Just like teammate and business partner Sam Stout, Mark Hominick is a “young veteran.”
Nicknamed “The Machine,” the Thamesford, Ontario native is only 28 years old, but has been competing in the cage for the better part of the last decade. Despite having faced some of the top featherweights in the world over that time, it hasn’t been until his recent run of success in the WEC that Hominick has started to get the attention of the MMA community.
Returning to the organization after an eighteen-month layoff that saw a number of fights fall by the wayside, Hominick has earned back-to-back stoppages over Bryan Caraway and Yves Jabouin, setting up his biggest fight to date. Fresh off his Fight of the Year front-runner with Chan Sung Jung, Leonard Garcia will step in with Hominick this Thursday night, hoping to impede his progress.
“This is one of those fights that take me to the next level,” says Hominick while taking a break from his training at the TapouT Training Center with coach Shawn Tompkins. “Leonard has been to the top of that mountain; he’s fought for that title, he’s put on countless fights in the WEC that people will always remember, especially his last one with Jung. He’s one of the big names in the WEC and to have a win over him would be huge.”
This was a fight Hominick asked for, lobbying to face the Greg Jackson trainee shortly after putting away long-time rival Yves Jabouin at WEC 49. Calling out an opponent, especially one as dangerous as Garcia, puts some added pressure on Hominick to succeed, but he welcomes the challenge.
“Shawn was saying earlier in the week, `You asked for this, so you’ve got to perform now,’” Hominick says. “And that’s the thing: I’m ready, willing and able right now. Training has gone well, I’ve been out here in Vegas for about six weeks and I’m ready to rock.
“These are the kind of fights I perform best in,” continued Hominick, pointing to his previous success under the spotlight in the UFC, Affliction and as the co-main event last time out in Edmonton. “I like that pressure, and if you want to be fighting for the title, that’s when you have to perform.”
After struggling to a 5-4 record early in his career fighting for TKO and UCC in Montreal, Hominick has gone 13-4 over his last 17 fights, with two of those losses coming to Top 10-ranked Japanese star Hatsu Hioki. Hominick believes he’s just starting to hit his prime.
“I always said even when I was coming up fighting, I always thought that you came into your prime between 28 and 30 and obviously that’s where I’m at now. It’s just like this sport – you have to be constantly learning, and I’m starting to reach the potential I always believed I could reach.”
Hominick could take another step forward in his development with a third-consecutive straight win in what is sure to be an exciting meeting with the popular Garcia.
While there is no mystery surrounding the former title challenger’s approach once the cage door closes, Hominick has shown a diverse skill set since beginning his second tour of duty with the WEC last January. He showed impressive jiu-jitsu skills against Bryan Caraway, catching the wrestler in an armbar/triangle choke. His bout with Yves Jabouin was a top-flight kickboxing display.
One thing that was featured in both fights was the patented Mark Hominick victory celebration – a series of push-ups done in the center of the cage.
“It happened after my second pro fight,” Hominick says with a laugh. “There was a bit of bad blood with a team we fought against in Quebec. They were saying how their guy was basically going to walk through me because I was just a kid and whatnot. I just dropped down and started doing push-ups as if to say, `I just ran through you and I’m still ready to go through whoever you’ve got next.’ It was a spur of the moment thing that became patented. I guess that’s why they call me The Machine.”
After nearly a decade as a fighter, Hominick is finally being mentioned amongst the best featherweights in the world, and a victory should propel him into the upper echelon of the division.
Unlike the horrible Terminator sequel, this is one “Rise of The Machine” that you don’t want miss.
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