UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Sunday, 27 February 2011 at Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia. Due to the time zone difference it aired live on Saturday, 26 February in North America. This was the second UFC event held in Sydney, following the sold-out UFC 110 in 2010.

Tickets for UFC Fight Club members went on sale on 14 December 2010. UFC 127 sold out moments after going on public sale on 16 December 2010, selling faster than tickets for UFC 110, and making it the fastest-selling event, along with UFC 115, in UFC history.

ESPN UK aired the Ross Pearson vs. Spencer Fisher fight, which was confirmed by Jon Anik on MMA Live.Ion Television aired the Pearson/Fisher, Te-Huna/Gustafsson and Ring/Fukuda preliminary bouts, while the Perosh/Blackledge and Zhang/Rheinhardt preliminary bouts were streamed on the UFC's official Facebook page.

On 9 February, it was announced that a knee injury had forced Carlos Condit out of his bout with Chris Lytle. Condit was replaced by promotional newcomer Brian Ebersole.

Dana White (born July 28, 1969) is the current President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a mixed martial arts organization based in the United States.

Born in Manchester, Connecticut on July 28, 1969, White grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ware, Massachusetts and Levant, Maine. White is a passionate Boston Red Sox fan. During his youth, he bounced back and forth between Boston and Maine. He attended the University of Massachusetts Boston but did not finish; however, while there he did launch a boxing program for inner-city youth.

White has a background as an aerobics instructor. In 1992, White established Dana White Enterprises in Las Vegas. He conducted aerobics classes at three gyms in the Las Vegas area and began managing MMA fighters Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell.

While working as a manager, White learned that Semaphore Entertainment Group, the parent company of the UFC, was looking for a buyer for the UFC. White contacted childhood friend Lorenzo Fertitta, an executive at Station Casinos, and a former commissioner of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Within a month, Lorenzo and his older brother Frank bought the UFC, with White installed as its president. White currently owns about 9% of Zuffa, LLC, the entity the Fertitta brothers created to own and manage the UFC.

Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (born 28 February 1979) is an English mixed martial artist. He fights in the middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is the former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship Light Heavyweight Champion, former Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion and The Ultimate Fighter 3 Light Heavyweight Tournament winner. As of March 2012, Bisping is ranked the No. 4 middleweight in the world by Sherdog.

Bisping was born in manchester UK in 1979, but moved to Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England when he was a child. Taking an early interest in martial arts, Bisping began training in a traditional form of jiu-jitsu known as Yawara Ryu under Paul Lloyd Davies when he was 8 years old. In 1994, at the age of 15, Bisping competed as an amateur in England's first "no holds barred" competition, a precursor to modern MMA, called Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO), organised by Davies.

At the age of 18, Bisping decided to abandon his martial arts training in order "to pursue real life". But less than a year later Bisping began training kickboxing and karate on the advice of Alan Clarking, owner of Black Knights gym, who saw potential in the young fighter. Bisping enjoyed a short, but successful kickboxing career, winning the North West Area title and later the Pro British light heavyweight kickboxing title. After again briefly quitting competition in 1998, Bisping returned to kickboxing to take the Pro British light heavyweight title for a second time. Soon after winning his second kickboxing title, Bisping was forced to abandon his full-time training for a "real job". Bisping worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer, a postman, a tiler, a plasterer, a double-glazing door salesman,production line operative making barbecues at Rectella in Clitheroe and also a relatively successful DJ around the north-west club scene.

Jonathan Parker Fitch (born February 24, 1978) is an American mixed martial artist currently competing as a welterweight in the UFC. As of May 2012, Fitch is ranked as the #5 welterweight fighter in the world by Sherdog.

After graduating from Carroll High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana), Fitch enrolled in at Purdue University in 1997 and graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor's in Physical Education and a minor in History. As a walk-on to the Purdue wrestling team, Fitch – a four-year letterman – wrestled under the tutelage of Tom Erikson and eventually became the team captain of his wrestling squad. Fitch secured a starting spot early on in his career, but struggled to find initial success. Compiling an 8-23 record his sophomore season, Fitch impressively turned that around to compile an 18-12 record in his final year. He finished with a 45-51 record overall for his collegiate wrestling career.

Tom Erikson– a former PRIDE fighter – would occasionally bring other mixed martial artists to the wrestling gym, and Fitch would be introduced to such fighters as Mark Coleman and Gary Goodridge. The sport, and the money that the top-tier fighters were making interested Fitch, and he started his mixed martial arts career in 2002.