UFC welterweight champion, Georges St. Pierre left a lot to be desired in his welterweight title defence at Sunday’s UFC 129 as he coasted to a unanimous decision victory over Jake Shields in front of 55,000 fans in Toronto.
The tone was set for the entire fight almost immediately as St. Pierre used his vastly superior striking technique and his defensive wrestling to keep Shields on the feet and out of his element.
Early in the first round, Shields caught a GSP body kick but was denied the takedown by some impressive acrobatics from the champion. From then on, Shields’ urgency for the takedown appeared to diminish and St. Pierre began to pick him apart with a jab/overhand right combination.
And so it continued for the rest of the fight. St. Pierre has been criticised in recent times for his lack of killer instinct and those criticisms are only going to increase after this fight.
The champion did suffer an eye injury in the second round that left his vision impaired but he was facing a clearly inferior opponent who he should have been able to put away.
Regardless, St. Pierre records his sixth consecutive title defence and his ninth straight win.
While the night had a disappointing end, the rest of the card was filled with dramatic finishes, the retirement of a legend and one of the nastiest hematomas in fight history.
In the other title fight, Jose Aldo defended his UFC featherweight championship for the first time with a hard fought decision win over Canadian, Mark Hominick.
Aldo used his superior stand-up skills and his rarely seen wrestling game to outwork and punish the challenger.
In the fourth round, Aldo landed an elbow strike inside Hominick’s guard that immediately produced a tennis ball sized hematoma on Hominick’s forehead.
The doctor was called in to inspect the damage and cleared Hominick to continue. Hominick was cleared again by the doctor in between the fourth and fifth rounds and was in hot pursuit for a much needed finish when the round began.
A failed guillotine choke attempt by Aldo ended with the champion on his back. Too tired to escape to his feet, Aldo was helpless against the desperate Hominick who rained blow after blow on the Brazilian.
It was too little too late however, as Aldo received the unanimous verdict from the judges.
Randy Couture did not get the fairytale end to his career that many of his fans wanted as he was knocked out by former champion, Lyoto Machida in the second round.
In a move straight out of The Karate Kid, Machida landed a jumping front kick to the face of Couture that left him prone on the mat 1:05 into the second frame. Couture was unable to make an impression on Machida in the first round as he found the Brazilian constantly out of his grasp.
Couture announced his retirement at the end of the bout, which finishes a hall of fame career that saw him capture the heavyweight belt on three separate occasions, and the light heavyweight belt on two.
The rest of the pay-per-view card exceeded its lofty expectations as Vladimir Matyushenko knocked out Jason Brilz in twenty seconds and the charismatic Benson Henderson outpointed crowd favourite, Mark Bocek. The former WEC lightweight champion punished Bocek on the feet and stayed out of trouble on the ground to notch a well deserved and entertaining unanimous decision.
In preliminary action, 21-year old Canadian, Rory MacDonald threw Ultimate Fighter winner, Nate Diaz, around like a ragdoll to earn a decision victory. MacDonald suplexed Diaz three times in the space of one minute in the third round to put an exclamation mark on the victory.
Welterweight up and comer Jake Ellenberger further reinforced his contender credentials with a first round knockout of home-town favourite Sean Pierson at 2:42 of the first round.
Pablo Garza and John Makdessi made permanent additions to their respective highlight reels as well with the former submitting his opponent with a flying triangle choke in the first round while the latter knocked out The Ultimate Fighter 11 contestant, Kyle Watson with an awe-inducing spinning backfist.
Full Results
Main Card
Georges St. Pierre defs. Jake Shields via unanimous decision (50-45, 48-47, 48-47)
Jose Aldo defs. Mark Hominick via unanimous decision (48-45, 48-46, 49-46)
Lyoto Machida defs. Randy Couture via KO (jumping front kick) at 1:05 of round 2.
Vladimir Matyushenko defs. Jason Brilz via KO (punches) at :20 of round 1.
Benson Henderson defs. Mark Bocek via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Preliminary Card
Rory MacDonald defs. Nate Diaz via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-26)
Jake Ellenberger defs. Sean Pierson via KO (punch) at 2:42 of round 1.
Claude Patrick defs. Daniel Roberts via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Ivan Menjivar defs. Charlie Valencia via TKO (elbow and punches) at 1:30 of round 1.
Jason MacDonald defs. Ryan Jensen via submission (triangle choke) at 1:37 of round 1.
John Makdessi defs. Kyle Watson via KO (spinning backfist) at 1:27 of round 3.
Pablo Garza defs. Yves Jabouin via submission (flying triangle choke) at 4:31 of round 1.
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