UFC 162 provides Anderson Silva an opportunity to add yet another unforgettable moment to his epic career. So much has been said about Anderson again and again. We all know what is at stake at UFC 162, and we continue to hear pundits and fans consider the endless possibilities right up to the opening bell. So […]
UFC 162 provides Anderson Silva an opportunity to add yet another unforgettable moment to his epic career. So much has been said about Anderson again and again. We all know what is at stake at UFC 162, and we continue to hear pundits and fans consider the endless possibilities right up to the opening bell. So […]
Last month, Mark Hominick announced that “The Machine” has been unplugged. The Canadian striker ended his ten-year MMA career with a record of 20-12, including nine wins by KO/TKO, seven by submission, and three Fight of the Night awards during his stint in the WEC and UFC.
A former kickboxer, Hominick submitted Yves Edwards in his first Octagon appearance in 2006, and later collected victories over such notables as Jorge Gurgel, Bryan Caraway, Yves Jabouin, and Leonard Garcia. An impressive first-round TKO win over former Team Tompkins teammate George Roop in January 2011 was Hominick’s fifth win in a row, making him a fast-rising star in the UFC’s new featherweight division, and earning him a title shot against champion Jose Aldo.
Today, Hominick is the proud father of a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter — he and his wife have another girl on the way — and he is putting his experience and skill to good use at the Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario, Canada. He and fellow Shawn Tompkins protégé Chris Horodecki started the gym about four years ago and are working closely with Adrenaline’s burgeoning pro fighters. Hominick says he is also excited about the possibility of working as part of UFC Canada.
Just a few weeks after hanging up his little gloves, Mark “The Machine” Hominick spoke with CagePotato.com about the very best opponents he faced across a number of categories…
Strongest:Jose Aldo. It was like he had two fists in one. When he hit with his right hand, he hit like a heavyweight. And his explosiveness, that was the biggest difference, I noticed. I’m normally good with distance and being able to fade from a shot, but he can close the distance with not just speed, but with power.
Fastest:Yves Jabouin. I fought him at WEC 49. It was Fight of the Night and one of the best fights of the year. It was just a back-and-forth battle. Speed is where I normally have the advantage, and I felt he almost matched me there. It was like I was fighting a mirror image.
(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)
Last month, Mark Hominick announced that “The Machine” has been unplugged. The Canadian striker ended his ten-year MMA career with a record of 20-12, including nine wins by KO/TKO, seven by submission, and three Fight of the Night awards during his stint in the WEC and UFC.
A former kickboxer, Hominick submitted Yves Edwards in his first Octagon appearance in 2006, and later collected victories over such notables as Jorge Gurgel, Bryan Caraway, Yves Jabouin, and Leonard Garcia. An impressive first-round TKO win over former Team Tompkins teammate George Roop in January 2011 was Hominick’s fifth win in a row, making him a fast-rising star in the UFC’s new featherweight division, and earning him a title shot against champion Jose Aldo.
Today, Hominick is the proud father of a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter — he and his wife have another girl on the way — and he is putting his experience and skill to good use at the Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario, Canada. He and fellow Shawn Tompkins protégé Chris Horodecki started the gym about four years ago and are working closely with Adrenaline’s burgeoning pro fighters. Hominick says he is also excited about the possibility of working as part of UFC Canada.
Just a few weeks after hanging up his little gloves, Mark “The Machine” Hominick spoke with CagePotato.com about the very best opponents he faced across a number of categories…
Strongest:Jose Aldo. It was like he had two fists in one. When he hit with his right hand, he hit like a heavyweight. And his explosiveness, that was the biggest difference, I noticed. I’m normally good with distance and being able to fade from a shot, but he can close the distance with not just speed, but with power.
Fastest:Yves Jabouin. I fought him at WEC 49. It was Fight of the Night and one of the best fights of the year. It was just a back-and-forth battle. Speed is where I normally have the advantage, and I felt he almost matched me there. It was like I was fighting a mirror image.
Toughest Chin:Hatsu Hioki. We fought for five rounds [at TKO 28 in February 2007]. I hit him with some big shots, and he just kept coming.
