St. Pierre puts on master class as he steps closer to regaining UFC crown

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This article was published 30/12/2007 (6501 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LAS VEGAS – Canadian Georges St. Pierre showed his class in moving a step closer to regaining his UFC welterweight title. Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell demonstrated he can still bang. And Wanderlei (The Axe Murderer) Silva proved he can take a beating and keep throwing.

All three put on a show as the co-main events did not disappoint at UFC 79: Nemesis on Saturday night.

St. Pierre dominated Matt Hughes in their rubber match en route to a second-round submission and the interim 170-pound championship, outwrestling Hughes to beat the former two-time welterweight champion at his own game.

Liddell outslugged Silva to win a unanimous decision in a wild brawl that saw a battered Silva head to hospital after the fight for a CAT scan. It was a no-holds-barred, not-for-the-weak-of-heart bloody battle – as one might expect from two grizzled light-heavyweight KO artists who at some point in their life decided having their head tattooed made sense.

“A great fight,” said UFC president Dana White, who spent six years trying to make the matchup of former UFC and Pride champions.

St. Pierre, meanwhile, put on a masterful performance in dominating a fighter seen as the sport’s greatest ever welterweight champion. But at 34, Hughes’ better days seem behind him – at least when he steps in against the Canadian. If he can keep his head screwed on right, St. Pierre (15-2) is the present – and future of the sport.

“I think Georges St. Pierre has the potential to be the greatest 170-pounder ever,” said trainer Greg Jackson. “He’s just phenomenal. The scary thing is he keeps getting better.”

The 26-year-old from Montreal will now meet current title-holder Matt Serra, providing Serra can recover from the back injury that forced him to sit out UFC 79. If all goes according to plan, St. Pierre will fight Serra to decide the title for real in Montreal on April’ at the Bell Centre in the UFC’s first foray north of the border.

White sees Canada as fertile ground for his brand of mixed martial arts, given its pay-per-view numbers and Canadian ticket sales for U.S. events.

“It’s insane how big this sport is in Canada, and especially how many Canadians come down here, whether Georges St. Pierre is fighting or not,” he told the post-fight news conference. “The sport is so big in Canada, it’s mind-boggling to me.”

MMA, however, has yet to receive government sanctioning approval in Ontario, however.

Saturday’s card drew a sellout crowd of 11,075 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and a gate of US$4.9 million, the second biggest MMA gate ever.

St. Pierre collected a purse of $160,000, including a win bonus of $80,000, to $100,000 for Hughes, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The Canadian claimed another $50,000 for the submission of the night award from the UFC. Those figures do not take into account any contract bonuses from the UFC, which does not disclose such details.

Liddell earned $500,000 while Silva picked up $150,000. The two collected another $50,000 apiece for being named fight of the night.

The other big winner on the night was unbeaten Brazilian Lyoto Machida (12-0), who schooled highly touted light-heavyweight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-2) en route to a second-round arm triangle submission in the Cameroon fighter’s UFC debut.

Machida earned $60,000, including a $30,000 win bonus, for his clinical performance while Sokoudjou goes back to the drawing board $40,000 richer.

The rest of the card was uninspiring although Toronto lightweight Mark Bocek (5-1) notched his first UFC win to open the show, scoring a unanimous decision over Doug Evans.

St. Pierre-Hughes closed out the evening but Liddell-Silva stole the show, with fans – including light-heavyweight champion Quinton (Rampage) Jackson and middleweight title-holder Anderson (The Spider) Silva – on their feet and screaming throughout the bout.

The Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar slugfest in the finale of Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter” has been the benchmark for recent UFC brawls, but Liddell-Silva took it to a new level despite the fact that both fighters entered the cage with question marks over their heads after each having lost their last two fights.

“I thought I did all right out there for an old man, I guess,” said the 38-year-old Liddell, who had lost some of his lustre in recent months.

At 6-2, Liddell has at least a three-inch height advantage over the stocky, muscular Brazilian with python-like arms. That meant the 31-year-old Silva, who likes a shark moves in just one direction, absorbed a lot of punishment from the counter-punching Liddell as he tried to connect.

He had his best success in the second round, when Liddell went down twice. The first was a slip but the second seemed punch-related, although Liddell said later the knockdown was partially due to losing his balance. Inexplicably Silva did not press his advantage when Liddell went down.

