Video: Final fight picks and first Rogers Centre pics

It's five hours before the pay-per-view begins for UFC 129, but only two before the first fights on Facebook. Here's a cool video shot by MMA Nation. Below is a video with Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole giving his plays for the three big fights. Check out the odds below. There's even proposition bets available for the two title fights.

UFC 129 betting odds (Courtesy Lagasse's Stadium Las Vegas):

Best plays in BOLD

Jake Shields (+350) vs. *Georges St. Pierre (-500) - UFC Welterweight title

Mark Hominick (+375) vs. *Jose Aldo (-550) - UFC Featherweight title

Prop bets
Shields wins: Rd1 25/1; Rd2 20/1; Rd3 22/1; Rd4 20/1; Rd5 30/1; Dec. 7/1

GSP wins: Rd1 6/1; Rd2 5/1; Rd3 5/1; Rd4 9/2; Rd5 8/1; Dec. 6/5; Draw 25/1

Hominick wins: Rd1 25/1; Rd2 22/1; Rd3 22/1; Rd4 25/1; Rd5 30/1; Dec 8/1

Aldo wins: Rd1 9/2; Rd2 7/2; Rd3 3/1; Rd4 4/1; Rd5 6/1; Dec 2/1; Draw 25/1

RANDY COUTURE (+300) vs. Lyoto Machida (-400) - Light heavyweight

Mark Bocek (+110) vs. BEN HENDERSON (-140) - Lightweight

Rory MacDonald (-115) vs. Nate Diaz (-115) - Welterweight

Sean Pierson (+160) vs. Jake Ellenberger (-190) - Welterweight

Daniel Roberts (+120) vs. Claude Patrick (-150) - Welterweight

Charlie Valencia (+140) vs. Ivan Menjivar (-170) - Bantamweight

Ryan Jensen (-110) vs. JASON MACDONALD (-120) - Middleweight

Kyle Watson (+120) vs. John Makdessi (-150) - Welterweight

Pablo Garza (+140) vs. Yves Jabouin (-170) - Featherweight

VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO (Even) vs. Jason Brilz (-130) - Light heavyweight

*champion

You can watch UFC 129 on PPV (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) right here on Yahoo! Sports.

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UFC 129: Rory MacDonald Hands Nate Diaz His Second Straight Loss

by Michael David SmithRory MacDonald slams Nate Diaz at UFC 129.In a very impressive showing for a young fighter, Rory MacDonald earned the biggest victory of his mixed martial arts career, dominating Nate Diaz at UFC 129.

The fight was a blowout; the judges scored it 30-26, 30-27 and 30-26 in favor of MacDonald. At age 21, MacDonald looks tremendous. He really poured it on in the third round and slammed Diaz hard to the ground three times, using wrestling-style belly-to-back suplexes to send Diaz crashing to the canvas.

 

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Williams Farm Update

As the sole street skater (as far as I could tell) at the meeting I still feel pretty good about what Team Pain is going to do at Williams Farm in Virginia Beach. At 20,000 square feet, there is plenty of room for giant vert bowls and fun street stuff. Tim Payne really impressed me as someone who really thinks about every aspect of a park from it's orientation and how the sun will be setting to what materials to use and how everything flows together. Preliminary plans where presented showing a long boomarang type shape creating a lot of space for continuous skating. There will be another design meeting in roughly three weeks where more detailed plans will be presented incorperating the input from this meeting. The main feature discussed was the bowl and snake run. The bowl will be 6, 8, and 11 feet deep, the snake run will go from small to big with hips and corners. The planned opening date is August 2012. Oh, and VB local, Joe Fernandez is working for Team Pain now and might be part of the crew building Williams Farm.

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St-Pierre stumbles to finish line in victory at UFC 129

Georges St-Pierre was far from spectacular, but champions find ways to win. The UFC welterweight champ couldn't take out Jake Shields, but he had enough to survive blurred vision in his left eye and post a unanimous decision win, 48-47, 50-45 and 48-47, in the main event of UFC 129 in front of 55,000 fans at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Even in front his home country faithful, GSP heard some boos,  jeers and whistling in the final round. Because of a damaged left eye, he struggled at times to engage over the final two rounds. He finished the fight with blood dripping down his face and a swollen eye.

"I wasn't able to see. I think it's scratched inside. I can't see with my left. I just see a blur. It's very bad," St-Pierre said during a conversation with UFC color voice Joe Rogan, as he was blinking and testing the vision out of the left.

St-Pierre, as he often does following decision victories, apologized to the massive crowd.

"His striking was much better than I thought. He closed my eyes," GSP said.

St-Pierre (22-2, 17-2 UFC) said thought he'd dominate in the standup game, "and then put and put him down later in the fight. I couldn't deliver much with this [eye]. I wanted to make a KO or submission."

St-Pierre has won nine straight fights and defended the title six times in a row. A bunch of those wins (six) have come via decision. He's a smart fighter, so he's often unwilling to take the risk required to go for the kill.

Before GSP's eye was damaged late in the third round, Shields looked silly on the feet. The former Strikeforce middleweight champ looked silly and slow. Shields (26-5-1, 1-1 UFC) is a renowned jiu-jitsu practitioner, but he never came close to scoring a takedown. He simply lacked the athleticism to catch St-Pierre.

Nelson Hamilton and Richard Bertrand posted the 48-47 scores, while Doug Crosby called it a blowout at 50-45. The FightMetric numbers tell a different story. Shields actually outlanded St-Piere 96-92, but GSP was much more accurate making good on 36.5 to 22.6 percent. Shields downfall was his inability to get the fight to the ground. He was 0-for-6 on takedown attempts while GSP put him down 2-of-3 times.

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Video analysis: Hominick technically misses weight, will Aldo raise a stink if he loses?

The weigh-in for UFC 129 was certainly one to remember. For first time, to my recollection, a local commission official actually complained that the music playing in the arena was too loud.

Someone named "Rocky" (wouldn't give his last name) voice his displeasure on several occasions, including when Mark Hominick stepped on the scale.

The Canadian, who's challenging Jose Aldo for his UFC featherweight title, weighed in at 145.25.

By rules, he missed weight for a title fight. You have to be at the designated weight or below. There is no one-pound allowance for title fights.

Yahoo! Sports' lead MMA writer Kevin Iole checked in from Toronto. He was outraged with the way the Ontario Commission and the official, Rocky, handled the situation.

If Aldo storms to a victory, it probably won't matter. But because of Rocky's error, the door is slightly open for some potential postfight controversy.

Yahoo! Sports' Dave Meltzer also had concerns.

You can watch UFC 129 on PPV (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) right here on Yahoo! Sports.

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Jose Aldo Defeats Mark Hominick in a Classic Fight at UFC 129

by Michael David SmithJose Aldo beats Mark Hominick at UFC 129.In a classic fight before 55,000 fans at UFC 129 in Toronto, Jose Aldo dominated Mark Hominick for the better part of four rounds -- only to get dominated himself in the fifth and final round and hold on to win a surprisingly competitive unanimous decision.

Aldo retained his UFC featherweight title, but Hominick gained a huge amount of respect for the heart he showed, continuing to fight despite Aldo turning his face into a bruised, bloody mess.

"Take your hat off in congratulations to Mark Hominick," Aldo said after the fight. "He's a hell of a fighter, and he came out for five rounds, giving his all."

But while Hominick showed he was a hell of a fighter in the fifth round, Aldo definitely won the first four.

 

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