By Mike Russell

I first met Shawn Tompkins six years ago while I was working for The Fight Network in Toronto, Canada. I’d been a fan of his work for a while, having watched Mark Hominick and Sam Stout climb the Canadian rankings under his tutelage, but didn’t get the opportunity to shake the hand of the London, Ontario coach, who was considered by many to be the top trainer in Canada until late 2005. He was one of the good guys in the sport, always eager to talk shop and would give you the shirt off of his back if you needed it.

I last spoke to “The Coach” a week ago for a story I was working on for Fighters Only Magazine about his brother-in-law and longtime protégée Sam Stout. In spite of the fact that he was on vacation (the first one he’d taken in years) and was in the midst of celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife Emilie, Shawn promptly responded to the text I sent him asking if he had time to talk that week with a familiar reply: “I’ve always got time for you, Mike.”

It didn’t surprise me when he told me that day that he and Sam had never had a disagreement.

(Time sure does fly…)

WEC 49 went down 1 year ago.

Why it matters:

Josh Grispi earned the next shot at WEC featherweight champ Jose Aldo with his win over LC Davis at this show held in Edmonton, Alberta. Because of an injury, Aldo had to pull out of their planned UFC 125 bout. Rather than wait for his shot, Grispi took a fight with Dustin Poirier on the January card and lost via unanimous decision. As a result, another fighter who impressed on the UFC 49 card earned the next shot at Aldo.

Mark Hominick was en route to a unanimous decision loss to fellow Canadian Yves Jabouin in Edmonton, but pulled out one of the most impressive come from behind wins in WEC history.

Stunned and dropped by a stiff right hand, Hominick weathered the ensuing ground and pound onslaught, swept Jabouin and forced a TKO stoppage via punishment from the mount.

A quick first round TKO win over teammate George Roop in his next bout earned him a shot at Aldo at UFC 129 this past April. Although he couldn’t finish the Aldo, Hominick showed the heart of a champion by fighting through a massive, disgusting hematoma to give Aldo the fight of his life and finishing the last round in dominating fashion.

This should not be Florian’s stiffest test before Aldo. Just saying. PicProps: Examiner.com

Dana White has all but made official the next featherweight championship fight, saying that Kenny Florian “pretty much” is next in line for Jose Aldo, and we’ve kind of grumbled about it. It’s not the we don’t like Ken-Flo — we do — but we’re not entirely sold on Florian as the number one contender in the featherweight division.

Being brand new to the weight class, most reasonable people would expect Florian to get two or three good wins before they throw him in against the Brazilian destroyer of legs and faces. It’s not like we’re asking him to go on an eight fight win streak before he gets a title shot, just spend more than fifteen minutes in the weight class.

Being the kind and helpful people we are, we decided to share our own ideas about who Florian could fight next to strengthen his case for a shot at the belt. If Florian wins, then by all means slate him for the Aldo fight. If he loses, he probably wasn’t ready anyway, right?

(Video courtesy of YouTube/EskriMMA)

Shooto featherweight champion Hatsu Hioki announced today that he has relinquished his belt and that he is moving on from the Japanese promotion in search of other challenges.

“At this time, I’ve returned the Shooto world lightweight title,” Hioki told Sherdog.com via email. “There is a pride in wearing the Shooto world title, but I think that, in the near future, I would like to challenge a new stage of pride.”

According to Sherdog, the popular 24-4-2 fighter, who holds a pair of wins over UFC featherweight contender Mark Hominick as well as one a piece over Takeshi “Lion” Inoue and Marlon Sandro, is being flown in to Vancouver, BC to attend UFC 131. I think we can all connect the dots on where he’s fighting next.

(“Get a load of this guy. He calls himself ‘Money.’”)

The UFC moved swiftly to find a replacement opponent for number one UFC featherweight contender Chad Mendes when 145-pound champ Jose Aldo bowed out of a planned late summer match-up with the 26-year-old Hanford, California native earlier in the week. According to MMAJunkie, the promotion has inked Rani Yahya to face Mendes at UFC 133 August 6 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Mark Hominick MMA Live interview – Watch more Funny Videos

Three weeks after his unsuccessful bid for the UFC featherweight title at UFC 129, Mark Hominick was in London, Ontario, supporting his Adrenaline Training Center teammate James Haourt at MMA Live 1. Our own Brian J. D’Souza caught up with the local hero to get his thoughts on his last fight and his immediate future. Some highlights…

On his performance against Jose Aldo: “[He's] one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and I wasn’t supposed to get out of the first round, and if there were 30 more seconds, I’d be wearing the belt right now. It was one of those fights that like, you go back to the drawing board and there’s a few things that could have changed, but I laid my heart out on the line, I laid it in the ring, I put everything into that fight and everybody who was there knows that, and everyone who watched the fight knows that…I almost had him finished in the fifth, and it’s just that the knockdown in the third kind of took the momentum I felt I was building, and kind of took the sail out until I had to come back in the fifth.”

