St. Pierre handles Hardy to retain title in UFC 111

NEWARK, N.J. — Georges St. Pierre methodically defeated challenger Dan Hardy by a unanimous five-round decision in the main event of UFC 111 and retained his welterweight championship Saturday.

St. Pierre won his seventh straight title defense and improved to 20-2 in his Ultimate Fighting Championship career.

Hardy (23-7) lost his first title fight.

Earlier, Shane Carwin (12-0) knocked out former champion Frank Mir (13-5) at 3:28 of the first round, unleashing a series of 27 unanswered punches, to win the UFC interim heavyweight title.

St. Pierre, fighting for the first time in eight months after undergoing abdominal surgery, took control of the bout with a double-leg takedown within the first 10 seconds.

Hardy remained on his back for most of the first round and almost was driven to submission with a ferocious arm bar, but he escaped in the closing seconds of the period.

In the second round, St. Pierre used a single-leg to get Hardy to his back again, holding control for most of the round.

Hardy gained a third-round reversal and put St. Pierre to his back, but St. Pierre quickly escaped.

In the fourth round, St. Pierre almost got Hardy to submit with another arm bar, but Hardy got out of the hold, sending the bout to the fifth and final round.

Carwin earned the right to take on heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar this summer. Lesnar is recovering from emergency surgery after a hole was found in his intestines because of a bacterial infection.