In Nov. 2016 the UFC made its debut at Madison Square Garden. That fight card featured three title bouts. Only one gold belt changed hands that night when Conor McGregor earned a second-round TKO victory over Eddie Alvarez. The victory gave McGregor the lightweight title.
Georges St-Pierre returned to the octagon for the first time in four years at UFC 217. He defeated Michael Bisping in the main event. The win made St-Pierre the fourth UFC fighter to hold titles in two weight divisions. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
On Saturday, the UFC returned to the historic arena for UFC 217. Like UFC 205, the event featured three title fights. Unlike UFC 205, all three titles changed hands at UFC 217, and they did so in emphatic fashion.
In the first title fight of the evening. The promotion’s inaugural women’s strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk dropped her belt to Rose Namajunas via a first-round knockout. Namajunas dropped Jedrzejczyk with a vicious left hook and followed that with a flurry of ground strikes. As Namajunas rained punches down on the head of her opponent, Jedrzejczyk did tap to the strikes, but the fight was ruled a knockout at the 3:03 mark of the first round by referee John McCarthy. The loss was the first in Jedrzejczyk’s 15-fight career.
During the brief encounter, Namajunas dominated the stats. The new champ landed 15 of 34 significant strikes for a striking percentage of 44 percent. That number dwarfed Jedrzejczyk who landed just five of 42 of her significant strikes, giving her a striking percentage of 11 percent. In her five previous bouts, Jedrzejczyk outlander her opponents in significant strikes by a margin of 918 to 324.
In the co-main event, former teammates Cody Garbrandt and T.J. Dillashaw faced off for Garbrandt’s bantamweight title. Dillashaw, the former bantamweight kingpin, had a rough go at the end of the first round when Garbrandt dropped him to the mat with a right. Garbrandt moved in for the finish, but the horn sounded to end the round.
In the second stanza, Dillashaw was visibly slower. It almost seemed like he was putting a great deal of effort into getting that knockdown back from Garbrandt. He did just that early in the round when he blasted his opponent with a head kick. Garbrandt was able to get back to his feet after the strike, but a right hand dropped him back to the mat. From there, Dillashaw swarmed in for the finish. Referee Dan Miragliotta waved the fight off at the 2:41 mark of the second round, returning the belt to Dillashaw. The knockout loss was the first defeat of Garbrandt’s 12-fight career.
The stats were pretty even in the bantamweight bout. Garbrandt had a higher landing percentage in significant strikes, 33 percent to Dillashaw's 24 percent, but Dillashaw landed 20 significant strikes to Garbrandt's 18.
In the main event, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre returned to the octagon for the first time in four years. St-Pierre moved up to middleweight for his return bout. His opponent was 185-pound champion Michael Bisping.St-Pierre looked excellent in the opening round. He landed 41 of 92 strikes in that stanza and went one-for-two in takedown attempts. During the five-minute round, Bisping landed just 20 of his 92 attempted strikes.
St-Pierre slowed in the second round. It’s hard to tell if it was the long layoff or carrying 15 extra pounds of muscle, but the former welterweight champ was breathing heavy as the round progressed. When St-Pierre appeared to tire, Bisping, who is known for his tremendous cardio, ramped up his attack.
St-Pierre took Bisping to the mat early in the third round, but it was Bisping who mounted most of the offense. While on his back, Bisping bloodied his opponent with several elbows from the bottom. When the fighters got back to their feet, St-Pierre was bothered by the blood that flowed into his eye.
As the clock wound down, St-Pierre landed a left hook that dropped Bisping to the mat. The former welterweight kingpin then moved in for the finish. He threw elbows and punches from inside the guard of the English fighter. Bisping did his best to defend himself from those strikes, but he eventually gave up his back. As soon as that happened, St-Pierre locked in a rear-naked choke. Bisping refused to tap and was rendered unconscious at the 4:23 mark of the third stanza. The loss ended Bisping’s five-fight winning streak.
During the three round bout, St-Pierre landed 59 significant strikes to Bisping's 27. St-Pierre's landing percentage of 49 percent was nearly double Bisping's 25 percent. St-Pierre also went 3-for-4 in takedowns.
The title-winnig performance extended St-Pierre’s winning streak to 13 straight victories. The win also gave the newly minted champion 13 UFC title fight victories, a new promotional record. He also joined Randy Couture, B.J. Penn and McGregor as the only fighters to hold UFC titles in two weight divisions.
In addition to taking home titles, the three new champions all earned $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonuses.
St-Pierre, Dillashaw and Namajunas all came into the fight as betting underdogs. In fact, Namajunas was the biggest underdog on the card.
UFC 217 marked the first time in UFC history where three titles changed hands on the same UFC card.
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