(That’s what happens when you spar every day with Steven Seagal.)

Heavy.com is reporting that UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has sustained an unspecified injury that will likely push back a planned late summer title defense against Chad Mendes.

According to the story, which sites several unnamed sources who predict the minor setback wil keep Aldo out until about September, Mendes will likely take a fight in the interim. Although no potential opponents have been named at this point, one fighter who would likely be up to facing Mendes is Mark Hominick, who logged a gutsy five-round war with Aldo in April at UFC 129 in Toronto.

(“See? Good as new.” Photo via twitter.com/markhominick)

Following his admirable decision loss to Jose Aldo at UFC 129, featherweight contender Mark Hominick claimed that he’s just two wins from another title shot. If he gets his way, his first return opponent will be “the Korean Zombie,” Chan Sung Jung. On Friday, Jung tweeted “I want mark hominick,” to which the Machine responded: “Korean Zombie would be an awesome fight!…It would be a great fight and would love to do it if it was offered.”

Jung is coming off his outstanding “twister” submission victory against Leonard Garcia in March, avenging a previous judging robbery at WEC 48. Sandwiched between the two fights against Garcia, Jung suffered a head-kick knockout against George Roop. Coincidentally, Hominick TKO’d Roop in his last fight before UFC 129, and beat Garcia so convincingly last year that even the judges couldn’t screw him out of a victory (although one of them tried.) Feel free to do your own MMA Math on this one…

(“Hey you guys!!! Can I get a Baby Ruth?”)

UFC featherweight Mark Hominick was on The Fan 590 RadioMonday morning where he spoke with host Andrew Krystal about his gutsy fight at UFC 129 against Jose Aldo this past weekend.

According to “The Machine,” who says the gruesome hematoma he incurred during the bout was “merely a flesh wound,” the UFC brass were so impressed with his performance Saturday night that they have assured him that if he can put together a couple more wins, he’ll get another crack at the the promotion’s 145-pound strap.

Check out what Hominick had to say after the jump.

(Mendes thinks he can expose Aldo on the ground using his wrestling prowess)

Number one UFC featherweight contender Chad Mendes watched Jose Aldo grind out a decision win over Mark Hominick live at the Rogers Centre in Toronto and walked away from the event with the confidence that he can beat the previously thought invincible UFC featherweight champion.

Mendes told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto yesterday that he isn’t buying the excuse that the Aldo was sick going into the bout or that the strain of cutting weight after adding muscle the past several months left him in a weakened state strength and conditioning-wise.

Yeah, that happened.

Ever since the UFC purchased Strikeforce, it has been business as usual. Well, for some things at least. Georges St. Pierre and Jose Aldo are still the kings of their respective weight classes. Jumping karate kicks are still incredibly badass. A stadium full of over 55,000 fans could get pretty loud. You know, business as usual.

Georges St. Pierre extended his winning streak to nine fights last night in convincing fashion, exhibiting his superior stand-up skills en route to a unanimous decision victory over Jake Shields. While Jake Shields displayed much better striking last night than anything we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him, he was also unable to get the fight to the ground. Oh well, on to Anderson Silva now, right?

Well, not exactly. GSP didn’t hide that he hasn’t committed to moving up to middleweight, and Anderson Silva still has to beat Yushin Okami for this to happen. Oh yeah, there’s also one minor issue: Dana White seems interested in seeing GSP fight Nick Diaz. But can Dana White really make this fight happen? In the “business as usual” manner we’ve come to expect, Dana White said, “I imagine I could do whatever I wanted to do if I really wanted. But we have a contract with Showtime, and he’s a Strikeforce fighter. We’ll see how it works out, but that’s an interesting fight.” For what it’s worth, Jake Shields also likes the idea of Diaz vs. GSP.

(Props: Cagewriter)

Heart of a champion, head of Quasimodo. On the bright side, this is a star-making loss for Mark Hominick. He gave Jose Aldo everything he could handle (especially in the dominant finish to the fifth round), and picked up tons of new fans in the process. Now somebody get that kid an Aspirin…

All praise be to Master Steven Seagal. Or Ralph Macchio. One of the two. Lyoto Machida‘s incredible jumping front-kick KO of Randy Couture at UFC 129 netted him the event’s Knockout of the Night bonus, which came out to a whopping $129,000. (See what Dana did there?) The UFC can certainly afford it, since UFC 129′s gate revenue was reportedly $12.075 million.

