Georges St-Pierre met Jake Shields on Saturday, April 30 at UFC 129 and has been the case in many of his title defenses as of late, the UFC welterweight champion exploited the weakness in his opponent’s game to retain his UFC title.
Going into the fight, the knock on Shields had been his weak striking game, which St-Pierre used to his advantage, keeping the fight standing for the full five rounds.
The champion was able to take advantage of that weakness, but he did not walk away without sustaining some damage.
According to the CompuStrike stats, Shields landed 63 of 318 arm strikes he threw, leaving the champion with a bloodied face as well as a damaged left eye. The injury to the eye, which appeared to come from an eye poke from Shields, left St-Pierre unable to see from that eye for much of the fourth and fifth rounds.
In addition to bloodying the champion, Shields was able to accomplish something that no one else had done for 30 straight rounds, and that was take a round from the champion. The scorecards gave the unanimous decision victory to St-Pierre 50-45, 48-47, 48-47.
Following the fight, St-Pierre, speaking with UFC commentator Joe Rogan, apologized for his performance: “I can’t see with my left eye right now. I just see a blur. I’m sorry to the fans. I wanted to make it a knockout or submission.”
The fight marked the sixth title defense for St-Pierre.
video highlights courtesy ESPN
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