Heaviest Hands:Jose Aldo was the first guy to really drop me in my career. I fought 25 kickboxing bouts, never got dropped — ever — and he dropped me, I think, three times in the fight. That’s how hard he hits.
Best Wrestler: Mike Brown.I fought him when I was 19 years old in a small show; I think it was in a square cage — one of those types of shows. I don’t think I even knew how to spell wrestling, let alone wrestle competitively. The pressure and skill he had was something I’d never seen before.
Best Defense:Hioki again. He’s very durable, very calculating. I kept pushing the action the whole time, and he kept coming back. That’s the kind of battle I win — the war of attrition, especially in a five-round bout — but he stayed with me the whole bout.
Best Leg Strikes: Aldo. I mean, he’s one of the best leg kickers in the game, no matter what weight class. He’s got the hips that people talk about; he can turn over those hips very fast.
Most Dangerous Submissions:Rani Yahya. He’s an Abu Dhabi world champion. I trained with him before the bout, so I knew how good he was on the ground. It was one of those fights where, if it was on the feet, I was going to knock him out, and if it was on the ground, he was going to submit me. And we both knew that.
Most Surprising Opponent: “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung. It was only a seven-second bout, but I didn’t think he had the power in his hands to knock anyone out. I had seen some of his bouts where he was in wars, trading punches — giving and taking — and he didn’t put anyone down.
Best game plan: Pablo Garza. I never thought in a million years that he’d take me down and try to hold me down for two rounds of the bout. I didn’t think he’d be able to take me down, first off, and from there keep me down.
Best Win: My most dominant win was against George Roop. There was a lot on the line. I knew going into that bout that if I won that, I’d be getting the Aldo title shot, so there was a lot of pressure. I went out there and really made a statement by knocking him out in the first round.
Worst Loss: How I ended my career, I guess. I fought for over eleven years and to go out on those terms…But I guess that’s what happens in a career, you know? It’s hard to end on a high note.
Best Overall: Aldo, there’s no question. He’s one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters, and he shocked me a bit by throwing in his wrestling. He’s one of the best for a reason.
For past installments of our “Unforgettable” series, click here.
Toughest chin: That has to be Masakatsu Funaki and my last opponent Ruben Villareal. Funaki I hit and kneed so hard that my palms and knee were bruised, until the final knee where I grabbed Funaki’s hair and drilled the knee in his face, but boy, every time he got back up, it was crazy. Villareal, although I had a rib out and couldn’t hit a bag the last two weeks [of training], I still hit him hard, and right on his chin every time. First he said to me, “Damn, you’re fast.” I said “Thank you,” then I hit him again and he said, “And you hit hard.” I told him, “Apparently not hard enough!” It was funny.
Heaviest hands: I was very fortunate never to have anybody connecting full. I have pretty good defense. So I honestly can’t tell you; I’ve never been hit hard. Though I guess in training I have. Pedro Rizzo has very heavy hands.
Toughest chin: That has to be Masakatsu Funaki and my last opponent Ruben Villareal. Funaki I hit and kneed so hard that my palms and knee were bruised, until the final knee where I grabbed Funaki’s hair and drilled the knee in his face, but boy, every time he got back up, it was crazy. Villareal, although I had a rib out and couldn’t hit a bag the last two weeks [of training], I still hit him hard, and right on his chin every time. First he said to me, “Damn, you’re fast.” I said “Thank you,” then I hit him again and he said, “And you hit hard.” I told him, “Apparently not hard enough!” It was funny.
Heaviest hands: I was very fortunate never to have anybody connecting full. I have pretty good defense. So I honestly can’t tell you; I’ve never been hit hard. Though I guess in training I have. Pedro Rizzo has very heavy hands.
Best grappling/submissions: At the time I would say Funaki and Ken Shamrock. I never faced Ken with my new and improved ground skills, After my last loss against Ken, I finally found one person who would train with me. We would go crazy, only ground, two or sometimes three times a day. From my next eight fights, I won seven by submission. I got “the bug.”
Most underrated:Keiichiro Yamamiya, he beat guys like, Denis Kang, Chris Lytle, Nate Marquardt, Chael Sonnen — he was always flying under the radar.
Fastest on his feet/hardest to hit: Mezger.