Also picking up $129k bonuses: Jose Aldo and Mark Hominick (Fight of the Night) for their epic five-round featherweight title bout, and Pablo Garza for his flying triangle over Yves Jabouin in the first preliminary match.

Another look at the Machida/Couture KO is after the jump. Gifs via The Destroyer88.

(Well, *somebody’s* already got the “Creep of the Night” bonus all sewn up. Pic: UFC.tv)

What will 55,000 screaming Canadians sound like? Our best guess: Loud, but polite. That politeness may well be tested prior to tonight’s main event, when California hippie Jake Shields takes the cage. The UFC – and champion Georges St. Pierre – have gone out of their way this week to cast Shields as the biggest threat yet to St. Pierre’s dominance. That in and of itself is interesting, since a year or two ago you likely wouldn’t have been able to get anyone from the UFC to admit Shields was better than guys like Josh Koscheck or Thiago Alves for any amount of money. It is truly a new day in MMA, kids. Anyways, we’ll be live with results and commentary of the PPV card beginning at 9 p.m. EST time. Don’t forget to hit refresh early and often to keep up with the latest updates.

(Props: MMAFighting)

Weigh-ins for UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields went down yesterday at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, with all 24 fighters making weight. Well, basically. Ben Henderson hit the scales at 156.5, and was given an hour to lose that extra half-pound, which he did. Bendo didn’t look too happy being on the scale in the first place; the tough cut might be a factor in his fight against Mark Bocek. Later, Mark Hominick‘s weight was announced at 145.25. There is no one-pound allowance for UFC title fights, but the match was OK’d anyway. Possible explanations include miscommunication and the overly trusting nature of Canadians.

In other weigh-in weirdness, Lyoto Machida brought Steven Seagal with him during his face-off against Randy Couture (you can find a rather amazing photo of that moment after the jump), and Ivan Menjivar showed up with a Wolverine claw that definitely didn’t look like it came from a toy store. Just seemed kind of unsafe, that’s all.

Come back to CagePotato.com tonight for live results from the UFC 129 broadcast; remember, Spike TV prelims start at 8 p.m. ET, and the pay-per-view starts at 9.

We recently spoke with UFC featherweight contender Mark Hominick and discussed a number of things from his upcoming UFC 129 championship bout with Jose Aldo tomorrow night to how he mentally prepares to prove his detractors that he’s no underdog.

Check out what “The Machine” had to say after the jump.

(You’re lucky you’re not a fat ugly bully, Jake. PicProps: Tracy Lee/CombatLifestyle.com)

If you missed the UFC 129 press conference, have no fear, we’ve got you covered with the short and sweet version of what went down today in Toronto.

If you want to waste 45 minutes watching the whole shebang, we will have the video up within the hour. Alternatively, you can watch it on UFC.com.

For the rest of us that have shit to do tonight, the Cliff’s Notes are after the jump.

If you believe the odds makers, we’ll all be paying good money to watch a bunch of epic squash matches during this Saturday’s UFC 129 pay-per-view. There are a lot of long, long odds on the card this weekend and while that may not be great news for the squares watching at home, it’s enough to make any self respecting gambler’s heart go pitter-pat inside his silky, hula girl print Hawaiian shirt. When the numbers are this big you really only have two options, boys and girls: Bet heavy on the favorites in a sober attempt to turn a meager profit or throw down on the dogs in a blind smorgasbord of wanton excess. Any wonder which route we’re gonna take? That’s right, friends, we’re taking the more funner-er route. The odds themselves – from Bookmaker.com – are after the jump.

(Video courtesy of Videobb/FightVideosMMA)

If you can’t wait until tonight to watch the Countdown to UFC 129, we got you covered.

The Cliff’s Notes on the show are after the jump.

(The fight that opened the doors for Jabouin. PicProps: Sherdog)

If you haven’t yet watched an Yves Jabouin fight and you aren’t going to UFC 129, we suggest you sign up for a Facebook account to catch the Montreal-based Haitian take on Pablo Garza in the event’s prelims next Saturday.

A training partner of several past and present UFC standouts including David Loiseau, Miguel Torres and Georges St-Pierre, Jabouin has continually impressed his teammates with his highlight-reel finishes, his shocking speed and explosiveness.

We had a chance recently to speak with the 10-year MMA veteran and we discussed a number of topics including his childhood, his long road to the Octagon, and losing out on a title shot to Mark Hominick.

