George St-Pierre kept hold of his welterweight belt with a unanimous points decision over Jake Shields at UFC 129.
Welterweight champion sees off Shields
George St-Pierre kept hold of his UFC welterweight belt with a unanimous points decision over Jake Shields in Toronto on Saturday.
St-Pierre did not have it all his own way, finishing with plenty of damage around his left eye, a result of Shields landing regularly with the jab and right cross.
Both fighters remained standing throughout the 25 minutes and St-Pierre used his trademark jab to dominate for long stretches.
Shields, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, was wobbled in the fourth by a head kick but recovered to go the distance.
St-Pierre took the decision by margins of 50-45, 48-47 and 48-47 to extend his career-best winning streak to nine, while it was a first defeat in six years and 15 fights for Shields.
Gruelling
In the co-main event, featherweight champion
Jose Aldo retained his title after a gruelling battle with
Mark Hominick, who finished with a badly swollen forehead.
The Brazilian claimed a unanimous decision despite barely being able to stand after 25 minutes of hand-to-hand combat and has now won 12 in a row.
UFC 129 was watched by 55,000 at the Rogers Centre, a record crowd for Mixed Martial Arts in North America.
On the undercard, MMA legend
Randy Couture was knocked out
Lyoto Machida in his final fight.
The 47-year-old, regarded as one of the most important figures in the sport's rise from obscurity, was floored by a devastating fly kick from his Brazilian opponent in the second round.
"The fans have always treated me great but to go out on that ovation was very special," said Couture, who announced prior to the event that his 30th career fight would be his last.
He added: "In the beginning we all thought it (MMA) was something very special. It took a while to get everyone else on board and kind of educate them.
"For a long time we were kind of the stepchild and people would go, 'Oh my God you are one of those cage fighters' and they would take a big step back like you were dangerous or a criminal.
"That landscape has changed."
Vladimir Matyushenko needed only 20 seconds to win his light-heavyweight contest with
Jason Brilz, while lightweight
Benson Henderson earned a unanimous decision over
Mark Bocek on his UFC debut.
