Send to Kindle
In front of an Ultimate Fighting Championship record crowd of 55,000 in Toronto’s Roger Centre, Canada’s own Georges St-Pierre for the second straight fight left jabbed his way to successfully defend his welterweight championship at UFC 129.
GSP was able to score a few takedowns, but pretty much the whole fight was kept standing. GSP was a lot more cautious against Jake Shields than his fight at UFC: 124. GSP did score the more impressive strikes, however out of respect for Shields’ ability to defend on the ground GSP did not go for the finish.
Shockingly in the fourth round Shields left GSP a bloody mess. Shields nailed a mean right that had GSP telling his corner, “I can’t seez out of my left.” With only a round left, GSP swag wildly with his right and missed quite a lot. While GSP did not win every round, he did more than Shields to get his hand raised. Surprisingly, fans booed near the end of the fight.
In one of the special features on the DVD, Super 7: Q & A with all UFC Champions, Joe Rogan questions Anderson Silva about the talk of a potential super-fight against GSP. Silva admits that GSP along with B.J. Penn are the best in the world and fights against them are Dana White’s decision, “not mine.”
The behind-the-scenes extras show how UFC had to put together their biggest setup ever. Getting the venue ready in five days was quite tricky with about 1000 people working on the setup. GSP is shown arriving to the venue earlier in the day talking about how nervous he was but very honoured to be the main event of the biggest UFC show ever. There is no post-fight interviews with Shields or GSP, but there is footage of GSP’s trainer Firas Zahabi telling Shields he was the best challenge GSP ever had.
In what was deemed the Fight Of The Night, Mark Hominick was left bloody and a disgusting hematoma on his forehead after coming up short in his battle with UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. Hominick did give Aldo his greatest challenge to date, but in the end Aldo proved that he is not only deadly on the ground and with his kicks, but his fists are also equally strong.
In his last fight in mixed martial arts, UFC legend Randy Couture went down to a devastating jump head kick by Lyoto Machida early in the second round. Couture looked frustrated early in round one trying to figure out how to takedown Machida. A slight opening was all Machida needed to deliver the same kind of knockout Silva delivered at UFC: 126.
Despite what many fans have said about the main event outcome, UFC 129 features some fantastic back-and-forth grappling battles, bloody wars and impressive submissions. UFC gives fans so much more with the addition of French commentating of the entire event with Patrick Cote and Jean-Paul Chartrand, all the prelim fights, and a special look into Couture’s training for his final fight.
If you’re an MMA fan this DVD should be in your collection.
UFC 129: St-Pierre VS. Shields
Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada
Runtime of 300 minutes
Released on Jul. 5, 2011
UFC 129 fight card–
Prelims-
Yves Jabouin vs. Pablo Garza
John Makdessi vs. Kyle Watson
Jason MacDonald vs. Ryan Jensen
Ivan Menjivar vs. Charlie Valencia
Claude Patrick vs. Daniel Roberts
Sean Pierson vs. Jake Ellenberger
Nate Diaz vs. Rory MacDonald
Main show–