Check out what “Tiger” had to say after the jump.

If you’ve ever wondered what UFC conference calls are like, they’re pretty much the same as the UFC pre and post-fight press conferences, featuring the same reporters asking the same questions and typically getting the same replies.

Today’s first half of the two scheduled UFC 129 conference calls which featured Mark Hominick, Jose Aldo, Lyoto Machida and Randy Couture, was somewhat overshadowed by Couture’s retirement announcement that made the rounds this morning. Most of the questions (and a few separate congratulatory messages) were directed at Couture from writers wanting to know if he would keep his word this time, why he made the decision and what he would do next. One even asked Machida how he felt being involved in “The Natural’s” last fight. I was surprised that some of the journos on the call didn’t ask Aldo and Hominick what they thought about Randy calling it a career.

I kind of felt bad for Hominick and Aldo, who, although aren’t quitting fighting ARE fighting as the co-headliners in a championship bout on the largest scale MMA card in North American history. Priorities people. Randy will be available to answer questions about his retirement plans after the fight.

A few tidbits and the audio from the call are after the jump.

(Photo courtesy of Eddie Manuel Photography)

London, Ontario police today revealed that they had arrested 28-year-old Las Vegas-based welterweight fighter Kasheem “The Dream” Peterson in connection with a sexual assault that occurred on the outskirts of the city southwest of Toronto at approximately 6:30 am Friday morning.

The victim, a 21-year-old woman who was not from the area and who had met Peterson prior to the alleged assault, reported the attack to police over the weekend and folowing an investigation by police, the Philidelphia native was arrested and charged with sexual assault, forcible confinement and choking someone with the intent of committing sexual assault.

(“Admit it, you guys have no idea who I am, do you?” Pic: Heavy)

Still so relatively new to the UFC party, the sub-lightweight divisions are to MMA analysts as the New World must have been to early cartographers. We think we have a rough sketch of what’s out there, but the exact shape of things is a little foggy and once we get past the top two or three, we’re just gonna draw some squiggles and write something like “Here there be sea monsters!”

The featherweight class, for example, is still very much in the process finding its legs in the Octagon, with the promotional debut of champion Jose Aldo pushed back to UFC 129 due to the pain in his neck. Already however, there has been a pretty significant influx of talent into the 145-pound ranks since the UFC officially absorbed it at the beginning of this year. Michihiro Omigawa, Kenny Florian and Tyson Griffin have all plunged into the division, with more immigration sure to follow as the 155-pound division gets more and more crowded. We guess what we’re saying is, things can change fast in the land of the little man, so read our inaugural featherweight rankings now before something happens to render them moot.

(If Roop can kill a zombie, he has the potential to do the same to a grappler from Plympton, Mass. Still, this is Grispi’s fight to lose.)

According to a report by The Boston Herald, Josh Grispi’s booby prize for losing to Jose Aldo’s UFC 125 replacement, Dustin Poirier, will be the fighter current number one contender Mark Hominick recently beat to leapfrog “The Fluke” to a title shot.

(Video courtesy YouTube/TheNewYorkBadAss)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- If Stann can’t get Wand, he’ll settle for Bisping or Belfort  (LowKick)

– Five lessons we learned for UFC Fight for the Troops II (Versus MMA Beat)

Herschel Walker: ’This is not a gimmick for me. This is life.’  (FiveOuncesofPain)

– Ricco Rodriguez to begin his road back to the UFC against James McSweeney at BAMMA 5 (MiddleEasy)

- A tribute to Chuck Liddell (WMMMALC newcomers ProFighting-Fans)

– Watch Hatsu Hioki choke Mark Hominick unconscious (MMAScraps)

– Tito Ortiz prepared to resume career outside UFC when if he loses to Lil’ Nog’ (5thRound)

– Both UFC and Strikeforce planning 2011 events in Japan (MMAConvert)

– In poll of favorite sports, MMA is overlooked (MMAFighting)

– M-1 Global signs UFC vet Vinny Magalhaes (FightMagazine)

– Elimination round for TUF 13 nixed by UFC and Spike (SBNation/MMA)

(We don’t really have to crack a joke about this position, do we? PicProps: Yahoo Sports)

Credit where credit is due: Melvin Guillard absolutely steamrolled Evan Dunham last night. He came out and simply blitzed the former lightweight golden boy with his speed, clipping him with an early right hand that Dunham never appeared to recover from. By the time Guillard put a fork in him a couple minutes later with a trio of knees along the fence – the last, clearly illegal one “just a technicality” the broadcast team immediately assured us – he’d managed to further scramble the already muddy lightweight ranks. Now watch Anthony Pettis lose to Clay Guida at the “TUF 13” finale and George Sotiropoulos lose to Dennis Siver at UFC 127 and we’ll really be in trouble.

