MONTREAL — Georges St. Pierre reclaimed his welterweight title last night, dominating Matt Serra in a second-round TKO before a hometown crowd at UFC 83.

The 26-year-old St. Pierre was greeted by a deafening roar from the crowd of 21,390 at Bell Centre, filled with Canadian flags, fervour and more than a little testosterone. He wore black trunks with a fleur-de-lys, matching the tattoo on his right calf.

The boos started before the stocky Serra, from Long Island, N.Y., even started his entrance.

St. Pierre took Serra down right off the bat in the mixed martial arts bout.

The crowd sang "Ole, Ole Ole" as St. Pierre went about his business looking to improve his position on the ground. It took Serra four minutes to get back up and then St. Pierre took him down again.

It was more of the same in the second, with two takedowns and a standup exchange that St. Pierre won. The end came when referee Yves Lavigne moved in to stop a turtled Serra from absorbing any more knees to the body at 4:45 of the second round.

St. Pierre (16-2) did a backflip in the middle of the ring. A dazed Serra (16-5) regrouped and then the two fighters hugged.

Serra upset St. Pierre for the 170-pound crown one year ago at UFC 69 in Houston.

"It's the most beautiful day of my life. A dream come true. And I couldn't wish for a better scenario, honestly," St. Pierre said. "It's like a dream, it's amazing.

"But I know what happened (when he lost to Serra). I'm going to work even harder to stay there."

In the co-main event, former middleweight champion Rich Franklin earned a TKO over Travis Lutter at 3:01 of the second round.

Franklin survived a stint on the ground with Lutter, a black belt in jiu-jitsu, in the first round of a fight that did not live up to its billing.

Lutter tried for an armbar but missed and he soon paid for that failure. In the second, Franklin's Muay Thai strikes and knees eventually took a toll on a gassed Lutter as he tried unsuccessfully for a takedown.

Franklin improved to 25-3 in bouncing back from a second loss to champion Anderson Silva. Lutter, fighting for the first time in 14 months after back and neck problems following his own loss to Silva, fell to 12-5.

On the undercard middleweight Jason MacDonald pounded out a win in an all-Canadian grudge match with rival Joe Doerksen.

MacDonald (21-9) finished the mixed martial arts fight with a string of elbows to the head, then stood over his fallen opponent after referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the bout 56 seconds into the second round.

The Canadian show ranks as the biggest — and fastest sellout — in UFC history. The previous attendance record was 19,049, set at UFC 68 on March 3, 2007, at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Also, welterweight Jonathan Goulet of Victoriaville earned the first UFC win on Canadian soil when he survived some heavy punishment late in the rough first round to stop Kuniyoshi Hironaka at 2:07 of the second.