May Articles

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Recap of UFC 129

May 2nd, 2011

 

St. Pierrevs. Shields

Heavy underdog Jake Shields went the distance with Champion and Canadian crowd favorite Georges St. Pierre in the premier fight of UFC129.  Georges St. Pierre secured a win by unanimous decision by employing a methodical performance that is sure to give more ammunition to his growing number of critics.  The French-Canadian GSP extended his winning streak to a career best 9 matches in front of over 55,000 Toronto UFC fans.

 

Post-fight comments from GSP suggest that perhaps he underestimated his opponent Jake Shields, and was also expecting to end the fight earlier.  “His striking was much better than I thought. He closed my eyes. Standing up, I was expecting to beat him more with ease and then put him down later in the round, but I couldn't deliver much like this. I'm sorry to the fans. I wanted to make a knockout or submission tonight." The reigning champ was hoping for a more entertaining method of victory in front of his countrymen, but the challenger gave GSP all he could handle.  Shields fought hard, inflicting damage to St. Pierre but in the end it wasn’t enough.  The loss puts an end to a 6 year and 15 match unbeaten streak for Shields.

During the press conference, media members were peppering St. Pierre with questions about a potential dream fight with middleweight champ Anderson Silva.  St. Pierre dodged questions regarding his immediate future about as well as he dodged strikes from Shields. GSP was reluctant to answer questions directly and spoke only of the difficulty in moving up in weight classes.

 

Hominick vs. Aldo

Shockingly the other fight featuring a Canadian also went the distance.  Ontario native and heavy underdog Mark Hominick fought champion Jose Aldo for the full 25 minutes, but still lost by unanimous decision.  Aldo gave Hominick his first ever defeat in UFC and retained his championship belt.

Aldo controlled the fight, but the Hominick refused to let the fight end via knockout or submission.  Hominick even stormed back in the final round.  Hominick took the fatigued champion to the ground, but was unable to overcome the vast edge Aldo had already earned earlier in the fight.  Hominick impressed even his counterpart in the UFC 129 title bout.  “He’s a hell of a fighter.  I knew he had good stand up skills, but I came with my Muay Thai and was very prepared.” Said Aldo.

In addition to leaving with the respect of many, Hominick also took home a tennis-ball-sized hematoma on his forehead.  The injury tells the story of the fight in many ways.  UFC 129 featherweight championship bout was an obvious win for Aldo, but a resilient and memorable performance by Hominick.

Couture vs. Machida
In a highly anticipated undercard bout, Lyoto Machida ended Randy Couture’s career more quickly than most would have liked to see.  Machida used a spectacular jumping front kick to knock out the 47 year-old MMA legend Courture.  The knockout occurred 65 seconds into the second round of the third fight from the top of UFC 129.

The knockout in the second round will be remembered for ending the career of a legend.  Machida was aware of his role in this moment and showed appropriate respect for the retiring Couture. “It was a dream for me to fight this guy.  He is a hero.  This is the man.” In addition to ending Couture’s career, Machida also ended a two match losing streak.  The win should put him back on track for title fight in the near future. The jumping front kick that won the fight is a move that Machida said he has been refining for some time.  Machida credited the move to both his father and movie star Steven Seagal.

Couture reaffirmed what had been said leading up to the fight. “You’re not going to see me again. This is it.” Said Couture in a post-fight interview.  Couture is a 5-time MMA champion, and arguably one of the sport’s all-time greats. 

UFC 129 overall was a tremendous night for the sport and CutThroat MMA is already looking forward to UFC 130.  In the meantime, there will be two great events to check out locally.  On May 14th, The Atlantis in Chicago Heights will be hosting “Babes and Brawls”.  The event will feature fighters using Muay Thai.  Then on May 21st, Supremacy III will be held at the Hammond Civic Center.  CutThroat MMA looks forward to seeing all of our MMA fans from Naperville, Aurora, Schaumberg, Merriville and all surrounding Chicagoland locations.