However — (*clears throat*) – let’s not get carried away here. Let’s not get too crazy. Let’s not do the thing we seem to always do when a guy wins a big fight and start to completely overvalue Guillard based on this one performance. What he proved with his beating of Dunham on Saturday night was either one of two things. One, it could be that Greg Jackson is helping him to finally harness the physical tools he’s possessed from the beginning and has Guillard on the verge of becoming something special in the lightweight division. Or two, he was just a terrible match-up of styles for Dunham.

(Creepiest job shadow ever. PicProps: UFC.com)

The fighters are locked and loaded. We can only assume that by now Evan Dunham has eased off the bender he no doubt went on after his beloved Ducks shit the bed in the BCS championship. Obviously, Melvin Guillard has found a suitably enormous wristwatch to complement his main event status. The troops have surely been drinking all day and we the audience have once again collectively decided to ignore the obvious irony of benefitting the survivors of traumatic brain injury with a show where the desired outcome often includes closed head trauma. In other words, as Bruce Buffer might say, it’s time.

We’ll be live starting at 9 p.m. EST. Be sure to hit refresh early and often for the latest updates.

(Video courtesy Sportsnet)

During last night’s episode of Sportsnet’s MMA Connected, the show’s host "Showdown" Joe Ferraro revealed that if Mark Hominick handily beats George Roop at UFN 23 and comes out of the fight without injury, he will fight Jose Aldo at UFC 129 in Toronto on April 30.

"If London, Ontario’s Mark Hominick can defeat George Roop and come out unscathed at UFC Fight Night 23, look for "The Machine" to earn a title shot versus featherweight champion Jose Aldo," Ferraro stated.

Hominick was supposed to fight Aldo for the newly-minted UFC featherweight strap at UFC 125, but he was forced to pull out of the bout when the broken hand he went into his WEC 51 fight with Leonard Garcia with didn’t heal in time for him to resume training. He was replaced by Josh Grispi on the card, but after Aldo bowed out of the fight with a neck injury, the 22-year-old lost his place in line for the title shot when he dropped a unanimous decision to the champ’s replacement, relatively unknown fighter Dustin Poirier.

A veteran of 27 MMA bouts, Hominick’s only losses in the past six years have come at the hands of three highly-touted fighters: Grispi, Rani Yahya and Hatsu Hioki. His second bout with Hioki, which he lost by a razor-thin majority decision and was contested under the TKO banner is widely regarded as one of the greatest featherweight fights in Canadian MMA history.

For an idea what Aldo-Hominick might look like, check out that fight after the jump.

According to a new report from Ariel Helwani, contracts have been sent out to book Jose Aldo vs. Josh Grispi as the UFC’s first official featherweight title fight at #125 (January 1st, Las Vegas). The bout would serve as the co-main event, supporting the lightweight title fight between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.

Aldo, now 8-0 in the WEC, most recently defended his belt for the second time against Manny Gamburyan at WEC 51 in September. Grispi is also undefeated under the WEC banner, and has slashed through Mark Hominick, Micah Miller, Jens Pulver, and LC Davis, all in under three minutes of the first round. The Massachusetts native was slated to face Eric Koch at next month’s WEC 52 event, but that fight would be canceled if he accepts the Aldo fight. (And why wouldn’t he, really? Besides the obvious.) As we reported previously, Mark Hominick was originally in line to be Aldo’s next opponent; however, his broken hand is preventing him from competing on New Year’s Day.

Helwani also reports that Roy Nelson — left without an opponent after Shane Carwin’s back-related withdrawal — has been officially pulled from the event. 

(Chances are this one isn’t going to decision.)

It looks like Mark Hominick won’t be the only Team Tompkins product who will get a step up in competition for his next WEC fight.

Chris Horodecki is slated to take on former WEC number one lightweight contender Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone at WEC 53 on December 16 in Phoenix, AZ.

The news was first reported by MMAWeekly, and CagePotato.com has since been able to confirm the bout with a source close to the fight.

16-2 in his five-year MMA career, "The Polish Hammer" was knocked out in dramatic fashion in his WEC debut by Anthony Njokuani, but rebounded with a pair of wins over Danny Downes and Ed Ratcliffe. Cerrone will arguably provide the 23-year-old London, Ontario native, who was the face of thew now-defunct International Fight League with his toughest test to date.