This is a guest post from Donna of Gal's Guide to MMA.
It's the day after what was arguably one of the most exciting fight cards in UFC history, and it's taken me about this long to digest what I watched last night. I can't remember the last time there were so many contenders for KO of the night, though seeing as how this is BE, I'm guessing a few of you will be able to fill me in. John Makdessi took outKyle Watson with the spinning back fist, Ivan Menjivar not only KO'd Charlie Valencia but broke his nose in the process, Jake Ellenberger KO'd Sean Pierson in round 1 and Vladimir Matyushenko wiped up the floor (sorry) withJason Brilz with a knock out 20 seconds into round 1. Oh, but how dejected they must have all been when Lyoto Machida finished Randy Couture with a crane kick straight out of The Karate Kid. As soon as that fight was stopped, there was no question in my mind who would be walking away with the KO of the night bonus, and somewhere in the world Ralph Macchio got a tear in his eye.
There's always a point when you realize that the fighter everyone seems to think may just be invincible is actually human, and I think that point hit last night for Jose Aldo. Mark Hominick absolutely refused to hand Aldo that fight, despite one of the worst (best?) hematomas that I've ever seen. Excellent work by John McCarthy and the fight doctor for not ending that fight prematurely. A less experienced ref would've called the fight, and there were many points in round 5 that a perfectly placed punch by Hominick could've ended Aldo's reign as champ. Aldo and Hominick absolutely earned fight of the night honors.
Then it was time for the final fight of the night, and it was anything like the rest of the card, we were in for a treat.Georges St. Pierre said it himself; Jake Shields was the toughest opponent that he'd faced in a long time, and while I had GSP winning this fight, the possibility absolutely existed that Shields could have taken the belt from GSP. Shields looked near vomiting while they were announcing the fight, and GSP was focused as always. Into the second round, two things became clear to me: 1) GSP was going to win this fight and 2) this was going to be another underwhelming GSP victory. Now, I'm sure I'll take some crap for saying GSP is boring, and I absolutely recognize that he's one of the top p4p fighters in the world. But he's so incredibly safe when he fights, and after the night of fights we had just witnessed, this was as underwhelming a main event as I've ever seen. Is being a safe fighter bad? Not if it gets you the win. However it's been a very long time since we've seen GSP finish a fight, and by the 4th round even the Canadians were boo-ing. The Canadian audience began to turn on their prodigal son, and one can only hope that GSP and Greg Jackson noticed.
More UFC 129 Results and Analysis from Bloody Elbow.
- Jose Aldo Continues Fight for Mainstream Recognition - David St. Martin
- Georges St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva Loses Steam - Brent Brookhouse
- Great Judging Should Be Applauded Sometimes - Tim Burke
- UFC Hits Home Run With UFC 129 Live Experience - Matt Bishop
- Zuffa and the UFC Finally Hit It Big - Matthew Roth
- Hours After, GSP Still Can't See With His Left Eye - Anton Tabuena
- UFC 129 Play by Play and Live Commentary - Brent Brookhouse
- Is Steven Seagal Secretly a Martial Arts Genius? - Jonathan Snowden
- Georges St. Pierre Holds Back UFC's Canadian Coming Out Party at UFC 129 - Jonathan Snowden
- UFC 129 Post-Fight Press Conference Video
- Georges St. Pierre Slips Past Jake Shields
- Jose Aldo Holds Off Mark Hominick
- Lyoto Machida Clouts Randy Couture
- Vladimir Matyushenko Mops the Floor With Jason Brilz
- Ben Henderson Whips Up On Mark Bocek
- Rory MacDonald Ragdolls Nate Diaz
- Jake Ellenberger Brutalizes Sean Pierson
- Claude Patrick Edges Daniel Roberts
- Pablo Garza Submits Yves Jabouin
- John Makdessi KO's Kyle Watson With Spinning Back Fist
- Jason MacDonald Triangles Ryan Jensen
- Ivan Menjivar Clocks Charlie Valencia