 |
 |
 |
|
Utilizing thunderous knees to the body, Georges St. Pierre ensured lightning did not strike twice by beating Matt Serra in their anticipated rematch via TKO at 4:45 of Round 2 during Saturday night's UFC 83 card.
| Advertisement |
|||
| |||
Referee Yves Lavigne called a stop to the predominantly one-sided encounter while St. Pierre was delivering repeated knees to Serra's ribs with all four of Serra's limbs on the mat and his back turned to St. Pierre.
With the win, the 26-year-old St. Pierre became a two-time UFC welterweight champion and did so in front of a hometown crowd at the sold out Bell Centre in Montreal. In the process, he also avenged his infamous upset loss to Serra in their first encounter that took place over a year ago at UFC 69 in Houston.
In that fight, St. Pierre was unable to recover from an early devastating right hand delivered by Serra and wound up getting TKO'd at just 3:25 of the first round. Heavily favored going into the fight, St. Pierre's loss is considered by many pundits to be the biggest upset in mixed martial arts history.
Saturday's fight marked Serra's first bout since upsetting St. Pierre. His prolonged layoff initially was a result of an appearance as a coach on the UFC's popular reality television series on Spike TV, The Ultimate Fighter. It was extended after a back injury sustained during training prevented him from competing in a highly-anticipated grudge match vs. Matt Hughes this past December at UFC 79.
Showing rust throughout the bout, Serra did not have an answer for St. Pierre's well-rounded skills. Several times during the fight, St. Pierre pressured Serra with strikes and forced him to protect his face with his hands, only to then drop levels and take Serra to the mat with double-leg takedowns.
The event was the UFC's first-ever in Canada, and fight fans in the audience responded to St. Pierre's win as if the Montreal Canadians had just won the NHL's Stanley Cup.
In addition to St. Pierre's win, former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin rebounded from his second career loss to current champion Anderson Silva this past October as well as the loss of his father by defeating Travis Lutter via TKO at 3:01 of Round 2. Making a rare appearance on the ground, Franklin appeared to be in trouble at one point in the first round after Lutter, a jiu-jitsu black belt, secured the mount position.
A strong case could be made that Lutter won Round 1 but Franklin made that argument irrelevant by taking over the fight in the second thanks in large part to some stiff punches and knees. Prior to the stoppage, Lutter looked completely spent and unable to defend himself. The normally reserved Franklin even made a point during his post-fight interview that Lutter is known for his poor conditioning habits.
Lutter is perhaps best known for failing to make weight during a scheduled title shot last February against Silva at UFC 67. He had earned the shot at Silva by winning the middleweight tournament of the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter but instead had to fight Silva in a non-title bout. Lutter was actually in control for most of the fight until being submitted in the second round.
Sporting a brand new chiseled physique to mark his entrance into the UFC's middleweight division, former light heavyweight Michael Bisping overwhelmed Charles McCarthy with an assortment of combinations that included jabs, crosses, uppercuts, and knees. Despite surviving round 1, McCarthy was unable to continue and Bisping was declared the winner via TKO before the second round even started.
In a middleweight battle featuring a clash of Ultimate Fighter alums, Nate Quarry recorded a lopsided decision victory over Kalib Starnes. Starnes, a native of Vancouver, entered the fight to overwhelming applause during ring introductions while Quarry, an American, was booed heavily.
However, the crowd turned on Starnes after he spent a majority of the fight running from Quarry and refusing to engage the veteran fighter in hand-to-hand combat. Quarry's aggressive performance earned the respect of the pro-Canadian crowd.
After the bout, Quarry made light of the situation by referencing a line from Rocky IV during which the Rocky Balboa character addressed a Russian crowd that had flip flopped in his favor following an upset victory over Ivan Drago.
Starnes not only lost the respect of the crowd, but also that of the judges, who scored the three-round fight 30-27, 30-26, and 30-24.
Mac Danzig, the winner of season six of The Ultimate Fighter, opened the pay-per-view telecast by submitting Canadian Mark Bocek with a rear naked choke at 3:48 of round 2.
Notes
• Fans at the Bell Centre were treated to six fights that were not televised. In the opener, Jonathan Goulet recorded a TKO at 2:07 of round 2 over Kuniyoshi Hironaka in a welterweight battle. Former standout Arizona State amateur wrestler Cain Velasquez was victorious in his UFC debut, defeating fellow heavyweight Brad Morris via TKO at 2:10 of Round 1. In a lightweight contest, Rich Clementi won his third consecutive fight in the UFC when he recorded a split decision over hometown hero Sam Stout. In a showdown featuring middleweight prospects, renowned competitive grappler Demian Maia was declared a winner over Ed Herman due to technical submission by way of triangle choke at 2:27 of Round 2. Injury replacement Jason Day made his UFC debut a memorable one by defeating Alan Belcher via TKO at 3:58 of Round 1. Also, Jason MacDonald improved his career record against Joe Doerksen to 2-0 when he finished Doerksen via TKO as a result of strikes at 0:54 of Round 2.
