Weekend Review: UFC 129 – St. Pierre vs. Shields (The Main Card)
UFC 129 – St. Pierre vs. Shields
April 30, 2011
Rogers Centre,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
UFC Welterweight Championship
Welterweight (170 lbs)
Welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre (22 – 2 – 0) handed Jake Shields (26 – 5 – 1) his first defeat in 15 fights and 5 1/2 years via unanimous decision. St. Pierre, who has gone to decisions in 5 of his last 6, sustained an eye injury during the 2nd round (according to him in the post fight interview). St. Pierre also stated that he was surprised with the striking acumen that Shields brought to the fight. Shields certainly exceeded expectations in the striking department, bloodying GSP’s face and coming out looking less worse for wear. Shields tried a few times to get the fight to the ground, but GSP stuffed the feeble takedown attempts and kept the 25 minute contest on the feet. GSP used his jabs, as well as frequent spinning back kicks to vex Shields during much of the bout. GSP, who said he could not see out of his left eye following the bout, did not answer questions about who he believes he should fight in the future. The superfight between GSP and [#1MW] [#1DD] Anderson Silva always looms on the horizon. However, since Anderson will be facing [#3MW] Yushin Okami at UFC Rio in August, it looks like that fight would not happen until late 2011 at the earliest. In the meanwhile, the time seems just right to make a fight between GSP and red hot Strikeforce welterweight champ [#3] Nick Diaz. Jake Shields should face the winner of the upcoming [#12] Thiago Alves/[#23] Rick Story bout, or perhaps [#6]Josh Koscheck. Both GSP and Shields hold their rankings at [#1] and [#2], respectively. GSP moves up 1 spot from [#3DD] to [#2DD] in the Division Dominance rankings. Previously ranked at [#9DD], Shields falls off the Division Dominance “Top 10.” GSP, who has not lost in 4 years, extends his winning streak to 9.
UFC Featherweight Championship
Featured Upcoming Bouts (Outside of UFC)
| Friday, October 3rd 2025: PFL Champions Series 2: Nurmagomedov vs. Hughes 2 | |||
 [#4 LHW] Corey Anderson |  [#10 LHW] Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov | ||
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| Last Fight Date: 7/19/2025 [PFL] Last Opponent: [#13 HW] Denis Goltsov Last 5: NC L W W W | Last Fight Date: 11/29/2024 [PFL] Last Opponent: [#21 MW] Impa Kasanganay Last 5: W W W W W | ||
| Friday, October 3rd 2025: PFL Champions Series 2: Nurmagomedov vs. Hughes 2 | |||
 [#9 LW] Usman Nurmagomedov (-164) |  [#14 LW] Paul Hughes (+128) | ||
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| Last Fight Date: 1/25/2025 [PFL] Last Opponent: [#14 LW] Paul Hughes Last 5: W W NC W W | Last Fight Date: 5/10/2025 [PFL] Last Opponent: [#51 LW] Bruno Miranda Last 5: W W W L W | ||
| Saturday, November 8th 2025: Dynamite MMA 4 - Nov. 8 | |||
 [#4 W105] Andressa Romero |  [#20 W105] Claire Lopez | ||
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| Last Fight Date: 9/20/2024 [Invicta FC] Last Opponent: [#2 W105] Elisandra Ferreira de Oliveira Last 5: W L L W L | Last Fight Date: 4/04/2025 [Invicta FC] Last Opponent: [#12 W105] Taynara Silva Last 5: W W L L L | ||
Featured Fighters
| [#3 FW] | Diego Lopes | [#19 FW] | Jean Silva | |
| [#2 LW] |  Ilia Topuria | [#1 LW] | Islam Makhachev | |
| [NR] | Matt Brown | [#90 WW] |  Daniil Donchenko | |
| [NR] |  Conor McGregor | [#1 MW] |  Khamzat Chimaev | |
| [#4 LW] | Charles Oliveira | [#18 LW] | Benoit St. Denis |
MMA All-Time Rankings Updated: 5/2/2011
Notable Info
- After overtaking Matt Hughes last month in the Welterweight list, GSP moves over Hughes in the Absolute list and is now positioned at #3, behind only Fedor and Anderson.
