A great day ended with a decision that left many scratching their heads and will surely play on the mind of Jon Fitch, as he’s obviously been working hard at getting a rematch with titleholder GSP.
The greatest asset they brought this time was a crew of our very own fighters. The card was stacked with Southern stars and a hell of a job they did too. While there were shock losses from our big star George Sotiropoulos and up-and-comer Jamie Te Huna, veteran Anthony Perosh took his first win in the Octagon in great fashion and Mark Hunt showed a return to the winning form that he has no doubt been missing for some time, with a knockout that was classic Hunt.
Australian-based American Brian Ebersole had the fight of his life by putting on a hostile display for the Sydney fans when he schooled heavy-hitter Chris Lytle, which no doubt landed him the kind of contract he’s been dreaming about for years.
Integrated MMA star Kyle Noke finished his bout in just a minute-and-a-half to shoot himself well into the middleweight mix, where he is obviously destined for greater things. While Sots has been batting his way through the lightweights for some time, now a rapid rise could be on the cards for Noke, as the middleweight division has nowhere near the kind of congestion that the lightweight ladder has. Add on to that a suggestion from the UFC that they are looking to do a future Brit-versus-Aussie series of The Ultimate Fighter, and suddenly Michael Bisping and Noke stand out as the perfect choices for TUF coaches.
Meanwhile, the Australian media is eating up MMA news by the bucketful, and this time around not all of it has been negative and journalists seem to be doing their job for once.
Mind you, there is still the few that remain clueless, most notably George Negus, who used his ’40 years of hard journalistic experience’ (as his TV show and website brag about) to read from the teleprompter that there are only two rules in the UFC. But there is no denying that everyone seems to be slowly coming around.
At the post press conference, the UFC added some excitement to the table when they announced that if indeed Victoria did drop the cage ban, they wouldn’t necessarily book for Rod Laver Arena, as most had assumed, but will actually be vying for a shot at a mega show at Etihad Arena in front of 50,000 fans — which they believe shouldn’t be a problem.
Exciting times are ahead for Aussie MMA fans.
