Written by Scott Swerbinsky

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UFC 129 has come and gone but boy was it fun. Fifty five thousand mixed martial fans were on hand to witness a very entertaining fight card in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The live crowd and the folks who turned into the telecasts weren’t let down. We got to see some very exciting things from flying triangle chokes to highlight spinning back fist knockouts. Sprinkle in a Daniel LaRusso like crane kick and you have yourself a quality card.

 

Another we thing we haven’t seen in a long time is superstar Georges St. Pierre lose a round. Before his title fight with Jake Shields, GSP had won thirty straight rounds, a simply amazing statistic. That streak ended but GSP still won and will keep his title after defeating Shield via unanimous decision.

 

Ignorant fans are already complaining the fight was boring. It was a technical fight between two of the best mixed martial artists in the world. There was a ton of respect between the two and neither wanted to make a mistake.

GSP jabbed his way to a win and kept Shields from taking him down. There was a point in the second or third round were GSP was bothered by his eye and couldn’t see out of it. To keep fighting at the level he does and not thinking about quitting is far from boring. It clearly wasn’t the most exciting fight of all time but you could feel the tension. Jake Shields just couldn’t solve the defense of GSP and also couldn’t do enough damage to get the win in what was a really good fight.

The fight of the night went to featherweight champion Jose Aldo and Mark Hominick. Fans got to see Aldo in trouble for the first time in his UFC/WEC career and he was able to hold and keep his belt with a unanimous decision victory.

If you want to talk about guts, look at Mark Hominick. He has a hematoma the size of a softball on his head in the third round and continued thru all five rounds with no problem. The lump was gross to say the least and actually surprising that it didn’t lead to a stoppage.

The first two rounds were all Aldo as he dominated the standup game and scored a few solid takedowns. He beat Hominick up but couldn’t finish him. The third round went to Aldo also but the tide was clearly turning and Aldo was wearing down.

I had Hominick winning the fourth and fifth rounds rather easily and it was just a little too late. It was a great action packed fight and it proved that Jose Aldo really is human and can be hurt and also run out of gas.

Lyoto Machida went karate kid on Randy Couture’s ass. He landed a beautiful crane kick a la Mr. Miyagi that sent Couture into retirement once and for all. The end came in the second round and will be seen for years to come.

The most dominating and shocking performance came from Rory MacDonald. The 21 year old future star made a very tough Nate Diaz look like an amateur. He beat him up and slammed him around for three full rounds. It was one of the most one sided fights in a long time. Look for big things from MacDonald.

Full results:

Champ Georges St-Pierre def. jake Shields via unanimous decision (50-45, 48-47, 48-47) - defends welterweight title

Champ Jose Aldo def. Mark Hominick via unanimous decision (48-45, 48-46, 49-46) - defends featherweight title

Lyoto Machida def. Randy Couture via knockout (kick) - Round 2, 1:09

Vladimir Matyushenko def. Jason Brilz via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 0:20

Ben Henderson def. Mark Bocek via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Rory MacDonald def. Nate Diaz via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-26)

Jake Ellenberger def. Sean Pierson via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 2:22

Claude Patrick def. Daniel Roberts via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Ivan Menjivar def. Charlie Valencia via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 1:30

Jason MacDonald def. Ryan Jensen via submission (triangle choke) - Round 1, 1:37

John Makdessi def. Kyle Watson via knockout (spinning back fist) - Round 3, 1:27

Pablo Garza def. Yves Jabouin via submission (triangle choke) - Round 1, 4:31

UFC 129 was a great event for the sport. The atmosphere was electric and fights lived up the buzz. It’s funny when one or two fights out of twelve aren’t highlight reel worthy that you get a bunch of key board warriors complaining. It keeps people talking about this great sport and will hopefully get even more fans on board or tuning in.

UFC 130 takes place on May 28^th. Gray Maynard, a close friend of this fine website will finally become UFC champion. Mark my words.