- With Liddell retiring, the tumblers are falling into place as to who will hold the #1 spot at Light Heavyweight. Wanderlei has taken the #1 spot for now and will probably hold onto it for a long time.
- Filho (who lost again this weekend at LHW – BTW), falls to #4 at Middleweight. A similar situation that dropped Liddell out of #1 at LHW occurred here. The All-Time calculations are usually “late” in their response to divisional movement and retirements, simply due to their nature.
EDIT: There will be a re-release within the coming days to address two recently discovered mathematical issues.
Interesting Matchups – UFC 129
On the upcoming UFC 129 card this weekend, we will see two bouts with fighters extremely close in the rankings facing each other. The first fight is:
Light Heavyweight (205 lbs)
[#29] Vladimir Matyushenko (25 – 5 – 0) vs. [#33] Jason Brilz (18 – 3 – 1)
But even more interesting is this prelim bout:
Featherweight (145 lbs)
[#78] Yves Jabouin (15 – 6 – 0) vs. [#79] Pablo Garza (9 – 1 – 0)
With these two fighters ranked literally one spot away from each other, it looks like UFC matchmaker Joe Silva (or Sean Shelby) may have been perusing the FightMatrix rankings upon deciding on this bout! Hey, dream big or don’t dream at all.
The Ultimate Fighter 13 – Episode 5 Results
In the fifth opening round fight, Team Lesnar’s Clay Harvison defeated Team Dos Santos’ Michael Bowman by unanimous decision. However, it was revelead post-fight that Harvison suffered a severe fracture of his pinky finger, which will likely force him out of the competition.
The current win tally is 3 Team Dos Santos, 2 Team Lesnar.
Here’s who remains:
(all rankings are approximated as-of the show’s taping, and not necessarily reflecting the fighters’ current rankings)
[#113] Anthony Ferguson
[#182] Justin Edwards
episode 3: alternate taking place of Keon Caldwell
[#179] Myles Jury
episode 1: forced to withdraw due to an injury
[#200] Ryan McGillivray
episode 3: moved on to quarter-finals with a majority decision win (20-18, 20-18, 19-19) over Len Bentley
[#247 LW] Ramsey Nijem
episode 4: moved on to quarter-finals with a second round submission (rear naked choke) win over Charlie Rader
[#289] Chuck O’Neil
episode 1: alternate taking place of Miles Jury
[#321] Charlie Rader
episode 4: lost to Ramsey Nijem with a second round submission (rear naked choke).
[#364] Shamar Bailey
episode 1: moved on to quarter-finals with a 20-18 unanimous decision win over Nordin Asrih
[#387] Clay Harvison
episode 5: defeated Michael Bowman with a unanimous decision (20-18); forced to withdraw from competition with a broken finger
[#441] Chris Cope
episode 2: moved on to quarter-finals with a 29-28 overtime unanimous decision win over Javier Torres
[#475] Len Bentley
episode 3:lost a majority decision win (20-18, 20-18, 19-19) to Ryan McGillivray
[NR] Nordin Asrih
episode 1: lost a unanimous decision (20-18) to Shamar Bailey
[NR] Michael Bowman
episode 5: lost a unanimous decision (20-18) to Clay Harvison
[NR] Keon Caldwell
episode 2: withdrew from competition
[NR] Zachary Davis
[NR] Javier Torres
episode 2: lost an overtime unanimous decision (29-28) to Chris Cope
Weekend Preview: UFC 129 – St. Pierre vs. Shields
Ultimate Fighting Championships 129 – St. Pierre vs. Shields
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
UFC Welterweight Championship
Welterweight (170 lbs)
[#1] [#3DD] Georges St. Pierre (21 – 2 – 0) vs. [#2] [#9DD] Jake Shields (26 – 4 – 1)
Two of the best pound for pound fighters in the sport in Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields will clash this Saturday night. St. Pierre comes into the fight on an 8 fight win streak, 5 by decision. St. Pierre has been criticized in the past for not being a finisher, yet he remains a thoroughly dominant fighter. His last loss came by way of a TKO (punches) at the hands of [#24] Matt Serra at UFC 69 back in April 2007. St. Pierre lost the title that night in what was considered one of the biggest upsets in MMA history. 1 year and 3 victories later, St. Pierre rectified his 2nd career loss by winning the welterweight title back from Matt Serra via TKO (knees to the body) at UFC 83 in April 2008. He went on to win 5 victories over top 10 competition, effectively cleaning out the division. Enter Jake Shields. The former Strikeforce middleweight champion comes into this fight riding an amazing 15 fight win streak (8 by stoppage). Shields, who has also been criticized for having a rather prosaic and underwhelming fighting style himself, did not impress very much in his UFC debut. After winning a contentious split decision over [#11] Martin Kampmann back at UFC 121 in October 2010, Shields was immediately thrust into the title picture because of his past accomplishments outside of the promotion. Both men are adept on the ground, with Shields possibly having a slight submission grappling advantage on paper. However, St. Pierre clearly has the wrestling as well as the boxing/stand up advantage. St. Pierre will most likely be able to dictate where this fight goes. Most expect St. Pierre to continue his march, but Shields does have a grapplers chance. A victory for Shields would propel him to the pinnacle of the welterweight division, as well as the division dominance rankings.
