UFC 129 thoughts/rate it

I'll give it a 9. Best event of the year and maybe their best since UFC 100.

The big story of the night is of course Lyoto Machida retiring Captain America in Canada. After showing a lot of the things that make the Dragon great in round 1...elusiveness, varied striking, and shrugging off Couture's takedown attempts like he was a fly he sends out the old sleep inducer with an epic front kick into retirement. I could not think of a better way for Randy Couture to go out...god speed.

The main event was as underwhelming as GSP's last several. It's not really a knock on GSP though. He's too dominant. I don't think Jake Shields fought a bad fight. Actually, i felt he did quite well considering what we all thought would happen if he could not take GSP down. He landed a lot of kicks, and landed some punches that ended up having an effect on GSP's performance later in the fight. Jake Shields, for all the knock on his standup...looked more competent and comfortable in the stand up as did Josh Koscheck. Plus, he ended GSP's round winning streak..though i think Shields only won one round, not two which two judges gave him. For as little as he did overall, Jake landed more effective offense in this fight than Koscheck, Hardy and Alves combined.

However, GSP vs. Shields was to UFC 129 as GSP vs. Alves was to UFC 100. Pretty much the low point of an amazing show(except for Fitch-Thiago, but who was watching at that point?)


Aldo vs. Hominick was an amazing fight. However, it was in a lot of ways an aberration. I think Aldo walks through Hominick if the weight cut and layoff does not hurt him after round 1 like it did tonight. You just don't go 5 rounds with Urijah Faber without breaking a sweat and then get worn down after one round of pretty much whooping Hominicks ass. Something was definetly up with Aldo and i doubt it will be a problem in the future as it's already proven to not be a problem for him coming into this fight.

That said, Aldo performance was superb DESPITE the gassing. He still landed power shots at a high rate and the leg kicks remained brutal. If the weight cut is a problem for him...he should move up sooner rather than later...because it seemed Hominick was one big punch away the entire fight because of Aldo's lack of freshness.

Also, about this fight...i'm a big Joe Rogan fan..there is not a guy i would rather hear during MMA fight..but i hate hate hate how every PPV he picks a side and pretty much only calls the action for one fighter. The third round of Aldo-Hominick was the most striking heavy round of the fight. If you were listening on the radio and you were hearing Rogan...you would think Aldo didnt land anything when he was landing MORE than Hominick...don't believe me? he was so busy hanging on Hominicks nuts that when Aldo knocked rocked him and sent him to the mat...Rogan said that Hominick had Aldo hurt. He only came off from this when it was clear that Aldo was destroying him in that round with the knockdowns and the GnP...but i think Rogan once again misled people into thinking somebody(also the underdog, as usual) was winning exchanges when he really was not. It was clear Aldo was landing the more effective punches throughout the round and it wore on Hominicks face.

Janitor-Brilz was awesome because it A) was not the 15 minute snoozefest i was expecting B) It was a nice, quick KO by Janitor.

Ben Henderson vs. Mark Bocek was an entertaining bout. Bendo had a great pace and wiggled out of submissions just like the WEC days. However, that tattoo is AWFUL.

WEC LW's...not doing so bad in the UFC thus far. Cerrone, Bendo, and Roller with wins.

Rory Macdonald was amazing. He punked Nate Diaz. He beat him everywhere...and then ragdolled him. No way Nate can spin this one. No saved by the bell. No the judges got it wrong. He just flat out got his ass whooped and Rory looks like the real deal. He was on his way to a win over Condit as well..watch out for this guy.

Solid thoughts as always Kings, I'll add my own tomorrow.

Guess there's gonna be some Machida jumping front kick GIFs rollin around, like I wasn't gonna put my boys KO of the year up.

easy 9. I go 9.49, and round to 9. If GSP or Jake finishes, argument for one of the best up and down cards ever. Pound for pound one of the top UFC cards ever. One of those weird things where the biggest fight on the card was the worst. Great KO's, great subs, great decision fights even. All in all a great show and a winner.

And what a great day to fucking show every single fight. Unreal!! 6 hours!!

I thought it was a 9 and possibly a 10. The whole card was very entertaining and pretty much every fight was a pickem which always helps. I thought Shields done some good things against GSP and put on a good fight. Aldo looked amazing and the Dragon well what can u say about his performance.....WOW!!!!!!. I have said it before and really believe that Machida would give Bones the hardest fight for the title and possibly beat him. He looked very hard to hit last night and made a HOFer look bad. Overall a very good card.

