Newark, N.J. -- Georges St-Pierre had the nerve to apologize for another dominating performance.
St-Pierre won every round in beating Dan Hardy on Saturday in the headlining match of UFC 111 at the Prudential Center to retain his welterweight title.
Hardy won 50-43, 50-44 and 50-45 on the judges' cards, but he was unable to finish Hardy despite top-quality arm bar and kimura attempts that left the sellout crowd in near disbelief.
“I just asked him, I thought he was made of rubber," St-Pierre said of Hardy. "It’s a win, but I’m not happy with myself. I made a lot of stupid mistakes. I wanted to fight him where he is weakest, and that is on the ground. But he was better than I thought.
"Dan Hardy did a lot better than I did in my first title shot."
Hardy had his arm repeatedly cranked, but never gave in, powering out of the submission attempts and then getting out of immediate danger. But he could never work his dangerous stand-up offense.
“All I can say is after this, I can see why he’s the champion," Hardy said. "He’s a very strong athlete and very skilled.
"The one thing that I do have above everything else, there’s no quit in me. I don’t give up. I never give up. I don’t know the meaning of tap.”
The”G-S-P! G-S-P!” chants began before the opening bell.
St-Pierre took 25 seconds before taking down Hardy on his first shot attempt. He quickly worked into half guard, with Hardy countering with some rubber guard. St-Pierre moved into side control at the 3:30 mark, then nearly secured a body lock as Hardy gave him his back.
Hardy powered out of it, got to his feet for a moment but could not stop St-Pierre from immediately putting him on his back again. St-Pierre went from half guard into mount. Hardy gave the back again as St-Pierre postured for the rear naked choke. St-Pierre locked in a textbook armbar, but Hardy showed tremendous strength to hold him off and power out of it to the shock of everyone in the building.
“Of course I tried to break (his arm)," St-Pierre said. "I had a discussion in the locker room with John Danaher and I made a technical mistake. It will never happen again.”
St-Pierre stood with Hardy in the middle of the Octagon for the first 78 seconds of Round Two and then took him down, moving again into side control. He delivered a knee to Hardy’s side, recalling the way St-Pierre finished Matt Serra. Hardy scrambled to a knee and St-Pierre took his back, but Hardy swept into St-Pierre’s guard before eventually standing up.
St-Pierre hit Hardy square with a straight right, and Hardy stuck his tongue out in reaction. But St-Pierre did not take the bait and scored another takedown, this time into Hardy’s guard to secure the second round.
It took St-Pierre 14 seconds into Round Three to get his first takedown. St-Pierre mixed it up, posturing from the guard to try and deliver ground and pound. While Hardy was equal to the task of defending, he was not generating any offense and was little threat from the bottom. St-Pierre kept Hardy there and appeared to have hurt Hardy’s left eye midway through the round.
Hardy nearly swept with 90 seconds left, but St-Pierre regained side control. When Hardy nearly got up 25 seconds later, St-Pierre completed a single-leg takedown to nullify the try. Each time Hardy escaped, it was only a matter of moments before he was on his back again.
Round Four started as a repeat, with St-Pierre quickly getting the fight to the ground. He worked right into the mount, but Hardy bucked him off, gave the back and worked to a knee. While Hardy appeared to be St-Pierre’s equal in pure strength, St-Pierre’s wrestling was impossibly good.
Late in the fourth, St-Pierre locked in a strong kimura, to the point where it appeared Hardy’s arm could snap at any moment. With the crowd in a frenzy thinking that was the end, Hardy never tapped and somehow got out of it to survive and make it to the final round.
"I thought I broke his shoulder," St-Pierre admitted.
In Round Five, St-Pierre took down Hardy in 20 seconds, and the once-adoring crowd responded with boos.
“The fans were not happy with tonight’s fight," UFC president Dana White said. "My Twitter was blowing up with stuff about the main event. That was not a secret that Georges St-Pierre was not going to stand up with Dan Hardy. You can’t blame Georges St-Pierre.”
St-Pierre worked the back then delivered knees to the ribs. St-Pierre desperately wanted to finish Hardy, working hard for another kimura, but again was thwarted by Hardy’s strength and ability to just muscle right out of it.
St-Pierre added a slam with 30 seconds left in the fight, then looked up at the clock and tried a knee bar in the final moments of the dominant performance.
“I think Dan Hardy’s got a great future," White said. "He has a big hole in his game, and that’s takedown defense. When Dan Hardy fills that hole in his game, he’s going to be very scary. I do think Dan Hardy can be a world champion, and he proved that tonight. A lot of guys would have tapped to the stuff he got caught in tonight.”
The win did not at all satisfy St-Pierre, who fights for his legacy as well as to keep his belt. On this night, the legacy, in his opinion, was not furthered.
“Tonight I fought to keep my championship but it’s not going to be for my legacy," he said. "I want a guy who knows nothing about mixed martial arts to turn on the TV and say this guy, I don’t know what he was doing , but it was beautiful.”
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