pre-fight chatter? Let's not pick and choose here, this was a jerk, beating a jerk, and rubbing it in that jerk's face. Badda bing, badda boom.
- That said, the fight was really effected by the illegal knee Bisping landed in the first round. Rivera was seriously hurt, and I wouldn't have complained had Rivera refused to continue, or the doctors wouldn't allow him to.
- Last on Bisping/River, Bisping still has a knack for eating right hands...that's no bueno. Not for him at least.
- George Sotiropoulos really dropped the ball tonight. Myself and many many others felt he was taking a step down by fighting Dennis Siver. Well, turns out that we were wrong, Siver won a very solid decision.
- Sotiropoulos needs to work on his wrestling. If he was even a little bit more skilled at take downs, he may have got the fight to the mat, and secured a submission.
- Brian Ebersole is one of the most unorthodox, strange, and just awkward fighters I've watched in a long time. Oh, and he handled Chris Lytle handily. Not too bad for a UFC debut.
- Chris Lytle sounded punch drunk in his pre-fight UFC promo. That's sad on a lot of levels.
- Not a whole lot to say about the preliminary fights, other than, WOOOOOO MARK HUNT! Save for that one glorious moment, there's not much of anything worth mentioning other than the stream was good, Ion was good, and that I like being able to see free fights.