Originally Posted by
Marty McLaren
I probably won't get much support on this one but let me explain - George Sotiropolous vs Joe Stephenson @ UFC 110.
This was the first event held in Australia. Tickets sold out in about 15 minutes and the stadium was packed (about 15,500 people) from the first fight (which started at 10am on a Sunday morning). Sots had a few wins on the trot after finishing TUF but all of these had been on undercards against relatively lesser name fighters. He was easily the most well known Aussie fighter but most people (myself included) thought that Stephenson would be too big a jump up in quality and experience. I was praying he would put on a good showing and maybe get an honourable decision loss but what happened was amazing. Right from the start of the fight he dominated. He got the better of the striking exchanges and was able to get several take downs. The fight itself was fairly good but what makes this fight for me was the atmosphere. Every time George landed a punch, got a takedown, passed guard the crowd went ballistic. The noise inside the arena was deafening. The whole floor was shaking, the crowd was singing and chanting and it felt like the roof was going to come off. When the decision was announced you couldn't hear a thing inside the arena. The post fight interview with Joe Rogan could not be heard as the crowd cheering drowned everything out.