9

Every fight was awesome until that shitty main event

I don't think comparing Faber to Hominick is fair at all. Hominick was alot worse match up stylistically for Aldo. Jose had to work hard and "mix it up" with Hominick because if Aldo just traded with him the entire fight he probably would have lost...This is the first time we saw Aldo go for takedowns consistently, which I think played a factor into zapping his cardio.

One thing that I was really baffled with after watching this fight was Aldo's inability to pass Hominick's guard or his ground game in generel. Hominick defensive grappling/bjj is the worst part of his game yet he was able to stall Aldo who is suppose to be a phenom on the ground? Also I understand he was gassed in the last round so he gets a pass, but he did not try to do anything for the bottom at all, but stall.....Just very werid considering he known for his BJJ chops. This concerns me for his fight with Chad Mendes who could potential control him on top..

8.5 for me, would have been a 9 if GSP hadn't have stunk out the joint.

We had a flying triangle, a spinning back fist ko, a 40 year old with a nice KO, a great short elbow to end a nose, a good solid fight with Bendo, Diaz getting ragdolled, Aldo and Homick putting on a show, and Machida ending Randy's career with an amazing kick. It was all set up to be a 10, but GSP-Shields didn't deliver.

GSP and Shields was alittle bit of a let down but did any1 really think that would be a good fight?

timthebim wrote:

GSP and Shields was alittle bit of a let down but did any1 really think that would be a good fight?

No, but I at least thought George would have attempted to punish Jake on the feet more.

Ali wrote:

timthebim wrote:

GSP and Shields was alittle bit of a let down but did any1 really think that would be a good fight?

No, but I at least thought George would have attempted to punish Jake on the feet more.

Im not sure why any1 would ever think GSP is going to try to finish any1 any more. He takes less chances than John Fitch lol.

timthebim wrote:

Ali wrote:

timthebim wrote:

GSP and Shields was alittle bit of a let down but did any1 really think that would be a good fight?

No, but I at least thought George would have attempted to punish Jake on the feet more.

Im not sure why any1 would ever think GSP is going to try to finish any1 any more. He takes less chances than John Fitch lol.

This event became a lot bigger than GSP/Shields for me as the night progressed. Really that fight could of been Jake and GSP counrty line dancing for 25 minutes and the card still would of been epic, by the time their fight started it was beyond anything they could do really, other than keep it from being a perfect 10+.

Ninja\Rua/Fan wrote:

I don't think comparing Faber to Hominick is fair at all. Hominick was alot worse match up stylistically for Aldo. Jose had to work hard and "mix it up" with Hominick because if Aldo just traded with him the entire fight he probably would have lost...This is the first time we saw Aldo go for takedowns consistently, which I think played a factor into zapping his cardio.

One thing that I was really baffled with after watching this fight was Aldo's inability to pass Hominick's guard or his ground game in generel. Hominick defensive grappling/bjj is the worst part of his game yet he was able to stall Aldo who is suppose to be a phenom on the ground? Also I understand he was gassed in the last round so he gets a pass, but he did not try to do anything for the bottom at all, but stall.....Just very werid considering he known for his BJJ chops. This concerns me for his fight with Chad Mendes who could potential control him on top..

Yeah but after one round which he only went for one takedown and dominated? something was not right. Hominick didnt do anything until Aldo gassed. I know we don't like to make excuses for guys but Aldo was suffering from something...i'm guessing it is what they said it was. A bad weight cut.

As far his BJJ...he showed off excellent BJJ chops against Faber, and that is not really considered an incredibly weak part of Faber's game...not like it is Hominick. It was simply because Aldo was tired and he was landing effective GnP from inside the guard..as he never attempted to pass it. At the end, Aldo was done. He got put on his back and the engine finally stalled out after running right above E the entire fight. I don't know..Aldo has pretty much shown off the entire game against better fighters than Hominick(in my opinion) before, to question it now seems mighty "only as good as your last fight".

KingsOwn19 wrote:

Ninja\Rua/Fan wrote:

I don't think comparing Faber to Hominick is fair at all. Hominick was alot worse match up stylistically for Aldo. Jose had to work hard and "mix it up" with Hominick because if Aldo just traded with him the entire fight he probably would have lost...This is the first time we saw Aldo go for takedowns consistently, which I think played a factor into zapping his cardio.