UFC Featherweight Championship
Featherweight (145 lbs)
[#1] [#4DD] Jose Aldo (18 – 1 – 0) vs. [#14] Mark Hominick (20 – 8 – 0)
Reigning featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo will make his first UFC featherweight title defense as well as his UFC debut this Saturday against Mark Hominick. Aldo, who is on an 11 fight win streak (7 by T/KO), most recently knocked out [#10] Manny Gamburyan in September 2010 at WEC 51. Aldo won the WEC featherweight title from [#25] Mike Brown at WEC 44 back in November of 2009. He made two successful title defenses against [#3BW] Urijah Faber and Manny Gamburyan before the WEC merged with the UFC in January of 2011. Aldo is seen as one of the most violent, dynamic fighters today. Hominick is on a 5 fight winning streak, 4 by stoppage. He most recently earned a title shot by TKOing [#61] George Roop in his 3rd promotional appearance (1st appearance at featherweight) at “UFC Fight for the Troops 2” in January 2011. Hominick is a very game opponent who has been on a hot streak lately. He has the ability to hurt his opponents standing or on the ground. The problem for Hominick is that Jose Aldo most likely does everything he does better. Hominick is a savvy veteran who will have to call on all his past experiences in order to stand a chance against the pound for pound ranked Aldo.
Odd Ranking Change of the week
If you’ve got a really keen eye, or have stumbled upon our new “Fighter Search” feature that includes ousted fighters along with the primary reason as to why, you may have noticed this:
That’s not a bug. Two fighters named Yutaka Ueda, both fighting in the Lightweight division, were ousted from the rankings this week. One was due to inactivity, and the other was due to a loss on the Shooto card.
Now that’s something you’ll probably never see again.
This Past Weekend: Bellator 42
Bellator Fighting Championships 42
April 23, 2011
Lucky Star Casino,
Concho, Oklahoma, United States
Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal
Light Heavyweight (205 lbs)
Richard Hale (17 – 3 – 1) defeated D.J. Linderman (9 – 2 – 0) by split decision. The bout was back and forth on the feet much of the time. The fight tipped in favor of Hale when he fell into mount on top of Linderman in the 3rd round. The larger Hale was able to switch between mount and back control as Linderman struggled to break free. Hale jumps 16 spots up from [#51] to [#35]. Hale is on a 4 fight win streak, and is 8-1-1 in his last 10. He will face [#42] Christian M’Pumbu in the finals of the season 4 light heavyweight tournament. Linderman drops 9 spots from [#29] to [#38]. Linderman was on a 4 fight win streak prior to this loss.
Featherweight (145 lbs)
British prospect Ronnie Mann (19 – 2 – 1) defeated Josh Arocho (6 – 10 – 0) by unanimous decision. Mann used superior striking and grappling to outclass Arocho in virtually every aspect of the fight. Arocho would not be finished, and fought valiantly until the closing bell. Mann, who is on a 3 fight win streak and is 8-1 in his last 9 fights, jumps 21 spots up from, [#84 ] to [#63]. Look to see Mann in the upcoming featherweight tournament. Arocho, who was ranked at [#406LW], falls off the rankings. Arocho is 1-4 in his last 5.
Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal
Light Heavyweight (205 lbs)
Christian M’Pumbu (17 – 3 – 1) defeated Tim Carpenter (7 – 1 – 0) by TKO due to punches at 2:08 of the 1st round. M’Pumbu, who is on a 2 fight win streak and is 6-1 in his last 7, moves up 7 spots from [#49] to [#42]. M’Pumbu struck early and often, using his reach to effectively counterstrike . M’Pumbu will meet [#35] Richard Hale in the finals of the season 4 light heavyweight tournament. Carpenter drops 22 spots from [#114] to [#136].
MMA Rankings Updated: 4/25/2011
Notable Info
- New rankings to be posted at about 10:15AM Eastern. I allowed another 24 hours or so for late results to funnel in, but it didn’t seem to help matters much.
This Upcoming Weekend: Bellator 42, Saturday on MTV2
Bellator Fighting Championships 42
April 23, 2011
Lucky Star Casino,
Concho, Oklahoma, United States
Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament Semifinals
Light Heavyweight (205 lbs)
[#29] D.J. Linderman (9 – 1 – 0) vs. [#51] Richard Hale (16 – 3 – 1)
Light Heavyweight (205 lbs)
[#49] Christian M’Pumbu (16 – 3 – 1) vs. [#114] Tim Carpenter (7 – 0 – 0)
Other Bouts
Featherweight (145 lbs)
[#84] Ronnie Mann (18 – 2 – 1) vs. [#406LW] Josh Arocho (6 – 9 – 0)
Bantamweight (135 lbs)
[#69] Luiz Alberto Nogueira (10 – 1 – 0) vs. [*] Jerod Spoon (5 – 1 – 1)
Middleweight (185 lbs)
[#70] Jared Hess (10 – 2 – 1) vs. [*] Chris Bell (10 – 3 – 0)
Bantamweight (135 lbs)
[#22FLY] Shane Howell (9 – 7 – 0) vs. [#145] Mark Oshiro (12 – 3 – 0)
Heavyweight (265 lbs)
[#66] Mark Holata (10 – 2 – 0) vs. [*] Chris Guillen (13 – 12 – 0)
Featherweight (145 lbs)
[*] Owen Evinger (6 – 0 – 0) vs. [*] Brandon Shelton (16 – 5 – 0)
Yearly % of Bouts by Division
If I get a chance, I’ll make the lines easier to follow, but this is a list of the proportion of divisional bouts (using our limits — men only) taking place within a calendar year. In other words, 27.6% of bouts in 2001 that we have division info for, took place at Heavyweight.
Here is a summary data chart for the presented data:
| Fly | Bantam | Feather | Light | Welter | Middle | LtHeavy | Heavy | |
| Avg | 2.4% | 5.1% | 10.4% | 19.2% | 17.3% | 15.7% | 11.3% | 18.5% |
| 2001 | 1.1% | 4.7% | 6.9% | 12.7% | 15.2% | 14.4% | 17.4% | 27.6% |
| 2011 | 3.0% | 8.6% | 13.6% | 23.3% | 19.6% | 14.5% | 9.2% | 8.2% |
| Diff | 2.7x | 1.8x | 2.0x | 1.8x | 1.3x | 1.0x | 0.5x | 0.3x |
I suppose this data could be somewhat influenced by my data mining and availability. After all, it was much easier to assume that Dan Severn fought an indie bout in 2001 at Heavyweight than to figure out if Matt Hughes fought at Welter or Middle, at a random Extreme Challenge event.
That aside, the trends don’t lie. The proportions of Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight have taken drastic drops since 2001 in the amount of bouts that have taken place at those divisions. Middleweight has stayed pretty constant throughout, while the lighter divisions have seen a huge increase in bouts. Check out Flyweight, with a proportion increase of almost 3 times!