Most annoying:Jason de Lucia, was complaining about that I hit him in the throat, pills, and did some other things. First of all, I didn’t hit his throat. Second, you know how hard that is when somebody has his chin down? The kick is also not even close to the pills. You will hear me say in the fight, “Tell them the truth Jason.” But Jason could also be on my list as the most underrated. I think he had a lot of bad luck all the time, but he had good ground and striking skills, one of the first fighters who had both, but for some reason it didn’t work out for him, which surprised me.
Best overall fighter: Probably Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kodokan black belt Judo and Maurice Smith taught him striking. I think Guy Mezger also had good overall skills, and later Frank Shamrock, when he improved his striking.
Most surprising:Kiuma Kunioku, he was fast on the ground and hard to submit. I caught him in a guillotine but he used a “rope escape” later that won me the fight. I thought he would be easy to submit or KO, was he was very “slippery” — not from grease, but from skill. From his 58 matches he only lost 4 times by submission.
Sweetest victory: My rematch with Funaki. He beat me the first time, then they waited for my rematch until my last fight on the contract was up. They thought he was gonna beat me again, and that would be, of course, good for the new contract negotiations. They were wrong.
Most bitter defeat: My second match against Ken. I trained to defend that knee bar for four weeks, two times a day, we focused on that exact move, “Knee bar from half guard.” But they taught me wrong! They taught me that he was gonna slide his foot over my hip to get it, and in the fight I focused on that, but then he threw his leg over my head? That really made me angry. They should have told me, “just hold his leg,” but since I didn’t have any ground experience, I, of course, listened to the person that was teaching me. It’s OK though, that fight made me the fighter I became. From that moment on I listened, but I always would look for more ways myself, and it worked — I never lost a fight again!
Matt “The Law” Lindland has been clinching, smothering, and dirty boxing his way through the MMA world since the days of wrestling shoes in the Octagon. He’s fought alongside and against some of the very best in the world and was a fixture in the top-ten middleweight rankings for years.
A 2000 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling silver medalist and Team Quest charter member, Lindland went 9-3 during his UFC middleweight tenure and earned a 2002 title shot against champion Murilo Bustamante. After leaving the UFC (Google his UFC 54 t-shirt controversy), he moved up in weight classes to fight Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Fedor Emelianenko (in Russia), he won his two IFL Super Fights as the coach of the Portland Wolfpack/Team Quest, and he was the hardcore fan’s dream opponent for Anderson Silva.
Although Lindland has been inactive for nearly a year-and-a-half, he has yet to hang up his fingerless gloves. “I’ve never won a world title, so it’s kind of hard to retire,” explained the 42-year-old Lindland, whose focus today is on leading wrestling and MMA seminars, overseeing his SportFight promotion, and coaching his Team Quest MMA fighters.
Inspired by Ring Magazine’s “The Best I’ve Faced” series, here’s the legendary Matt “The Law” Lindland looking back on a long, hard-fought career and remembering those opponents who stand out across the following categories:
Best boxing:Vitor Belfort. With boxing it all starts with your footwork, your movement, and he has explosive hands and hips. And not just the night I fought him. He’s got consistently good boxing.
By Matt Kaplan
Matt “The Law” Lindland has been clinching, smothering, and dirty boxing his way through the MMA world since the days of wrestling shoes in the Octagon. He’s fought alongside and against some of the very best in the world and was a fixture in the top-ten middleweight rankings for years.
A 2000 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling silver medalist and Team Quest charter member, Lindland went 9-3 during his UFC middleweight tenure and earned a 2002 title shot against champion Murilo Bustamante. After leaving the UFC (Google his UFC 54 t-shirt controversy), he moved up in weight classes to fight Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Fedor Emelianenko (in Russia), he won his two IFL Super Fights as the coach of the Portland Wolfpack/Team Quest, and he was the hardcore fan’s dream opponent for Anderson Silva.
Although Lindland has been inactive for nearly a year-and-a-half, he has yet to hang up his fingerless gloves. “I’ve never won a world title, so it’s kind of hard to retire,” explained the 42-year-old Lindland, whose focus today is on leading wrestling and MMA seminars, overseeing his SportFight promotion, and coaching his Team Quest MMA fighters.