Liddell (21-5) rallied strongly at the end of the second and only one judge gave the round to Silva (31-8-1). The other two gave all three rounds to Liddell.

“I just kept coming after him. That’s my kind of fight,” said Liddell, who used his rarely seen wrestling skills late in the fight to take Silva down.

Several times Liddell had a bloodied and dazed Silva reeling on the fence but could not put him away. Asked why later, Liddell said simply: “Because he’s a tough man.”

Hughes came out as a southpaw, a former wrestling strategy he said his camp had initially devised to combat Serra’s right hand. It didn’t work against St. Pierre, who had his way with the two-time champion.

St. Pierre won in style, ending the bout with a slick move, taking Hughes down with a nifty judo throw and then outmanoeuvring Hughes to slap on an armbar. Hughes (43-6) submitted verbally at 4:54 of the second round.

Hughes submitted St. Pierre at UFC 50 in October 2004 to win the vacant title. St. Pierre took it away from him in November 2006 at UFC 65, only to lose to Serra in a shocking upset in his first title defence at UFC 69 in April.

St. Pierre dominated the first round this time, stuffing a Hughes takedown attempt and then taking Hughes down two minutes in. The Canadian spent the rest of the round on top, taking the mount position as the round ended.

There was another St. Pierre takedown to open the second before he finished off Hughes, who had nothing in his toolbox to stop his opponent.

The one-sided fight has Hughes rethinking his fighting future.

“I’m not going to come out here and be someone’s highlight reel. That’s not for me,” said Hughes, who defended the title nine times when he was champion. “I’ve got to go back and think about things . . . I really came in this fight in shape, with a good game plan. I just never got it really rolling.”

St. Pierre, who sported the fleur-de-lis on his blue trunks to match the tattoo on his calf, celebrated by break dancing in the middle of the ring. The Quebec symbol was his manager’s idea after a sponsor withdrew, leaving a free space on his tight shorts.

St. Pierre, his face showing only traces he had been in a fight, looked just as slick after the fight in an Armani suit and open-necked dress shirt as he sat next to a battered Hughes, whose left eye was discoloured and swollen.

The Canadian is the poster boy for the new breed of mixed martial artist, equally adept at the sport’s many disciplines. He trains with world champion boxer Joachim Alcine back home in Montreal and only put aside a bid to make the Canadian Olympic wrestling team when the Hughes fight conflicted with the Olympic trials.

Serra upset an unfocused and ill-prepared St. Pierre in April at UFC 69 in the Canadian’s first title defence when family illness, poor training and injuries took their toll. St. Pierre was all business Saturday, however, and says he has learned from past mistakes.

“He is very hungry for Matt Serra. Very hungry, said Jackson.

“They’re going to see the difference in my eyes when I get in the ring,” echoed St. Pierre.

No fan of Serra after their stint as rival coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter,” Hughes has no doubt about the outcome of a St. Pierre-Serra rematch.

“When Georges and him match up, I think it’s going to be a different fight. And Matt Serra’s going to go down that ladder just as quick as he happened to pop up that ladder.”

Notes: UFC matchmaker Joe Silva said he did not even consider calling Georges St. Pierre when Matt Serra pulled out of UFC 79 through injury, reasoning St. Pierre had no reason to take such a bout on short notice when he had already been promised a championship fight in Canada. Silva said Josh Koscheck and Thiago Silva both agreed to step in for Serra but then St. Pierre’s manager phoned to say the Canadian would take the fight … UFC president Dana White said light-heavyweight champion Quinton (Rampage) Jackson will take on Forrest Griffin next while Tim Sylvia will meet Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the interim heavyweight title in February. … St. Pierre may be one step away from winning a world title for a second time but he says he still has yet to find a Canadian sponsor. “All my sponsors are American,” said St. Pierre, adding the sport is far bigger in English Canada than French Canada. … Nate Mohr may have suffered knee damage in his submission loss to Manny Gamburyan … James (The Sandman) Irvin was the one put to sleep after taking an illegal knee to the head from Luiz Cane. A dazed Irvin won the fight by disqualification when he couldn’t continue, joining the UFC 79 procession to hospital. It was Irvin’s first fight since tearing knee ligaments in a loss to Thiago Silva at UFC 71 in May.