The Ultimate Fighter 13 – Episode 4 Results
In the fourth opening round fight, Team Dos Santos’ Ramsey Nijem defeated Team Lesnar’s Charlie Rader by tapout due to a rear naked choke in the second round, advancing to the quarter-finals.
The current win tally is 3 Team Dos Santos, 1 Team Lesnar.
Here’s who remains:
[#113] Anthony Ferguson
[#182] Justin Edwards
episode 3: alternate taking place of Keon Caldwell
[#179] Myles Jury
episode 1: forced to withdraw due to an injury
[#200] Ryan McGillivray
episode 3: moved on to quarter-finals with a majority decision win (20-18, 20-18, 19-19) over Len Bentley
[#247 LW] Ramsey Nijem
episode 4: moved on to quarter-finals with a second round submission (rear naked choke) win over Charlie Rader
[#289] Chuck O’Neil
episode 1: alternate taking place of Miles Jury
[#321] Charlie Rader
episode 4: lost to Ramsey Nijem with a second round submission (rear naked choke).
[#364] Shamar Bailey
episode 1: moved on to quarter-finals with a 20-18 unanimous decision win over Nordin Asrih
[#387] Clay Harvison
[#441] Chris Cope
episode 2: moved on to quarter-finals with a 29-28 overtime unanimous decision win over Javier Torres
[#475] Len Bentley
episode 3:lost a majority decision win (20-18, 20-18, 19-19) to Ryan McGillivray
[NR] Nordin Asrih
episode 1: lost a unanimous decision (20-18) to Shamar Bailey
[NR] Michael Bowman
[NR] Keon Caldwell
episode 2: withdrew from competition
[NR] Zachary Davis
[NR] Javier Torres
episode 2: lost an overtime unanimous decision (29-28) to Chris Cope
This Past Weekend: Friday, April 15th, 2011
These are the results from this past Friday and how they affected the fighter’s rankings.
Scrap Live – Fight Night 7
April 15, 2011
LJVM Coliseum Annex,
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
Middleweight (185 lbs)
UFC veteran Rodney Wallace (11 – 4 – 0) defeated Cale Yarborough (8 – 3 – 0) by unanimous decision. Since being released from the UFC in Auugust 2010, Wallace has gone 2-1. Wallace moves from [#61LHW] into the middleweight “Top 350” at [#57] Yarborough, who is 2-3 in his last 5, drops 19 spots from [#172] to [#191].
Lightweight (155 lbs)
“Ultimate Fighter” alum Cameron Dollar (9 – 2 – 0) choked out Sylvain Bynum (4 – 2 – 0), winning by technical submission due to triangle choke at 1:46 of round 1. Dollar, who was ranked at [#80FW], enters the lightweight “Top 500” at [#209]. Dollar is on a 5 fight win streak, all by stoppage. Bynum, who is on a 2 fight losing streak, remains unranked.
Shields/GSP: A Gambling Analysis
Since my last gambling article went so well, I bring you the next edition of said article and this time we’re going to focus on GSP/Shields at UFC 129.
BetUS, the online sportsbook offers GSP as a -450 favorite, which means that to win $100, you would actually have to bet $450. Now, comparing the odds to the perceived chance of winning is not like comparing oranges to oranges (more like pears to asian pears), but doing so reveals that GSP would be a good bet if you think he has greater than a 81.8% chance of winning.
How can you not like GSP in this match-up? He’s already cemented himself as one of the very best fighters ever, and according to my recent “Age: Part V” article, he’s right in the zone of age/career age combination that sees some of the best winning percentages. The only problem is, Shields is also in that same area. Neither fighter has a significant age or size advantage; Shields is taller, but GSP has a larger reach — an old boxing study I performed showed that a reach advantage is markedly more important than height. Needless to say though, there will probably be a lot of grappling here.
To make a long story short, I think this one goes the distance with GSP taking a 49-46 type of decision.
So, what do you do here? I have to be very sure to recommend putting money on a -450 favorite and quite honestly, I’m not THAT sure. Then again, Shields at +325 seems like a waste of coin. I would go very small on GSP to win.
On the undercard, I’d say go big on Machida at -350. Couture hasn’t fought a live opponent in nearly two years and is two months away from 48.