San Francisco’s Jake Shields (26-5-1) attempted the impossible tonight in trying to take the UFC welterweight title from Georges St. Pierre (23-2-0) on his home turf in Toronto, Canada, before 55,000 partisan fans at the Rogers Centre. In was the mixed martial arts version of a super fight that turned out to be a tactical, cautiously fought boxing match over the course of five championship rounds in which Shields came up short and lost via a unanimous decision by the scores of 50-45 and 48-47 (twice).
Fighting under the tutelage of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Cesar Gracie, conventional wisdom coming into the fight was Jake Shields would have to find a way to get Georges St. Pierre to the ground and work his submission techniques, but the champion utilized excellent footwork and fought cautiously in the standup position throughout in order to neutralize the Californian’s strength.
Although Shields was definitely outclassed by St. Pierre on their feet, the Canadian was very tentative about over committing himself, and as a result, the former STRIKEFORCE champion did have his moments in the second half of the fight.
The first round was a feeling out process, with both men primarily working their jabs throughout the five minute frame. It was a pretty close affair until the final minute of action when St. Pierre landed a couple good strikes and dropped Shields with a left hand to likely steal the round.
The champion again kept the fight in the standup position throughout the second round and began to loosen up a bit offensively, landing a few sweeping right hands to the side of Shields’ head and a couple spinning back kicks to his body. Shields looked a bit confused due to his inability to take the fight to the ground, but he continued to reasonably hold his own and stay in the fight by working the jab.
The third round was fairly close as Jake Shields decided to get more aggressive and let his hands go more. It seemed to be a strategy geared towards getting St. Pierre to commit himself more in the standup game and make a mistake that would allow the fight to go to the mat. The two men did hit the mat once, but the takedown was actually initiated by Georges St. Pierre in the final minute of the frame.
By the start of the fourth round, St. Pierre was bloodied by a cut across the bridge of his nose, and more importantly, an injury to his left eye seemed to really be bothering him. Jake Shields tried to press the advantage but once again was unable to get his man to the ground. The only definitive blow landed in the round was a round house kick to the side of Shields’ face that momentarily dropped the challenger.
The fifth and final round was nothing more than tentative boxing from both men. Neither of them really opened up offensively, and Shields never showed any desperation despite the good possibility of being down on the official scorecards.
Although the UFC 129 main event turned out to be a bit of a dud in terms of action, the undercard was entertaining, with the biggest highlight coming from former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida at the expense of all-time MMA great Randy Couture.
After dominating the first round with much faster hands and movement, Machida drilled Couture to the chin early in the second round with a front kick reminiscent of The Karate Kid. The kick knocked Couture out and it looked as though he may have also lost a tooth as a result of the strike.
In the co-main event, UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo defended his title against Canadian Mark Hominick via an entertaining unanimous decision. After pretty much dominating the first four rounds, leaving Hominick bloodied about the face and with a hematoma on his forehead the size of an apple, Aldo ran out of gas in the fifth.
Mark Hominick took advantage of the fatigued champion during the final three minutes, reigning punch after punch down on Jose Aldo, who was on his back trying to survive the barrage. Despite the dramatic conclusion, the decision was never in doubt as the Brazilian retained his featherweight crown.
In other action on the pay-per-view card, it was light heavyweight Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko knocking out Jason Brilz with a series of hard punches at only 20 seconds into the fight, and in the opening bout, it was Ben Henderson winning a unanimous decision over Mark Bocek in an entertaining, action-packed scrap.
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