Georges St-Pierre still managed to get the job done at UFC 129 even if it wasn't a walkoff home run.
TORONTO -- The stage was set for Georges St-Pierre on Saturday night at the Rogers Centre.
The preliminary fights placed the bar incredibly high. Five fantastic finishes in the first six, followed by a crowd-thrilling, coming-out performance by 21-year-old Rory MacDonald.
Amazingly, it was raised even higher in the main card. Two more stunning knockouts -- one in 20 seconds, another an unforgettable one that sent Randy Couture into retirement -- and then a Rocky-like performance by the local favourite Mark Hominick.
Now it was the welterweight champion and Canadian superstar's chance to put a stamp on the affair.
On the same grounds where Joe Carter took a pitch deep down the line for a three-run home run to capture the 1993 World Series for the Blue Jays, St-Pierre had a chance to hit walkoff grand-slam for himself, the UFC and the city of Toronto.
Instead, he managed a bases-loaded walk.
Because of the nature of UFC 129 -- the first ever stadium show and the debut in the country's largest province, and perhaps the sport's biggest market -- the opportunity was there for it to be remembered as the greatest event in UFC history. However, because of St-Pierre's nagging reputation of not being able to finish fights, it ended slightly anticlimactically for the 55,724 in attendance, many of whom were Canadians hoping to see the champ emerge with a dominant victory over the seemingly outclassed Jake Shields.
My question is, why did it have to? Ultimately, he had his hand raised. If you're fans of the home team, do you really care how that winning run crosses home plate?
GSP's style is different than that of, say, the UFC's previous poster boy, Chuck Liddell. He doesn't go into every fight looking only for the KO. The Canadian will swing for that big shot if it's there.
But -- continuing the baseball analogy -- if the pitch just isn't there, he'll work the "strike" count in his favour and draw the call from the umpire (or in this case the three judges).
And he's a master of that. Against Shields, he had a decided edge in significant striking efficiency (35 per cent vs. 19 per cent) and he was two of three on takedowns while Shields was 0-for-6.
Let's not forget about the eye injury. He couldn't see out of his left from the second round on. It's reminiscent of his fight against Thiago Alves at UFC 100, where he suffered a pulled groin in the third and still managed to dominate for the rest of the five rounds.
St-Pierre will say he was trying to for the finish, just as he tried to knock out Josh Koscheck (who refused to quit) and tried to submit Dan Hardy (who refused to tap). But it's four fights in a row now going the distance, and he will continue to have detractors. They want exclamation points, not excuses.
Ideally, so does Dana White. But he understands that if you put GSP against the highest level of competition, you can't expect it.
"Do I wish that there were fireworks? ... Yeah," White said. "All that stuff's great, but it doesn't always play out that way ... Georges is fighting the absolute best guys in the world."
You can't say GSP isn't a finisher. Just two years ago, he stopped B.J. Penn at UFC 94. A year before that he TKO'd Matt Serra in Montreal to reclaim the championship, right after submitting Matt Hughes for the interim title. He's no Jon Fitch, who has gone to the judges in NINE straight contests.
Perhaps he set the bar too high for us fans. And since he only fights twice a year these days, it feels like forever since he last had a stoppage.
At the end of the day, a win is a win, and it should always bring us to our feet.
(But who isn't a fan of the home run?)
OPPONENTS 'UNDER SIEGE'
There was a lot of discussion during the live chat we had going on sportsnet.ca Saturday night about the influence of two guys on the sport of MMA. One was GSP's trainer Firas Zahabi.
The other was Steven Seagal.
In fact, the question was posed who was a better trainer. Either way, it was a good night for both of them.
Seagal was milling about after the fights and admitted he was the one who taught Lyoto Machida that stunning front kick that planted Couture to the mat -- and deprived the legend of a tooth. This after the famous actor and martial artist was credited with teaching Anderson Silva practically the same kick used earlier this year to knock out Vitor Belfort.
(Someone suggested GSP should go and hire Jean-Claude Van Damme. GSP plus JCVD, could be quite the French connection.)
While St-Pierre could use a new emphatic trick in his arsenal, I'm sure he's happy with the work Zahabi has done. As are all of his full-time students, who went 4-1 on the night.
In addition to GSP and Rory MacDonald, who recently moved to Montreal from B.C. to train at Zahabi's Tristar gym, his other winners were John Makdessi and Ivan Menjivar. Only Yves Jabouin lost and it took a submission-of-the-night-winning flying triangle by Pablo Garza to defeat him.
NOT SO GOOD FOR THE LOCALS
Canadians went 6-4 on the night, but Ontarians only went 1-3. Aside from Hominick, who put on a valiant effort and emerged a hero despite the defeat, it was a particularly disappointing night for Sean Pierson and Mark Bocek.
Pierson's dream fight in front of his home fans ended almost as quickly as it began, as he was knocked out by Jake Ellenberger at 2:42 of the first. Bocek fared a little better, dropping a unanimous decision to a former WEC champion in Ben Henderson.
Claude Patrick was the one hometown fighter to emerge victorious, taking a fairly lacklustre, slim decision over Daniel Roberts.
