Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Canadian Fighters

10. Mark Hominick

Hominick cracks the list at 10th. Personally, I had Hominick’s teammate, Sam Stout, well ahead of him, but Hominick ended up a point ahead overall in the final rankings. Hominick was a very skilled kickboxer with some defensive grappling deficiencies, which account for his sometimes-uneven record. After some early losses upon turning pro, Hominick was 9-4 when he debuted in the UFC in 2006 against Yves Edwards, who was a Top 10 lightweight at the time. In a shocking, memorable upset, Hominick hurt Edwards badly with strikes, then finished him with a beautiful triangle choke. With the UFC lightweight division still on life support, Hominick dropped to featherweight, but was submitted in his next fight against Hatsu Hioki in Canada’s TKO promotion. He recovered with a three-fight win streak, the only victory of note being a decision over Jorge Gurgel at lightweight, before losing a rematch to Hioki. Hominick then signed with World Extreme Cagefighting but found it no easier, as he was submitted in just 79 seconds by Rani Yahya, who had won gold at the 2007 Abu Dhabi Combat Club submission grappling world championships the month before. After a knockout of Ben Greer and a decision over Danny Martinez in TKO, Hominick returned to the WEC and was again choked out in Round 1, this time by Josh Grispi.

Many had written him off at that point, but Hominick improved his grappling and embarked on a nice winning streak. Notably, he submitted Bryan Caraway, knocked out Yves Jabouin, then took a split decision against Leonard Garcia. With the WEC’s final absorption by the UFC, Hominick returned to the Octagon and blasted fellow blue-cage veteran George Roop in the first round. That earned Hominick a shot at the UFC featherweight crown against outgoing WEC champ Jose Aldo, whom I consider the greatest fighter ever pound-for-pound. At UFC 129, Hominick valiantly made it to the final bell, though he lost a clear decision. He would not win again in mixed martial arts; after being knocked out in just seven seconds by Chan Sung Jung in his next outing, Hominick lost back-to-back verdicts to lesser featherweights in Eddie Yagin and Pablo Garza. In August of 2011, Hominick’s longtime coach and mentor, Shawn Tompkins, passed away tragically. Hominick officially retired from competition a few months later at age 30 and, alongside fellow Tompkins disciples Stout and Chris Horodecki, took the helm at Team Tompkins’ successor, Adrenaline MMA.

Continue Reading » Number 9