Issue 075

May 2011

Could the unassuming Mark ‘The Machine’ Hominick be the man to beat José Aldo at the UFC’s Toronto best-in show?

Everyone wants a piece of Mark ‘The Machine’ Hominick. “I’m used to doing up to 15 press interviews in total for every fight. Yours is my eighth just today,” he says of the fraught run-up to his title shot against FO World MMA Awards ‘Fighter of the Year’ José Aldo. Why the heat? Because pinpoint striker Hominick, a typically laid-back and approachable Canadian, is reckoned to be the toughest opponent of Aldo’s reign as WEC-stroke-UFC featherweight champion. A training partner of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, Aldo has only lost once in 19 professional fights. Hominick points out that no matter how invincible a fighter may seem, every man can be beaten some way, somehow. The key he says is working tirelessly in the gym and in the fight to expose the mortal underneath the panoply.

“I’m a fan of José. He’s dominant and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters, but I think the key to fighting him and beating him is to not be intimidated. If you go in there having watched all of his fights where he’s knocked out everyone and you say, ‘This guy is unbeatable,’ then he’s unbeatable,” Hominick explains. “He’s never even been close to being touched, so we don’t know if he has any weaknesses, but you can’t go in there and make him out to be a god. You can’t have too much respect for him. All the best fighters in the world like Georges [St Pierre], Anderson [Silva] and Fedor [Emelianenko] have been beaten. There’s always someone out there who could step up and dethrone them at any time and I believe that I’m the guy to do that to José Aldo.” 

Two things the Canadian will have on his side when he squares off with Aldo on April 30 in Toronto will be the partisan crowd at the Rogers Centre – which will be comprised of 55,000 raucous, mostly Canadian fans – and the fact that he is undefeated in the Octagon. In spite of the added pressure of fighting in front of his countrymen, Hominick feels that the onus is on his opponent to perform. “I definitely don’t want a loss on my UFC record and I don’t want to lose in my hometown or home province. But I think he has as much, if not more, pressure on him to perform because he’s the champ and he’s heavily favored in this fight.” 

Championships and pressure are nothing new for the Thamesford, Ontario, native. On June 15, 2002 – one week prior to his 20th birthday – Hominick entered the ring for his first professional mixed martial arts bout. Less than 15 minutes later he emerged as the Universal Combat Challenge super-lightweight champion – a title he held for over three-and-a-half years, meaning he was a champion more than twice as long as Aldo has been. Later that same night, fellow Canadian Georges St Pierre, who made his own MMA debut six months earlier, also became a UCC champion, snagging the organization’s welterweight strap. It’s fitting that the two, who are arguably Canada’s most accomplished fighters to date, will anchor the UFC’s first card in Ontario since the sport was legalized and that they could both again walk away from the event champions from the same promotion. Although their careers have followed decidedly different trajectories, Hominick has followed St Pierre’s career closely and says that he tries to emulate the UFC welterweight champ in certain areas. 

“To be one of the best you have to fill in the holes in your game and continue to constantly evolve. I always point to Georges as the perfect example of a guy who has done that his whole career. He’s the best in the world, but each fight he comes out and he’s better. He’s better in every area. It takes a long time, but you need to keep evolving and adding more pieces to your armor. I’ve done that with my wrestling and jiu-jitsu, which were the weakest parts of my game. I’ve really just thrown myself into improving my skills in those areas in particular,” Hominick humbly explains. “The key is to go to wrestling practice and jiu-jitsu class with no ego. You’re going to get tossed on your head when you’re training with high level wrestlers and grapplers; that’s what they do for a living, so you need to suck it up. Each time you practice you get better and better until you’re eventually throwing them on their heads. You just have to keep on working at it no matter how tough it is. There are going to be days where you get tossed around in the areas you’re weaker in and sometimes even in the areas where you’re the strongest, but you just need to keep pushing and working at getting better.”

The most recent battle-hardened, road-tested and ‘new and improved’ model of ‘The Machine’ is largely a result of several revisions and countless hours of manpower spent in the gym. But the real difference in version 2.0 is the different way he is wired. Having hit a self-described “rough patch” in his professional career, Hominick explains that he made subtle changes to how he approached his fights and says the results were remarkable. “My Affliction fight with Savant Young [in July 2008] was the turnaround for me. Something just clicked. I knew what I was capable of and I told myself that I had to just go in there and perform. Since then I haven’t lost. I had issues where I was so concerned about what my opponents were going to do that I stopped focusing on what I wanted to do and it ended up hurting my performance. It’s a constant battle to make sure your head is where it needs to be. As a fighter, you’re in the cage by yourself. Whatever makes you mentally strong and whatever motivates you, you need to do.”

With all of his supposed mental and physical weaknesses now shored up, Hominick is confident in his chances at beating Aldo and says that in spite of the opinions of a handful of detractors, he deserves the shot at the Brazilian. He points out that none of the potential alternates have done as much to earn the right to face the dominant champion as he has and that his level of experience and technical striking – which several analysts, including UFC color commentator Joe Rogan have deemed on par with the best in the sport – make him the ideal opponent for Aldo.

“MMA is such an Internet-based sport. Everyone has an opinion and they have a right to it, but if you break it down, everyone else has gotten a shot at Aldo. If you look at all of the other top guys in the division – Mike Brown, Urijah Faber, Manny Gamburyan – all those guys were winning their fights and they got a shot,” he says earnestly. “Besides me, there’s Diego Nunes, but he trains with Aldo. There’s Chad Mendes; he’s undefeated, but most of his wins were by decision and he really hasn’t had any statement fights. I had some decent finishes, I had a big knockout and I fought and beat all of the guys [Zuffa has] put in front of me. I think it’s a fight that makes sense. José has never faced a striker like me and I think I’m the one question mark in the division.”