UFC 129 a hit at the Rogers Centre: GSP defends title
Posted April 30, 2011 7:56 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – It’s been a long time coming, but the Ultimate Fighting Championship finally made its Ontario debut, leaving a trail of shattered records, and possibly bones, in its wake.
On April 30 UFC made its Ontario debut in front of a record-setting crowd of 55,000 fans at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
Welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre defended his title with a unanimous decision over contender Jake Shields, who struggled to bring St-Pierre to the mat. The Canadian legend dominated Shields from the opening bell, scoring many powerful blows while standing.
In the co-main event Canadian fighter Mark Hominick was battered by featherweight champion Jose Aldo. Hominick showed a lot of heart in the fight, but was unable to overcome the strikes of Aldo, which left him bruised and bloodied.
In a highly anticipated bout, Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida knocked out UFC legend Randy Couture in the second round.
Meanwhile, in other fights middleweight Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald defeated Ryan Jensen while lightweight John “The Bull” Makdessi knocked out Kyle Watson with a spinning back punch to win in round-three.
Ben “Smooth” Henderson beat Canadian Mark Bocek, winning all three rounds, while Canadian Rory MacDonald won all three rounds against a cocky Nate Diaz.
Jake “The Juggernaut” Ellenberger put down Ontario native Sean Pierson with a combination left-right, at 2:42 in the first round, as referee Herb Dean stopped the fight, making it four wins in a row for Ellenberger.
The highly anticipated event, dubbed UFC 129, not only more than doubled the previous attendance record of 23,152, set at Montreal’s Bell Centre during UFC 124, but is also expected to set a record for money earned at the gate, with more than $10-million in revenue anticipated.
The previous record was a comparably paltry $5.4-million set in Las Vegas way back in December 2006, at UFC 66, when light-heavyweight superstars Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz squared-off.
UFC President, Dana White spoke with 1310News and said that he always believed bringing UFC to Toronto would be record-breaking.
“I just always did … I figured, if we did the event here it would be huge. I knew how big … I could just feel everywhere I went in Canada, more than anywhere else in the world.”
The flood of fans is a testament to what UFC President Dana White calls a passion Canadians have for ultimate fighting.
“Canadians have repeatedly shown how much they love the UFC,” said White in a pre-match release. “Fans in Ontario have patiently waited and it will pay off as this one will go down in the history books come April 30. I’m very excited – Toronto is going to break the record and host the biggest mixed martial arts event ever in North America.”
White also believes that UFC 129 will change how the rest of the world views mixed martial arts.
“This event will start a shock wave. Wait until we leave Toronto, watch and see what happens over the next couple of years. [If] you think things are big in Canada now, wait till leave here on Sunday. It’s going to make it even bigger,” said White.
UFC 129 is the first ultimate fighting event to be hosted in Ontario, as the provincial government only legalized mixed martial arts in the province in August, 2010. It is the sixth event hosted in Canada, with Montreal previously hosting four UFC events and Vancouver hosting one.
