Hominick vs. Aldo Being Targeted for UFC 129

(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…

(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.

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MMA Top 10 Featherweights: New Year, New Faces

Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Sengoku, Featherweights
An injury forced featherweight champion Jose Aldo to drop out of his scheduled fight at UFC 125, and while Aldo was on the sideline for New Year’s, the featherweight division underwent some radical chang…

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An injury forced featherweight champion Jose Aldo to drop out of his scheduled fight at UFC 125, and while Aldo was on the sideline for New Year’s, the featherweight division underwent some radical changes.

The New Year’s cards for the UFC, Dream and Sengoku all had big featherweight fights that featured several surprise results, and now that the dust has settled, the featherweight division looks a whole lot different heading into 2011 than it did for most of 2010 — with the exception, of course, that Aldo is still the king.

Check out our rankings of the rest of the featherweight division below.

Fighter of the Year: Cain Velasquez

Filed under: Fighting, UFCAt 6-foot-1 and around 240 pounds, Cain Velasquez is no small man in the ordinary world, but among the UFC’s supersized heavyweights, he hardly stands out for his size.

In fact, many heavyweights are either taller or heavier …

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Cain VelasquezAt 6-foot-1 and around 240 pounds, Cain Velasquez is no small man in the ordinary world, but among the UFC’s supersized heavyweights, he hardly stands out for his size.

In fact, many heavyweights are either taller or heavier than Velasquez, and most are both. Yet by the end of 2010, it was Velasquez that reigned over the group of monster athletes.

For capturing the UFC heavyweight championship and completing a rapid rise to the top, Velasquez is MMA Fighting’s 2010 Fighter of the Year.

MMA Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: GSP Stays on Top

Filed under: UFC, Rankings, OverallGeorges St. Pierre remains the best fighter in all of mixed martial arts, regardless of weight class.

There are arguments, to be sure, for other fighters, namely middleweight champ Anderson Silva or featherweight cha…

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Georges St. Pierre remains the best fighter in all of mixed martial arts, regardless of weight class.

There are arguments, to be sure, for other fighters, namely middleweight champ Anderson Silva or featherweight champ Jose Aldo, getting the No. 1 spot. Most of those arguments center around the fact that Silva and Aldo are finishers, while St. Pierre tends to win decisions.

I’m sympathetic to those arguments, but what St. Pierre does in his decision victories is amazing: In his four decisions as the UFC welterweight champion, the 12 judges have turned in scorecards of 50-45, 50-45, 50-45, 50-43, 50-44, 50-45, 50-44, 50-45, 50-45, 50-44, 50-44 and 50-43. It doesn’t get more dominant than that.

So St. Pierre remains on top. Find out the rest of the Top 10 below.

UFC Announces Long Awaited Return to Brazil August 27

Although calling the announcement  "a monumental one" may have been a bit of an overstatement, the UFC announced today at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro today that it would be returning to Brazil for the first time since Zuffa bou…

Although calling the announcement  "a monumental one" may have been a bit of an overstatement, the UFC announced today at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro today that it would be returning to Brazil for the first time since Zuffa bought the organization in 2000 and only the second time ever August 27, 2011.

UFC president Dana White made the announcement of the yet-to-be named event in Rio city hall alongside Zuffa CEO Lorenzo Fertitta,  mayor Eduardo Paes and Brazilian UFC luminaries Royce Gracie, Anderson Silva, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Vitor Belfort and Jose Aldo.

Although he would not commit to naming names of Brazilian fighters who will likely appear on the card because the event is more than eight months away and injuries may change the planned card several times between now and then, White intimated that all of the currently contracted fighters at the presser and guys like Demian Maia, Junior Dos Santos and Wanderlei Silva are all being considered for the card.

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Watch The UFC’s ‘Special Announcement’ Live From Rio de Janeiro at 11 a.m. ET

(Nipmoua’s old poster design has become eerily prescient. Except for the ‘200’ thing, obviously. I mean, do the math bro.)
In what’s expected to be an official announcement of the UFC’s return to Brazil in 2011, UFC president Dana White and Chairman/…

UFC Brazil fan made poster 2011 Rua Nogueira Wanderlei Anderson Silva Aldo Machida
(Nipmoua’s old poster design has become eerily prescient. Except for the ‘200’ thing, obviously. I mean, do the math bro.)

In what’s expected to be an official announcement of the UFC’s return to Brazil in 2011, UFC president Dana White and Chairman/CEO Lorenzo Fertitta will be making a special announcement at Rio De Janeiro’s City Hall today at 11 a.m. ET, 2 p.m. local time. White and Fertitta will be joined by UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie, middleweight champion Anderson Silva, light-heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, featherweight champion Jose Aldo, #1 middleweight contender Vitor Belfort, and Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio. You can watch the announcement live in the video player after the jump. 

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