Today in MMA history, UFC 129 shatters all-time gate, attendance marks

UFC 129, Toronto, On This Date MMA History, April 30, 2011

It's been 15 years since the UFC shattered all kinds of benchmarks in MMA with its debut in Toronto.

On April 30, 2011, UFC 129 marked the promotion's first event in the Canadian province of Ontario after legislation passed several months prior. The hunger for an MMA show of that magnitude was clear, and more than 55,000 fans packed into Rogers Centre to see a dominant home-country hero.

Georges St-Pierre defended his welterweight title against Jake Shields in the UFC 129 main event. Featherweight champion Jose Aldo defended his belt against Mark Hominick in the co-feature. And those 55,000-plus fans delivered a then-record live gate north of $11 million.

Putting St-Pierre in a baseball stadium was a risk for the UFC, particularly against an opponent who wasn't likely to draw without an opponent like GSP. It paid off with by far the biggest crowd in promotion history at the time.

Four years later, UFC 193 took over the top attendance spot, but just by a smidge for Holly Holm's shocking all-time upset of Ronda Rousey at Marvel Stadium (then Etihad Stadium) in Melbourne. And four years after that, that mark fell when Israel Adesanya's KO of Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 brought in north of 57K in Melbourne.

But UFC 129 was the one that let the UFC know bigger and bolder could be done. Along with GSP's win over a largely forgotten name in Shields and Aldo's title win over Hominick, Lyoto Machida retired Randy Couture with a first-round crane kick. Plus, future UFC champ Benson Henderson and future Bellator champ Rory MacDonald were also on the card – with the latter utterly dominating Nate Diaz in front of his home fans.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Today in MMA history, UFC 129 shatters all-time gate, attendance marks