THE LARGEST UFC event in North American history lived up to all expectations as fight fans were treated to some truly memorable moments at UFC 129 last week.

As Jose Aldo and Georges St-Pierre managed to keep a hold of their coveted championship belts, all eyes turned to a Hollywood legend who once again ghosted in and stole some of the limelight from the fighters.

The Seagal factor

Anderson Silva was the first man to KO an opponent in the UFC using a Steven Seagal inspired up-kick when he defeated Vitor Belfort at UFC 126 back in February.

As Lyoto Machida embraced the “Under Siege” star before entering the Octagon against Randy Couture, no one could have guessed that it could happen again. It did.

Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan mentioned the similarities between Machida’s kick and Daniel LaRusso’s famous kick in “The Karate Kid” and it seems Seagal sees himself as Machida’s Mr Miyagi.

In a post-fight interview Seagall said that he felt Lyoto was “like a son” to him and admitted that they worked on the up-kick as well as different elbow strikes and footwork as part of their game-plan to try and get the better of Couture.

The spectacular kick consigned the career of ‘Captain America’  to the history books as Randy confirmed in the Octagon that this was his last fight and hoped to take up a role similar to the one Chuck Liddell holds in the organisation at present.

Dana White awarded the Brazilian the “Knockout of the Night” bonus although John Makdessi might feel a little hard done by as he KO’d Kyle Watson earlier in the night with a perfectly-timed spinning back fist:

Championship bouts go with form

The two championship bouts of the evening went similar ways as both Jose Aldo and GSP were able to see off Mark Hominick and Jake Shields respectively, both gaining decision victories over their challengers.

GSP produced one of his efficient and clinical, (some would say boring), displays to stuff anything Jake Shields could throw at him. Despite being unable to see out of one eye for most of the fight GSP held Shields at arm’s length and ground out a hard-fought victory with his superior stand-up.

The main event was something of a disappointment in an otherwise great event as the more prominent grappler was unable to get hold of GSP at all and failed to capitalise on the Canadian’s eye injury. Two judges scored the fight 48-47 in Georges’ favour and you just felt if Shields pushed it a bit more he could have stolen the decision.

Jose Aldo inflicted some gruesome punishment on Mark Hominick as he clung on to a hard fought unanimous decision victory over the big hearted crowd favourite.

In an epic bout that rightly took “Fight of the Night” honours Aldo dominated the early rounds before catching Hominick with a short elbow on the ground which produced a massive hematoma which could be seen growing in real time immediately after the strike.

After consultation with a ringside doctor, the plucky Canadian declared he was ready to fight on and nearly finished a visibly gassed Aldo in an exciting last round as he threw everything at the champ to try and knock him out.

The bell came too soon for Hominick however, as Aldo saw off the barrage of strikes to retain his UFC Featherweight belt. It emerged afterwards that Aldo had been on antibiotics for an unspecified infection up until the Monday before the fight, which explained his diminished conditioning as the fight went on.

This makes his performance all the more impressive although credit must be given to Hominick also as he really showed his huge heart and his refusal to give up won him massive respect in the MMA community.