UFC 129

UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday, April 30, 2011 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada.

Background

The event was the sixth that the UFC has hosted in Canada and the first mixed martial arts event in Ontario since the sport was legalized in the province in August 2010. The Toronto event was originally titled UFC 131 by the promotion, but later changed to UFC 129 as its early 2011 schedule started to fall more firmly into place.

It was the largest UFC event in North American history and coincided with a two-day UFC Fan Expo at the Direct Energy Centre. UFC officials had originally planned for the Rogers Centre to be configured to hold 42,000 fans for UFC 129. The UFC put those tickets on sale to UFC Fight Club members in a special pre-sale on February 10, 2011, selling nearly all of them. They released and sold more tickets the following day to UFC newsletter subscribers in a second special pre-sale. UFC 129 then sold out when tickets went on sale to the general public on February 12, with officials scrambling to up the number of seats to 55,000. Selling out all 55,000 tickets for gate revenues exceeding $11 million, the event shatters both MMA attendance and gate records in North America.