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.
[#2 SW] 
[#24 W115] 
[#17 W135] 
[#25 W125] 
