Headlining the card will be UFC welterweight champion, George Rush St. Pierre. He will be defending his title against American, Jake Shield. St. Pierre said he will not take Shield lightly.
"I wanted to fight Shield for a long time. He is going to bring the best of George St. Pierre. That is why I am excited for this fight as well.
However, Jake Shield predicts he will be the new champion.
"I think George St. Pierre is a great fighter and deserves the respect that he going to get, but, I think it's my time. He's got his respect and I am going to go out there and take the belt. It's my turn."
Canadian Mark Hominick will fight for the featherweight championship against Jose Aldo.
"If it takes one round, five rounds, it doesn't matter. I am prepared for both and I am going to do this," said Hominick.
UFC President, Dana White spoke and said that he always believed bringing the UFC to Toronto would be record breaking.
"I just always did ... I figured, if we did the event here it would be huge. I knew how big ... I could just feel everywhere I went in Canada, more than anywhere else in the world."
White also believes that UFC 129 will change how the rest of the world views mixed martial arts.
UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will put his title on the line against Jake Shields in the main event of UFC 129 on April 30 in front of an expected record crowd at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
UFC 129 also features featherweight champ Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick and UFC hall of famer Randy Couture vs. fellow former champ Lyoto Machida.
"This event will start a shock wave. Wait until we leave Toronto, watch and see what happens over the next couple of years. [If] you think things are big in Canada now, wait till leave here on Sunday. It's going to make it even bigger," said White.
UFC 129 in Toronto is officially a record sellout at 55,000 tickets and a gate in excess of $10 million.
Organizers started at 42,000 tickets but quickly put more on the market after the first rush of sales Thursday.
The April 30 mixed martial arts show at the Rogers Centre doubles the largest gate and attendance records in UFC history. It has also set a single-day event gate record for the domed stadium.
The previous UFC attendance mark was 23,152 for UFC 124 at Montreal's Bell Centre in December. The old gate record was $5.4 million, set in December 2006 in Las Vegas at UFC 66.
"UFC continues to set new milestones," UFC president Dana White said in a statement Saturday. "We've sold 55,000 tickets in our first stadium event in Toronto and we continue to take the UFC to the next level."
More than 40,000 tickets sold Thursday in the first day of a pre-sale to members of the UFC Fight Club.
The rest were snapped up Friday, in another pre-sale, and Saturday, when tickets were made available to the general public.
StubHub, a ticket reseller, was offering seats from $143 to $9,999 Saturday.
Tickets originally ranged in price from $50 to $800.
The Rogers Centre card will be the UFC's sixth in Canada. Montreal has hosted UFC 83, 97, 113 and 124 while Vancouver hosted UFC 115.
The main event features welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre of Montreal against Jake Shields. Mark (The Machine) Hominick of Thamesford, Ont., takes on featherweight champion Jose Aldo in the co-main event.
UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields
Date: Apr 30, 2011 at 6 PM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Venue: Rogers Centre
Broadcast: Pay-per-view
Tickets: Still available. Find tickets here.
MAIN CARD
■Champ Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields (for welterweight title)
■Champ Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick (for featherweight title)
■Randy Couture vs. Lyoto Machida
■Mark Bocek vs. Ben Henderson
PRELIMINARY CARD
■Nate Diaz vs. Rory MacDonald
■Brian Foster vs. Sean Pierson
■Pablo Garza vs. Yves Jabouin
■Claude Patrick vs. Daniel Roberts
■Ivan Menjivar vs. Charlie Valencia
■Jason MacDonald vs. Ryan Jensen
■John Makdessi vs. Kyle Watson
You have read this article Mixed Martial Arts /
MMA /
UFC 129 Toronto
with the title The Great Fighting Sport: Toronto's first MMA event tonight; Rogers Centre host UFC 129. You can bookmark this page URL http://meingeilesich.blogspot.com/2011/04/the-great-fighting-sport-toronto-first.html. Thanks!
