The Ultimate Fighting Championship made its successful debut in Canada with UFC 83: Serra vs. St. Pierre 2. All favorites cashed tickets, but finished their fights by different methods in front of a capacity crowd at Montreal's Bell Centre.

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Georges ‘Rush’ St. Pierre (16-2) regained the UFC welterweight title with a second-round technical knockout of Matt ‘The Terror’ Serra (9-5). St. Pierre dominated the entire contest, ending the fight with some devastating knees to the body before referee Yves Lavigne called the bout at the 4:45 mark.

St. Pierre was ready to go from the pre-fight stare down, with the rabid Canadian hometown fans cheering wildly. ‘Rush’ took this fight to the ground immediately, a vastly different strategy from the first meeting when he was knocked out in the first round. St. Pierre prevailed as a decided $5.00 ‘chalk’ (bet $500 to win $100) over Serra, the $3.25 underdog (bet $100 to win $325).

“My strategy was to make this a physical fight and to tire him,” stated St. Pierre in a postfight interview. “I want to say thank you to Matt Serra who fought in front of my hometown fans.

“I will sacrifice and fight in New York should we meet again. The trash talking leading up to this fight was just to hype up the fight, I bet we’ll go out and get a drink together later tonight.”

St. Pierre pushed the pace the entire contest, leaving Serra’s face and ribcage severely bruised by the end of the fight. The knees to the body were extremely effective, vastly changing his strategy from the first meeting that was exclusively a standup affair. It was surprising that St. Pierre controlled the action on the canvas since Serra is a jiu-jitsu blackbelt. However, the Canadian smothered his opponent and didn’t let him rotate his hips for any submission attempts.

“I was trying to get angles on the ground, but he’s slippery and controlled the fight,” said Serra. “I want to congratulate George, he’s obviously the best fighter in the world.”

The middleweight fight between Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin and Travis Lutter was a classic contrast in styles, pitting a striker against a jiu jitsu master. Franklin, the former champion in the middleweight division, prevailed at 3:01 of the second round by technical knockout when referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the fight. ‘Ace’ cashed tickets as the $3.50 favorite, improving to 23-3 and knocking Lutter down to 9-5.

Lutter took this contest to the ground early in the first round, and almost locked in an armbar until Franklin reversed and escaped. That would be the closest that Lutter would be to beating his opponent. The Texan won the first round on all three judges’ scorecards.

Franklin dominated the second stanza as Lutter looked incredibly exhausted. ‘Ace’ continued to pepper Lutter with head shots and knees before Mazzagatti called the contest.

“I was just trying to install a false sense of security for Lutter,” joked Franklin after the fight. “I trained for his jiu jitsu and I didn’t want to wear myself out, Lutter is known for his lack of conditioning.”

**Octagon Extras**

-Mac Danzig, winner of The Ultimate Fighter 6, cashed tickets as the biggest favorite of the night when he beat Mark Bocek with a rear-naked choke at 3:48 of the third round. Danzig (18-4-1) was a decided $5.50 favorite over Bocek (5-2) in this lightweight contest.

-Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping was impressive in his initial fight as a middleweight, beating Charles ‘Chainsaw’ McCarthy when the fight was stopped after the first round due to strikes. Bisping (15-1) entered the octagon as a $3.30 ‘chalk,’ and prevailed with an assortment of knees that injured McCarthy’s (10-5) forearm.

-The worst fight of the night was reserved for the middleweight matchup between Nathan ‘Rock’ Quarry (10-2) and Kalib Starnes. This contest also featured the first 30-24 scoring in a UFC event, with Quarry winning a boring unanimous decision. The lack of action was so bad that the Canadian fans were chanting ‘boring’ in the second round. The fans roundly booed the Canadian Starnes (8-3-1) for his lack of fighting. Quarry won as a $2.95 favorite.

Brad Young can be reached at byoung@vegasinsider.com.