UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields and the Most Boring Main Events in UFC History

Three episodes of a UFC Primetime special.  An excellent pre-fight trailer unlike any other.  Just in general, six months of non-stop hype. 

These are all phrases to describe the build up of UFC 129’s main event, welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre defending his title against former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields.

Fans heard all the hypothetical situations: “GSP won’t be able to stop Shields' takedowns.”

“GSP won’t be able to deal with Shields' jiu-jitsu.”  “Shields has no striking; this will be an easy TKO win for St-Pierre.”

When it was all said and done, all the fans got was a 25-minute snooze fest.  The disappointment for the main event of UFC 129 was massive.

With that being said, how bad was the main event of UFC 129 compared to some of the worst ever in UFC history?

Let’s take a look. 

UFC 129: Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields for the Welterweight Title

Okay, so this fight was not the worst of all-time.  Not that surprising.  But anyone who tells you that the fight came anywhere close to the hype, or even tries to sell it as remotely enjoyable, they are lying through their teeth.

There was no awesome grappling for position, fighting for takedowns or scrambling for position on the ground.

Things any fan would expect from two fighters with excellent wrestling and jiu-jitsu skills. 

Instead, the fans got to see Shields throw a bunch of half-hearted kicks in between both men having the most boring boxing match of all time. 

The fight had a few highlights amidst a very dull 25 minutes: GSP knocked Shields on all fours with his patented jab, Shields badly bloodied GSP’s nose with a right cross and GSP dropped Shields with a head kick.

GSP did manage to secure a few of his patented takedowns as well, but made little effort to hold his opponent down.

As disappointing as GSP was, he vision is his left eye became blurry from the second round on after taking a couple stiff punches from Shields.

Therefore, he can be forgiven, to a minimal extent, for a horribly boring performance. 

Fans have to still be scratching their heads though as to why Shields, a man who preaches his style as “American Jiu-Jitsu”, was content to stand and trade with the champion for five rounds. 

By the way, the term “stand and trade” is being used loosely here, as both fighter were constantly backing up and were more concerned about getting caught then getting a legitimate offense going. 

Oh yeah, and if you haven’t heard yet, St-Pierre won via unanimous decision.

UFC 114: Rashad Evans vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

Boy, if only this fight was like one-eighth of what the pre-fight hype claimed it would be.

“Black-on-black crime”, as Rashad Evans put it, turned out to be three rounds of Evans utilizing lay and pray to a tee. 

Evans landed a heavy right hand in the opening exchange, and Rampage dropped Evans with some dirty boxing in the third, but was just not able to finish.

That sums up the interesting moments of the fight in their entirety.

Couple the facts that Jackson came into the fight way out of condition cardio-wise, and that Evans had no interest in ending the fight, and the fans had a fight that fell well short of the war of attrition that was promised.

UFC 61: Tim Sylvia vs. Andre Arlovski for the Heavyweight Title

Sylvia vs. Arlovski III was a rubber match between two staples in the UFC heavyweight division, with the title on the line at a pay-per-view event. 

Not to mention the two big guys had a ton of knockout power in their hands.  Nothing could go wrong there, right?

That is, unless each fighter decided to just circle the cage and be as docile as possible.  At a glance, it really did not seem like either fighter landed significant blows, or even scored a takedown. 

Sylvia won a unanimous decision basically for just being the slightly (emphasis on slightly) more active fighter.

Shockingly though, Arlovski suffered a significant leg injury from a modest Sylvia leg kick in the second round and was diagnosed with a concussion after fainting in his hotel room after the fight. 

Don’t let that fun fact be misleading though: This main event was atrocious.

UFC 112: Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia

Wow, who wants to talk about disappointing? 

Silva vs. Maia was an intriguing fight on paper since Silva may have met his match in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu department. 

While there was no reason to believe that Silva could still not dominate the matchup with his superior striking, unlike the majority of “The Spider’s” recent opponents, it looked like Maia at least had a halfway decent chance. 

While Silva at least engaged with some clean, crisp striking in the first two rounds, amidst a ton of taunting, the fight took a nose dive from there. 

And let’s not kid ourselves; the fight was not exactly one for the ages in the early going.  For whatever reason, Silva decided to simply circle around and taunt Maia from rounds three through five. 

Bear in mind that Silva was throwing literally no strikes at this point, and do not mistake that to think he suddenly decided to put on a takedown clinic. 

All he did was circle and taunt…sad, but true.  The spectacle got so ridiculous that referee Dan Miragliotta warned Silva for his actions (or lack thereof) and the crowd began to chant for Maia in the fifth round.

Maia’s then inadequate standup, which has since shown noticeable improvement, was no match even for a completely disinterested Silva. 

UFC president Dana White openly voiced his disgust for Silva during and after the fight.  White walked away from the cage in the middle of the fourth round, refusing to present the winner with the middleweight title.

He also went on to say it “was the most embarrassed he had ever been since becoming UFC president” and that he had no reservations about cutting Silva if he behaved this way during a fight again. 

UFC 119: Frank Mir vs. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic

UFC 119 is regarded as one of the worst UFC pay-per-views of all time, and this dud of a main event certainly did not do the event any favors.

The match up seems intriguing on paper: How effective will Mir’s jiu-jitsu be against Cro Cop’s kickboxing? The opposite was intriguing as well. 

Of course, we saw none of these sort of skills on display, as both men played defense almost exclusively for close to three rounds.

As the Conseco Fieldhouse was rapidly emptying, Mir answered hundreds upon thousand of prayers when he finally ended the fight.

Mir managed to knock Cro Cop out with a knee from the clinch with about a minute left in the third round.