Georges St-Pierre, Jake Shields

Georges St-Pierre, left, lands a punch to Jake Shields' chin during their welterweight title fight at UFC 129 in Toronto on Saturday. (Nathan Denette / Associated Press / April 30, 2011)


By Denis Gorman


April 30, 2011, 10:55 p.m.

Georges St-Pierre promised that he and Jake Shields would put on the greatest fight in UFC history to cap off the biggest event in UFC history.


What the 55,000 who packed Toronto's Rogers Centre for Saturday night's UFC 129 witnessed was a demonstration of why St-Pierre might be the greatest mixed-martial-arts fighter in the world.


St-Pierre retained his welterweight championship by unanimous decision over Shields, a victory that improved St-Pierre's record to 22-2.


Shields (26-4-1) lost for the first time in 16 fights.


St-Pierre and Shields spent the majority of the fight throwing jabs, each seemingly cautious of the other's wrestling ability.


Afterward, St-Pierre said that he thought the inside of his right eye was scratched, and he was evasive when asked about a long-proposed "super fight" with Anderson Silva.


It was also a night for goodbyes as Randy Couture lost the last fight of his legendary career, getting knocked out by a Lyoto Machida front kick 1 minute 5 seconds into the second round.



Machida, who had told reporters in a conference call that he learned he should press the attack following his split-decision loss to Quinton Jackson at UFC 123, circled away from Couture for much of the first round.


Couture attempted to press the issue by shooting the gap but absorbed a punch to the jaw and a flying knee in the round.


Couture looked for an opening when the second round began. But he kept his hands low, which allowed Machida to snap the vicious kick that sent Couture into retirement at age 47.


Couture finishes his career with a 19-11 record.


"It was an honor to fight Randy. He is the man and a legend," Machida said.


Explaining his decision to implement the front kick, Machida said, "My father said in martial arts to be different. He taught me to look for different techniques and angles."


"This is it," Couture said. "I felt like I was standing out there and he caught me with a great kick."


The first UFC stadium event and first major MMA event in the Canadian province of Ontario was a successful venture. UFC set records for tickets sold, 55,000, and gate, $11 million.


The previous marks were 23,000 tickets for UFC 100 and a $5.3-million gate for UFC 66. UFC 100 was headlined by the second Brock Lesnar-Frank Mir fight, while the main event of UFC 66 was Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz.


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