St. Pierre, Aldo keep UFC titles; Couture KO’d
On a night when the Ultimate Fighting Championship took a giant leap forward, both title belts on the line stayed put.
Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and featherweight champ Jose Aldo retained their belts with unanimous decision victories at UFC 129 on Saturday night in front of more than 55,000 fans at Rogers Centre in Toronto in the organization’s first stadium event.
Also, Las Vegan Randy Couture’s career likely came to an end in spectacular fashion when the 47-year-old was knocked out by a jumping front kick from Lyoto Machida.
St. Pierre and Aldo’s victories were far more basic.
St. Pierre used his left jab and an occasional overhand right to keep Jake Shields at a comfortable distance. The former Strikeforce champion had won 15 straight fights, but was never able to get into his comfort zone on the mat. Shields didn’t even attempt many takedowns and the ones he did try were easily stuffed.
He cut open St. Pierre’s face with a solid right hand late in the fight and damaged his eye earlier with a glancing right, but never really threatened the champion.
Shields won two rounds on two scorecards, doing most of his damage after St. Pierre’s vision was obscured.
“His striking was much better than I thought,” said St. Pierre, who expressed disappointment with his underwhelming performance. “I wanted a knockout or a submission. Jake is an amazing fighter. Much better than I thought.”
After his sixth straight title defense and ninth consecutive win, St. Pierre again expressed hesitation at moving up to fight middleweight champion Anderson Silva, saying it’s a decision he would have to do a lot of thinking about.
Aldo’s victory over Mark Hominick provided a few more fireworks. Aldo, who showcased a flashy standup game throughout his reign in World Extreme Cagefighting, actually scored several takedowns in the first two rounds to take control and keep Hominick off balance.
Hominick had Aldo on his back and landed big shots throughout the final round, but it was too late.
In Couture’s likely retirement match, he was too slow for Machida throughout the first round and never could close the distance enough to get a takedown.
Machida landed the knockout blow just over a minute into the second round. He leaped in the air and faked a left kick before exploding with his right leg and landing a kick to Couture’s jaw right down the middle.
Machida was emotional in talking about the opportunity to fight an MMA legend in what he says is his final bout.
“He is the hero,” Machida said as he raised Couture’s hand.
Many have been skeptical since Couture announced this would be his last fight, but the brutal knockout could help solidify the decision.
“You’re not going to see me again. This is it. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” said Couture, who lost a tooth as a result of the kick. “I think I had all my teeth the last time we had this discussion.”
At light heavyweight, Vladimir Matyushenko needed only 20 seconds to knock out Jason Brilz. Former World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight champion Ben Henderson earned a victory over Mark Bocek in his UFC debut by unanimous decision.
