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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The co-headlining bouts for UFC 127 are now official, as the UFC announced the bouts of B.J. Penn vs. Jon Fitch and Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera for the February 27 event from the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Penn is coming off a victory over Matt Hughes in their rubber match at UFC 123 last month, a 21 second knockout to bounce back from consecutive losses to Frankie Edgar in 2010. It was his first victory in the welterweight division since 2004, and he's now matched up with the #2 welterweight in the world in Jon Fitch.
Fitch has done nothing but win fights in the UFC. Outside of a brutal five round war with Georges St. Pierre at UFC 87, Fitch has won all of his fights inside the Octagon. He's 13-1 overall in the UFC, and has won five straight fights since the loss to St. Pierre.
Bisping and Rivera both meet on winning streaks heading into their bout. Bisping has won two straight fights after dropping a decision to Wanderlei Silva in February, which also took place in Australia. Meanwhile, Rivera has won three straight fights, most recently finishing Nate Quarry by TKO in March.
UFC 127 will air live on pay-per-view in the U.S. due to the time difference on Saturday, February 26. Tickets for the event go on sale later this week.
Penick's Analysis: This is going to be a very good fight card for the fans in Australia. Between these two bouts and the Carlos Condit-Chris Lytle matchup, there will be plenty for all fans to enjoy from the event. This year's Australia event failed to draw a ton of viewers on pay-per-view, so I will be curious to see what the UFC does differently in terms of promotion in the U.S. to raise awareness on the card. With Penn and Bisping in the top two spots, they've got more recognizable names to the UFC's casual audience than Cain Velasquez and Minotauro Nogueira were this February, so I'd expect it to at the least out-perform that card.
[B.J. Penn art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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