Inspired by Ring Magazine’s “The Best I’ve Faced” series, here’s the legendary Matt “The Law” Lindland looking back on a long, hard-fought career and remembering those opponents who stand out across the following categories:
Best boxing:Vitor Belfort. With boxing it all starts with your footwork, your movement, and he has explosive hands and hips. And not just the night I fought him. He’s got consistently good boxing.
Heaviest hands:Robbie Lawler. (laughing) I don’t really remember too much of that fight, but, yeah, he hits very hard, and he’s knocked out lots of really good fighters.
Toughest chin:Tony Fryklund. I hit that guy with some bombs, but he just wouldn’t stop. He was real tough.
Best wrestler:Mike Van Arsdale. Mike was a great wrestler, and I watched him wrestle for a long time. Remember, when he and Randy Couture fought, it was scramble after scramble; that was a great fight.
Most intelligent: In terms of ring strategy,I’m going to go with David Terrell, another southpaw, for the way he came out and approached that match-up. It was a quick fight; he knocked me out early. He came out with a good strategy.
Most powerful: Phil Baroni, for sure…for sure! Now, I did fight Fedor, but that was two weight classes above me, so if we’re talking middleweights, I’d exclude Fedor and say Phil Baroni. Quinton Jackson was also a pretty explosive athlete. I’ve fought some pretty strong guys. I’m more of a leverage fighter: I use my length and my leverage to my advantage, rather than go strength against strength.
Most punishing kicks or knees: I don’t know. The only guy who really kicked me and that I really felt it afterward was Ricardo Almeida, but every time he kicked me, he’d eat a left hand. It wasn’t a really good exchange for him. I had a few bruises on my leg, and he ate a bunch of left hands.
Most dangerous ground game: Jeremy Horn, for sure. He’s tapped out so many dudes. Jeremy Horn was one of the best guys. He’s fought for world titles and was an incredible ground fighter. Very dangerous.
Most surprising: Travis Lutter. When he swept me from the ground, I was completely shocked. I took him down, thought I was going to completely dominate the top position, and he swept me and got on top to a mount position. He definitely surprised me with that.
Most underrated: Joe Doerksen. He’s so tough. He was game and tough. He was trying to submit me and almost caught me in some stuff. I was thinking I’m going to choke him out or knock him out, but he was still there. Joe Doerksen is a really tough dude. Very underrated.
Most complete fighter: I fought a lot of really good fighters and most of them had strengths in more than one area. It would have to be Pat Miletich or Jeremy Horn. They’re good on their feet, good on the ground. It’s a toss-up between them. And they’re both on the same team.
Best overall fighter: Fedor. He was a legend. He was the best heavyweight, pound for pound, for a while, but we saw him age as well. I think Russians get old faster.
Sweetest victory: Probably my win against Pat Miletich. He was a world champion, someone who’d done it all in this sport, and I had an opportunity to fight him in one of my earlier fights. I was very excited about that. I went out there and finished him in the first round.
Most bitter defeat: They’re all bitter, man. They all suck.It’s hard to get old in this sport, and you can’t do it forever. I guess my most bitter defeat would be the split decision loss to Rampage Jackson. I guarantee you the fix was in on that fight. I whooped his ass. I clearly won two rounds…When you compete against world-class athletes, someone’s going to win, someone’s going to lose. I understand. That’s what the sport is, but when the judges just completely rob you in a show that only promotes one athlete, like the way the WFA was only promoting Rampage Jackson, it was very clear that I won that fight and that they robbed me of that fight. I’m not bitter against Rampage; he went out there and fought the best he could. But I still whooped his ass. Do I sound bitter? I’m not really a bitter guy.
(“I’ve never been knocked out in a fight and I’ve never been knocked out in training. But I’ve never been hurt the way that [Penn] hurt me.” / Photo via Las Vegas Sun)
Florian cited a November 2011 back injury and eventual numbness and tingling in his limbs as the impetus for closing the chapter of his life that’s been defined by five UFC Fight Night appearances, four weight classes, three UFC championship fights, two vicious elbows, and — lest we forget — one samurai costume.
