• UFC 129

St-Pierre fights through blurred vision to beat Shields

Georges St-Pierre outstruck Jake Shields at UFC 129 © Getty Images

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• Profile: Georges St-Pierre

UFC 129: Machida flattens Couture

Georges St-Pierre stepped into the Octagon against Jake Shields at the sold-out Rogers Arena and for three rounds left nobody in the 55,000-strong crowd in any doubt as to who is the best welterweight in the world. However, a blow to his left eye severely hampered him for the final two rounds, giving way to booing and jeering from the Canadian crowd as he eventually limped to a unanimous 50-45, 48-47 48-47 victory.

Shields had been billed as the toughest of St-Pierre's six consecutive UFC title defences, but for 15 minutes he ranked among the easiest. GSP completely outboxed his rival, landing endless jabs and buckling him once with a big right hand, but the course of the action changed when St-Pierre could not see at the start of the fourth.

Hesitant to engage for the final 10 minutes, St-Pierre lost the final two rounds on the scorecards of two of the judges, despite dropping Shields with a head kick in the fourth. The champion was clearly the better fighter overall, ruling the striking domain whilst stuffing all six of Shields' pedestrian takedown efforts, but victory came in uncomfortable circumstances due to the eye.

"I can't see with my left eye right now. I can see a blur," said the champion. "His striking was much better than I thought. He closed my eyes."

Mark Hominick fought on despite a huge blow to the head © Getty Images

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Jose Aldo turned in one of the least impressive performances of his career on UFC debut, but it was still enough to earn the Fight of the Night award and defend his UFC featherweight title for the first time against Mark Hominick. Aldo's cardio appeared to suffer after a tough weight cut, and he ate a catalogue of punches from Hominick but ultimately proved too classy in a unanimous 50-43 48-46 49-46 decision.

Aldo still displayed all his trademark weapons in the five-round war, damaging the challenger with his left hook to the body/right leg kick combination. Twice he dropped Hominick with big right hands, but the Canadian just kept coming, despite a monstrosity of a lump on his forehead.

The first round was all Aldo as he dished out a striking lesson, before twice succeeding with slick takedowns. However, the champion appeared to tire from round two onwards, with Hominick suddenly finding his range against his slowing opponent.

He could not land the telling blow though, and the truly decisive moments came in rounds three and four as Aldo twice dropped his foe, before releasing the elbow that disfigured Hominick's forehead. Still the Canadian kept coming, finishing on top in the fifth as he rained down punches to the final klaxon.

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