UFC 129: St.Pierre vs Shields News Update

UFC Welterweight Championship: St. Pierre vs. Shields

Another event that shouldn’t be missed on April 30, 2011 is the Fan Expo that is hosted by the UFC. The schedules for the tickets availability for the Fight Club members started last February 10, 2011, for the UFC Newsletter Subscribers started last February 11, 2011 and last February 12, 2011 was for the general public.  The ticket price for UFC 129 ranges from $50 to $800.

In the Welterweight championship, there will be five-fight main cards for the welterweight showdown and the fight of the current Welterweight Champion St.Pierre vs Shields  is the main event highlight.

With 21-2 Georges St. Pierre’s record, he first captured the welterweight championship in the UFC 65: Bad Intentions, he had a second-round TKO over Matt Hughes. In UFC 69: Shootout was St. Pierre’s first title defense fight, in the early rounds he was stunned by stunned Matt Serra and ended with the fight with a TKO in the first round. When Serra had a serious injury, St. Pierre had a chance to fight Matt Hughes again for the third time in a match up for the Interim-Welterweight championship at the UFC 79: Nemesis. In this fight, St. Pierre earned honors for Submission of the Night and the title of Interim-Welterweight champion with his victory on second-round submission over Matt Hughes. At UFC 83: Serra versus St. Pierre 2, it marked the return of Serra and the victory of St. Pierre after he took the second-round TKO and won the welterweight championship.

With St. Pierre’s five consecutive successful title defenses, he is going for his sixth after his victory by unanimous decision over Josh Koscheck at the UFC 124: St. Pierre vs. Koscheck.

Jake Shield’s record: 26-4-1. He was the first to have get hold the championship title of the now defunct EliteXC’s Middleweight Division; he got it with his first-round submission at EliteXC: Unfinished Business over Nick Thompson. Shields found a home at Strikeforce after the fall of EliteXC and made his debut at the match up in Strikeforce: Lawler v. Shields. He also claimed the Welterweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Jason “Mayhem” Miller at the Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers. Subsequent to his successful victory and title defense at Strikeforce: Nashville over Henderson, Shields started to negotiate his ending contract with the promotion. It’s sad to say that the both sides was unable to agree, and later Shields made his debut on UFC at UFC 121: Lesnar vs. Velasquez, and several one contender fight for a record at the fight of Georges St. Pierre versus Martin Kampmann. At the of the 15-minute fight, Shields got a title shot via unanimous decision.

UFC 129: St. Pierre vs. Shields Finalized Fight Card

Main Card:

• Welterweight Championship bout: St.Pierre vs Shields
• Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick
• Matt Hamill vs. Phil Davis
• Randy Couture vs. Lyoto Machida
• Mark Bocek vs. Ben Henderson

Preliminary bouts:

• Nate Diaz vs. Rory McDonald
• Sean Pierson vs. Brain Foster
• Yves Jobouin vs. Pablo Garza
• Claude Patrick vs. Daniel Roberts
• Ivan Menjivar vs. Charlie Valencia
• Jason McDonalds vs. Ryan Jensen
• John Makdessi vs. Kyle Watson

St.Pierre vs Shields Initial Prediction

Initial Prediction For The UFC 129: St.Pierre vs Shields Fight

Georges St. Pierre (21-2) gets to the table: Georges St. Pierre could be considered as the most athletic fighter that ever step and fight in the Octagon. As far as utilizing those wrestling skills in MMA is concerned, he is regarded as the best wrestler in the welterweight division. With this, the takedowns he has done were awesome, he posses superior ground control, his takedown defense is ridiculously good, and his ground and pound is simply frightening. And yeah, St. Pierre can perform technical skills (able to use his legs and hands) in an above average level, and have great cardio and power.

And to make notice to St. Pierre, when coming into fights he seems he always have a newfound skill (like the jab with Josh Kosheck) and prepared a great game plan. And he is simply the best welterweight fighter in the world.

Jake Shields (26-4-1) takes the table: In the 170 pound division, Shields is one of the best grapplers in the world. He is a fighter with upper echelon takedowns, great takedown defense, solid ground control, and submission skills. He’s considered as a total package on the canvas plus heart and cardio. With that, in defense on Shields’ feet is not nearly as expert. He was in trouble in his recent fights against Martin Kampmann and got nearly knocked out by Dan Henderson. The factor of Shields’ victory over Henderson was his jaw. And in terms of his offensive, he have developed his hands over time.

The Fight Prediction: St.Pierre vs Shields. To set the assumptions, St. Pierre is just a much better than Shields. St. Pierre’s punches are better, his movements is incredibly superior, and his kicking skills are higher than average. Therefore, Shields needs to get the fight to the ground to win the St.Pierre vs Shields fight. There is no questions how great wrestler he is, with his blend of submission skills made him a dangerous fighter in the ring than “Rush” have ever encountered. As said, Shields on his back is definitely no more dangerous than BJ Penn (recently defeated by St. Pierre in his last fights). The ultimate question is, could Jake Shields bring St. Pierre on his back and obtain submission?

