Garza tames the Tiger at UFC 129
Posted April 30, 2011 10:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Pablo (The Scarecow) Garza rallied to stop Montreal’s Yves (Tiger) Jabouin by triangle choke in the first fight at UFC 129 on Saturday.
Garza (12-1) was rewarded with a shower of boos after pulling guard and locking in a flying triangle. Jabouin (14-7) hung on as long as he could but eventually had to tap at four minutes 31 seconds of the first round.
Garza has a couple of UFC firsts.
His victory over Fredson Paixao in December came in the first featherweight bout in UFC history. Now he has the first win in Ontario.
The Rogers Centre was transformed into cage fighting central and it looked pretty good. Size does not seem to matter for the UFC, it seems.
A huge centre-hung video cube hung above the Octagon, with eight more video screens suspended from the ceiling in the 500 level. The stadium Jumbotron screen at the north hotel end was matched by another screen on the south side.
A 1.4-million watt stereo system pumped out music.
The show was a 55,000-seat sellout, a record for a North American mixed martial arts show. Montreal’s Georges St-Pierre faced challenger Jake Shields in the main event with the UFC welterweight title on the line.
The six-foot-one Garza was the first fighter out, followed by the 5-6 Jabouin with former UFC middleweight David (The Crow) Loiseau among his cornermen.
The crowd roared as ring announcer Bruce Buffer strode to the centre of the cage. Then it booed the American Garza and roared its approval for Jabouin.
The two touched gloves and then went at it. Garza got the worst of it early in the first round, with Jabouin scything him down with a leg kick. The lanky American’s mouthpiece flew out later in the round but he shocked Jabouin with the submission.
The show was the sixth for the UFC in Canada, following four in Montreal and one in Vancouver.
