Australia doesn't get a title fight but at least they don't have to suffer a main event of Mickey McPillowfists vs. Jorge Rivera. BJ Penn vs. Jon Fitch is expected to be the main event of UFC 127 in February. http://twitter.com/JeremyHeavyMMA
The card so far: BJ Penn vs. Jon Fitch Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera Carlos Condit vs. Chris Lytle George Sotiroupolous vs. TBA Kyle Noke vs. TBA Mark Hunt vs. TBA
^ Perhaps but it is still the most interesting match-up that Fitch has had since GSP (and possibly the most interesting fight they could put Fitch in right now).
Yeah I'm not sure what they're waiting for. A fight against Cerrone would've been better. For some reason Cerrone is fighting Horodecki in December instead.
I am actually very interested in this fight. I see a lot of people saying that this is going to be a lot like GSP/BJ Penn-2 for which I say, not so fast my friends! BJ Penn has some outstanding take down defense, and I think we could see a classic display of it in this fight. The only people that have taken BJ Penn down rather easily in the UFC is Frankie Edgar and George St. Pierre. One of the things that helped both fighters is how much more explosive they are than BJ Penn, and that they both have fantastic stand up ability. Jon Fitch while having decent stand-up, it's nothing to write home about, and he by far won't be more explosive than BJ Penn. For Jon Fitch to take BJ to the ground, it's going to require him to have to work from the clinch to gain control of his double and get him down to the ground. Against Diego Sanchez we witnessed that it isn't so easy to get Penn to the ground when trying to work from against the cage, and the clinch. BJ is going to get low in his stance to guard against any shot attempts, and I suspect we may see him try to avoid being pressed against the cage. Now this isn't to say that Fitch won't still gain the take down repeatedly, but that it's going to be a lot different in the style and how he works than the GSP/BJ Penn fight. I am 50/50 right now, I can see this fight going either way. No one besides St. Pierre has been able to stop Fitch from dominating them on the ground. That said, BJ Penn has much better take down defense than anyone that Fitch has fought, that is not named George St. Pierre. It makes for a very exciting lead up to the fight, and a fight I am very much interested in seeing the outcome of.
Thank you for the welcome good sir. I like the site so far, I haven't been to many that has an entire MMA section.
