Dan Hardy of England thought he had a puncher’s chance of beating Georges St-Pierre last night at the Prudential Center in Newark. But he never got the chance to land a punch.
St-Pierre took Hardy to the ground repeatedly and easily retained his UFC welterweight title with a unanimous five-round decision before a sellout crowd in excess of 17,000 at UFC 111.
St-Pierre (20-2), of Montreal, took Hardy (23-7) down early in the first round and kept him there, nearly submitting Hardy with an armbar late in the first round and again in the fourth.
Hardy spent the entire fight on his back, either fending off punches or trying not to get submitted. After the final round, Hardy raised St-Pierre’s hand in victory. The three judges scored the bout 50-43, 50-44 and 50-45.
“It’s a win, but I did a lot of stupid technical mistakes,” St-Pierre said. “I wanted to avoid where my opponent was the strongest and fight him where he was the weakest, which was on the ground.”
Hardy said: “It’s an honor to fight him. I can see why he’s the champion.”
In the co-main event, Shane Carwin of Denver remained unbeaten (12-0) with a first-round TKO over former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.
Carwin wins the UFC interim heavyweight title and the right to face belt holder Brock Lesnar.
Carwin, who has never gone beyond the first round, dazed Mir with five straight uppercuts against the cage and then finished him with a flurry of punches after Mir dropped to the ground. The bout was stopped at 3:48 of the round.
“It’s destiny that we meet,” Carwin said of his bout with Lesnar, who then entered the Octagon to a chorus of boos from the sellout crowd.
“He’s still wearing a make believe belt,” Lesnar said. “I’ve got the championship belt.”
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In other notable bouts: Jim Miller (17-2) of Whippany, N.J., won his fourth consecutive fight with a unanimous decision over Mark Bocek (8-3) of Toronto. . . . Kurt Pellegrino, of Point Pleasant, N.J., submitted Fabricio Camoes of Brazil at 4:20 of the second round. . . . Greg Soto (7-1) of Point Pleasant, N.J., was disqualified for an illegal up-kick in the third round of his UFC debut. A very dazed Matt Riddle (4-1), of Allentown, Penn., took the kick on the chin and was declared the winner. . . . Ricardo Almedia (11-4), of Hamilton, N.J., dropped down to 170 pounds but still had plenty of strength to submit Matt Brown (13-8), of Cincinnati, with a rear naked choke at 3:30 of the second round. . . . Jon Fitch (25-3) of San Jose won a unanimous decision over Ben Saunders (8-2-2) of Fort Lauderdale, and Nate Diaz (12-5), of Stockton, Calif., scored a first-round TKO over Rory Markham (16-6), of Chicago.
