Dana White in photo by Josh Hedges
GRACIEMAG.com was in attendance at the pre-UFC 129 press conference in Toronto, Canada.
The headlining fights for Saturday’s event pit Georges Saint-Pierre against Jake Shields and José Aldo against Mark Hominick with the welterweight and featherweight titles on the line, respectively. However, the other big bout of the night has two former champions against each other: Lyoto Machida, who is looking to recover from back-to-back losses, takes on Randy Couture, who very well may announce his retirement after the fight.
“When you’re a champion there’s a target on your back. If you want it or not, it’s much harder to do things, you’re in the public eye. These days I’m still getting approached a lot but not as much. I feel it’s easier to train this way and I perform better, but my aim is to be champion again,” said Lyoto, with his boss, UFC president Dana White, stepping in on his behalf:
“Everyone loses in this sport. Everybody. Lyoto took a long time in losing, but he’s still one of the best in the world. I don’t care what they say, what the rankings say, we’ll have two great fighters in there on Saturday night,” he said in closing.
Check out the complete card:
UFC 129
Rogers Centre, Toronto, Canada
April 30, 2011
Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields
José Aldo vs. Mark Hominick
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Jason Brilz
Lyoto Machida vs. Randy Couture
Mark Bocek vs. Ben Henderson
Preliminary card on Spike TV
Nate Diaz vs. Rory MacDonald
Sean Pierson vs. Brian Foster
Preliminary card (Informal Canada versus USA)
Yves Jabouin vs. Pablo Garza
Claude Patrick vs. Daniel Roberts
Ivan Menjivar vs. Charlie Valencia
Jason MacDonald vs. Ryan Jensen
John Makdessi vs. Kyle Watson