It was loud at the Bell Centre on April 19, 2008 – chair shaking, eardrum breaking, can’t hear Bruce Buffer loud. But just when you thought the decibels couldn’t go higher, they did, when hometown hero Georges St-Pierre regained his UFC welterweight crown from Matt Serra via a second round TKO, putting a fitting cap on UFC 83, the organization’s first show in Canada.
Five seconds into the bout, St-Pierre secured a takedown, trying to ensure that there would be no repeat of April 7, 2007, the night Serra took his title via a first round knockout. St-Pierre worked his punches and forearms while muscling the New Yorker to keep him down, and the Canadian kept firing away, wrapping up a dominant opening round.
The second round didn’t start much better for Serra, as he found himself on his back again. For his part, St-Pierre kept moving and kept throwing punches, and even when the two stood, St-Pierre was throwing everything in his arsenal at Serra to keep him off balance, which led to another takedown with under three minutes left. The 33-year-old Serra, as expected, would not surrender to his younger foe, but for everything he tried, St-Pierre had an answer, and with under 30 seconds left, the Montrealer opened up and let all the frustration of the last year out in the form of vicious knees to the body. Again, Serra wouldn’t quit under the onslaught, but referee Yves Lavigne intervened, stopping the bout at the 4:45 mark and crowning St-Pierre champion once again.
