The Ultimate Fighting Championship is pulling out all the stops for the biggest fight card of their nearly 18 years in business. “UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields” will take place in front of a record 55,000+ fans at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday, April 30.
Starting at a new Pay-Per-View time of 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, fans at home can order UFC 129 and watch the main card headlined by a welterweight title fight between reigning champion and top pound-for-pound fighter Georges St-Pierre, as he defends his crown against former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields.
The co-main event of the evening will feature a featherweight title fight with 135-pound champ Jose Aldo defending his title against Canada’s own Mark Hominick.
Also, UFC Hall of Famer and two-division former world champ Randy “The Natural” Couture will take on former light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida in what Couture says will be his final fight inside the Octagon.
The Russian clean-up man Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko returns against Jason Brilz, and Mark Boceck takes on former WEC lightweight champ Benson “Smoothe” Henderson, to round out the Pay-Per-View portion of the card.
Prior to the Pay-Per-View, two preliminary card fights will air LIVE on Spike TV starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT (Instead of Spike TV, in Canada it will be Rogers, ESPN in the UK, and UFC.TV elsewhere).
The two Spike TV bouts are both at welterweight. TUF 5 champ Nate Diaz will take on Rory MacDonald and Sean Pierson will face off with Jake Ellenberger.
Prior to the two fights on Spike TV, a total of FIVE preliminary card bouts will broadcast LIVE on the UFC’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/UFC) starting at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.
The Facebook bouts include Claude Patrick vs. Daniel Roberts, Ivan Menjivar vs. Charlie Valencia, Jason MacDonald vs. Ryan Jensen, John Makdessi vs. Kyle Watson and Yves Jabouin vs. Pablo Garza.
Be sure to join us here on ProMMAnow.com on Saturday, April 30, as we provide live play-by-play and round-by-round commentary on all the “UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields” fights.