Last night's UFC 129 mixed martial arts event at Rogers Centre saw plenty of notable triumphs. The record-setting crowd saw everything from Georges St. Pierre's unanimous decision over Jake Shields (despite an eye injury) to Mark Hominick battling through a brutal forehead wound to last five full rounds against Jose Aldo in the Fight of the Night (highlights above) to Lyoto Machida's stunning Steven Seagal-inspired knockout of Randy Couture (in Couture's final fight) and John Makdessi's knockout of Kyle Watson. However, one of the most notable victors wasn't a fighter at all, but a CFL team backing a fighter; the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, whose sponsorship of Hominick turned out even better than anticipated.
Getting involved with the UFC was certainly an unconventional move from the Tiger-Cats, as most established sports teams and leagues seem to see MMA's rising popularity as a dangerous source of competition for fans and advertising dollars rather than a potential ally. Moreover, big MMA events were only recently legalized in Ontario, and there's still plenty of controversy around the sport. The Tiger-Cats made the bold decision to jump into the UFC waters, though, and they found the perfect guy to sponsor.
Hominick (pictured above after his fight; in addition to the head wound he battled through, note the Tiger-Cats' hat his cornerman is sporting), a fighter originally from Thamesford, Ontario who's now based out of the nearby London area, seemed like a logical candidate from the start thanks to his local connections, but his national and worldwide profile before the fight wasn't all that high. He got his shot at Aldo by taking on and knocking out George Roop in January, and it was widely speculated that UFC 129 could be Hominick's breakthrough moment. Well, it certainly was that, as Hominick made plenty of headlines all weekend. Some, like those involving the controversy that erupted around his weigh-in, weren't the best kind, but that became very minor news once he stepped into the octagon, as you can see from the highlights below:
Going up against highly-regarded featherweight champion Aldo, who Hominick had earlier called "the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world," many weren't optimistic about his chances. Hominick gave almost as good as he got, though; despite sustaining some brutal cuts, he landed a number of great jabs and elbows and battled right to the end. His performance was perfectly emblematic of the trench warfare strategy the Tiger-Cats have successfully channelled on the gridiron over the years, and pretty representative of Steeltown itself. Hominick hung out with Angelo Mosca at the sponsorship announcement April 20, and his showing Saturday night seemed exactly like something the legendarily nasty Ticat and former professional wrestler would have done. As the following video analysis with Sean McCormick and Yahoo!'s Kevin Iole and Dave Meltzer shows, Hominick impressed a lot of knowledgeable MMA types with his courageous showing Saturday:
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