UFC Welterweight Champion Georges “Rush” St. Pierre made a successful return from a serious knee injury tonight at UFC 154: “St. Pierre vs Condit” in Montréal, Québec, Canada. St. Pierre held off the challenge of interim UFC champion “The Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit in the main event.
In tonight’s co-main event, hard-hitting wrestler Johny “Bigg Rigg” Hendricks made a strong case for a UFC welterweight title shot by stopping veteran contender Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann in just 46 seconds. Hendricks has won five straight fights and could be St. Pierre’s next opponent in 2013.
St. Pierre (23-2-0) was aggressive with his strikes in the opening round and soon opted to take Condit (28-6-0) down to the mat. Condit defended well from the bottom, but St. Pierre landed solid punches late in the round and opened a bad cut above Condit’s right eye with an elbow in the dying seconds. It was more of the same in round two. St. Pierre again smothered Condit on the ground while peppering him with punches and elbows that re-opened Condit’s cut.
Early in round three, the fight changed in an instant when Condit floored St. Pierre with a head kick. He swarmed with punches on the ground, but St. Pierre regained his composure and battled back to his feet. He was able to take Condit down and avoided Condit’s submission attempts while landing punches from the top in half-guard that appeared to be enough to potentially steal back the round.
As the fight entered the championship rounds, St. Pierre regained his dominance from the opening ten minutes. He took Condit down in both rounds four and five and avoided the interim titleholder’s various submission attempts. St. Pierre could not secure a finish, but he landed numerous punches from the top and remained in control until the final bell sounded to end the entertaining fight.
One judge awarded round three to Condit, while the remaining two scored it as a clean sweep for St. Pierre, who retained his title in impressive fashion following a layoff of more than 18 months.
Winner: Georges St. Pierre by Unanimous Decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46) after five rounds. He improves to 23-2-0 and remains the UFC Welterweight Champion.
The UFC co-feature ended in quick and brutal fashion. Hendricks (14-1-0) looked to set up big power punches right away, but Kampmann (20-6-0) wisely kept his distance and used kicks to create space. After blocking a high kick, Hendricks walked forward with a right-left combo. The right hand came up short, but a devastating left cross sent Kampmann crashing to the canvas. The fight was immediately waved off, giving Hendricks another big win.
Following the brief fight, Hendricks campaigned for a shot at the UFC Welterweight Championship. It is not yet clear whether St. Pierre will be tasked to defend the title for his next fight or whether the UFC will pursue a superfight between St. Pierre and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva. Regardless, Hendricks has solidified his spot as the number one contender at 170 pounds.
Winner: Johny Hendricks by KO (Punch) at 0:46 of round one. He improves to 14-1-0.
Full play-by-play and results for all fights on tonight’s UFC 154 card can be found here.
(Photo Credit: Sherdog.com)