In the end of the fight, I think Shields’ take downs are good, but St. Pierre’s takedowns and takedown defense are better. We should expect the domination of the Canadian fighter, he’ll dictate where would the fight goes. But I personally guess that he’ll always try to keep the trend of the fight on his side with a few takedowns.

In the UFC 129: St.Pierre vs Shields fight I think Georges St. Pierre will have his victory over Jake Shields in the third round TKO.

UFC 129: St.Pierre vs. Shields Under Card Fights Preview

At the Rogers Centre, the UFC 129: St.Pierre vs Shields will take place on the April 30, 2011. It is expected to be the largest UFC event ever as it will probably draw 55, 000 UFC fans and will run simultaneously with a two-day UFC Fan Expo at the Direct Energy Centre in Ontario, Canada.

UFC Welterweight championship: Georges St-Pierre (21-2) vs. Jake Shields (26-4-1)

The current welterweight champion, Georges St-Pierre, is going for the eight fight win streak in the much awaited St.Pierre vs Shields fight. In his career he only has losses with Matt Sera (2007), and Matt Hughes (2004). He have avenged his losses in the rematches and also trampled down like Josh Koscheck, Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy, Jay Hieron, B.J. Penn, Jon Fitch, Jason Miller, and Sean Sherk.

In this incoming fight, St. Pierre will fight against the 31 year old California native, Jake Shields. Shields is going for the 15 fight win streak he is also known as the former Elite XC welterweight champoin, Strikeforce middleweight champion and Shooto middleweight champion.

Both of them have elite status, though Shields possibly have trouble controlling the tempo and will probably loss and be a victim of power and skill of St. Pierre in the UFC 129: St.Pierre vs Shields fight.

UFC featherweight championship:  Jose Aldo (18-1) vs. Mark Hominick (20-8)

The current champion of the featherweight is Jose Aldo, and at the age of 24 he is not showing signs of slowing down in his career. He was a WEC featherweight champion and later awarded the UFC title as it wrapped out by the WEC. In the record of the Brazilian fighter, the only flaw was a submission loss to Luciano Azevedo on 2005 and later his notable victories flared up over urijah Faber, Manvel Gamburyan, and Mike Brown.

The challenger of the champion is Mark Hominick, he is a 28 year old Canada native. He also have title glory in his career, with his record being a former TKO Major League featherweight champion, having a five fight win streak and being in battled for WEC, UFC and Affliction. He last fight was on January 2011 in a TKO victory over George Roop at the UFC: Fight for the Troops.

In a different highly anticipated fight, Aldo should be able to silence and impressed his home crowd and trample Hominick with his superior power and speed. It will be a spectacular to watch how Aldo counters the submission attempts if he goes down to the mat.

In regards with the heavyweight battle, the former IFL champion Matyushenko “The Janitor” seemed to climbed in the UFC ranks with an impressive victory over Brilz “The Hitman”.  Matyushenko’s career losses in 30 professional fights are with Vernon White, Tito Ortiz, Andrei Arlovski, Antônio Rogério Nogueira, and current champion Jon Jones. The 40 yer old Belarusian, Matyushenko has been in action for the IFL, UFC and Affliction and with several regional promotions. Expecting to knock off Matyushenko is the 25 year old Nebraskan, Jason Brilz. Brilz’s last fight was last May 2010 at UFC 114, which had dropped a controversial split decision to Antônio Rogério Nogueira. And Brilz having two losses of his last three fights, he desperately needs a win to keep relevant in his title hunt in the light heavyweight.

This matchup is much anticipated because of the two confident and experienced fighters. I will go for a submission advantage to Brilz though I think it will not come at that level.

The former champions’ match up, the 47 year old Randy Couture or known as “Captain America” will fight the 32 year old Lyoto Machida or famed as “The Dragon”. In a overvalued bout, both fighthers will surely try to stay in contention for the title shots.

As a former heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, Couture has a three fight win streak. With a quick submission victory over James Toney, it was the last action that was in August 2010 at UFC 118.

As Machida is on a two fight losing streak, he desperately needs victory and with this he have dropping fights to rampage Jackson and Mauricio Rua in the two fight losing streak span.

This seems to be one of the best match up on the UFC 129 card, with both UFC fighters fought and beaten the best. I would make a bias pick among them; I’ll go for the underdog Couture for the big upset triumph. We could expect some nasty-and-pound submission from Couture for the victory.

The additional Canadian born fighter draws more local fans in the event. The 29 year old Mark Bocek is fighting for the lightweight fight. He just had a submission victory over Dustin Hazelett at the UFC 124 last December 2010.

Fighting to knock off Bocek’s homecoming will be the 27 year old Colorado native, Ben Henderson. He is a WEC light heavyweight champion and coming off of a tough loss to Anthony Pettis at WEC 53 last December 2010.

This is definitely a close fight in a fast-paced, and everyone could expect plenty of submission actions in UFC 129: St.Pierre vs Shields.