One thing that I was really baffled with after watching this fight was Aldo's inability to pass Hominick's guard or his ground game in generel. Hominick defensive grappling/bjj is the worst part of his game yet he was able to stall Aldo who is suppose to be a phenom on the ground? Also I understand he was gassed in the last round so he gets a pass, but he did not try to do anything for the bottom at all, but stall.....Just very werid considering he known for his BJJ chops. This concerns me for his fight with Chad Mendes who could potential control him on top..

Yeah but after one round which he only went for one takedown and dominated? something was not right. Hominick didnt do anything until Aldo gassed. I know we don't like to make excuses for guys but Aldo was suffering from something...i'm guessing it is what they said it was. A bad weight cut.

As far his BJJ...he showed off excellent BJJ chops against Faber, and that is not really considered an incredibly weak part of Faber's game...not like it is Hominick. It was simply because Aldo was tired and he was landing effective GnP from inside the guard..as he never attempted to pass it. At the end, Aldo was done. He got put on his back and the engine finally stalled out after running right above E the entire fight. I don't know..Aldo has pretty much shown off the entire game against better fighters than Hominick(in my opinion) before, to question it now seems mighty "only as good as your last fight".

Aldo had to work harder in the first four rounds of that fight then anyother fight he has ever fought in. He didn't have to try to go for takedowns and faint alot because he was vastly superior striker to everyone he fought in his preivous fights. All I am saying is that Aldo gassing because he had to really work really hard in the first 4 rounds is no surprise and happens. Faber is a terrible example because the fight went to the ground in the 5th after Aldo kicked Faber's legs off. Also besides who are these better fighters than Hominick. I would say Hominick is the 2nd best fighter fighter Aldo has ever faced and is definitely the best striker.

7

Maybe Kings is right to a degree with the gassing of Aldo, but the technical difference between the two was apparent. Aldo is not a better striker than Hominick technically. The only thing that saved Aldo as the fight wore on was leg kicks making Hominick more predictable as he started circling in one direction away from the right leg kick. If he didn't have such ungodly power...Otherwise Hominick would have continued to land clean shots. I didn't listen to Joe or Goldie where I was at all but Hominick was doing quite well. One win and he gets a rematch. Period.

GSP is a cautious boring fighter and nothing more needs said. I hate watching him more and more. Dana needs to rewrite his contract with a half million dollar finishing bonus asap.

Everyone knew Machida was going to hurt Randy badly and the fact Randy knotted his head a bit and lasted a round actually hurt that fight for me slightly. Nothing special there except for the front kick itself which was epic but I kind of expected that kick to be attempted anyway.

Cool win for the Janitor.

The athleticism of Bendo made all the difference. Now thing about the Showtime fight and the difference in athleticism between those two. That is how legit Showtime is friends.

Nate Diaz can't wrestle, nothing new there.

I give it a 9. Alot of entertainment. Not gonna lie though, I missed alot of the fights because there was ALOT of drama goin down at the bdubs I was at lol.

I gave it a 7. Some good fights, some good moments. Some of the undercard fights had some great highlight moments. I can't stand the whole routine people pull at the end of fights running around or doing pushups to prove you still have something left in the tank. Use that excess energy to go ape shit during your fight, not after. All that proves is you should have kicked it into gear earlier. Very good event but not great.

Undercard was better then the main card. How often can you say that? and with 2 title fights on the main card and another fight featuring 2 former Champions.

I didn't vote, and really I should go with a 9. GSP stinking it up sucks but maybe he deserves a bit of a pass and some points for fighting blind in one eye.

Event of the year:

I think this one was the hardest one to go on and the reason why is
not that there haven't been great cards. There've been a lot of card
that were marred by injury, thing went wrong from the top all the way to
the bottom. This was a bit of a challenging year even though the UFC
had some breakthrough moments. This is gonna be super debatable and
that's fine. My choice personally: UFC 129.
Now I know the main event between St. Pierre & Shields didn't
really deliver what people were expecting, but I was in Toronto when
this went down. First of all, every aspect of this card was great.
From the 1st fight tot the last there were finishes all the way through.
They had a lot of Canadians on the card who stepped up in big
important fights. You're very 1st of the night ended with a flying
triangle! Yes, the main event not delivering hurts my argument. You
could make a great case for UFC 134 in Brazil. You could make a case for UFC 139 more recently. Even 140! I think top to bottom, even with a suffering main event, you gotta go UFC 129 for me.