As an undersized middleweight, Florian first appeared on our radars as the TUF 1 runner-up to Diego Sanchez in 2005, and after two victories at welterweight, Florian transformed his body and game, and established himself as one of the best lightweights in the world. Florian then made a brief run at featherweight in 2011, defeating Diego Nunes and losing to champion Jose Aldo, before announcing his retirement at the age of 36.
In a recent conversation with CagePotato.com — and in loving tribute to Ring Magazine’s “The Best I’ve Faced” feature — Ken-Flo looked back on his MMA career and remembered the opponents who stood out across a number of categories…
Fastest on his feet: I’d say Jose Aldo. He was the quickest. His explosiveness in general, his footwork, and his ability to move definitely are impressive.
Toughest chin: I remember hitting Sam Stout with hard shots. I hit him on the ground with a big bomb that connected real well, right on his chin, and he just ate it. And from seeing the rest of his fights, I see why. He’s got a real good chin.
(“I’ve never been knocked out in a fight and I’ve never been knocked out in training. But I’ve never been hurt the way that [Penn] hurt me.” / Photo via Las Vegas Sun)
Florian cited a November 2011 back injury and eventual numbness and tingling in his limbs as the impetus for closing the chapter of his life that’s been defined by five UFC Fight Night appearances, four weight classes, three UFC championship fights, two vicious elbows, and — lest we forget — one samurai costume.
As an undersized middleweight, Florian first appeared on our radars as the TUF 1 runner-up to Diego Sanchez in 2005, and after two victories at welterweight, Florian transformed his body and game, and established himself as one of the best lightweights in the world. Florian then made a brief run at featherweight in 2011, defeating Diego Nunes and losing to champion Jose Aldo, before announcing his retirement at the age of 36.
In a recent conversation with CagePotato.com — and in loving tribute to Ring Magazine’s “The Best I’ve Faced” feature — Ken-Flo looked back on his MMA career and remembered the opponents who stood out across a number of categories…
Fastest on his feet: I’d say Jose Aldo. He was the quickest. His explosiveness in general, his footwork, and his ability to move definitely are impressive.
Toughest chin: I remember hitting Sam Stout with hard shots. I hit him on the ground with a big bomb that connected real well, right on his chin, and he just ate it. And from seeing the rest of his fights, I see why. He’s got a real good chin.
Hardest to hit: Let’s see. From the outside, it’s probably BJ Penn. Excellent head movement.
Heaviest hands:BJ Penn, by far. I’ve never been knocked out in a fight and I’ve never been knocked out in training. But I’ve never been hurt the way that he hurt me. He hit me harder than anyone I fought or sparred or trained with.
Best wrestler:Gray Maynard. When he was in on my leg, I felt like he was the strongest. And I was doing a decent amount of wrestling when we fought.
Most intelligent: I guess with overall MMA intelligence and skills, Jose Aldo is probably overall the most intelligent. He didn’t allow himself to get caught off guard, you know?
Most powerful:Gray Maynard. He’s the only guy who afterward I said, “Wow, that guy’s really strong.”
Most threatening ground game:BJ Penn. I don’t know about submission-wise — and he caught me in a submission — but offensively, technically, the way he attacks, especially from the top, that’s his bread and butter. It’s real good.
Most surprising opponent:Gray Maynard, for sure. That was one of the fights where I thought he would strike a little bit more with me. I felt like I’d be able to keep him on the outside and stop his wrestling attempts when he would try because, before that fight, he did use his wrestling later [in the fight] against guys like Nate Diaz, but it was crazy to me that he was going out there and really wasn’t using his wrestling so much. I was working a lot on my wrestling at the time and thought it would be enough, but the way he was executing it — he would get the takedown at the end of the round and get each round and control — was just a very smart game plan.
Sweetest victory: This is always hard to come up with. It was pretty cool being able to fight Takanori Gomi and win like I did, dominating a guy I looked up to for so long for his striking and for his knockout power. To go out there and strike with him for the 12 or 13 minutes of that match and outstrike him was cool. That one sticks out.
Most bitter loss: The Diego Sanchez fight, just because it was one of those fights where maybe he would have won anyway because he had a lot of experience over me, but I didn’t even get a chance to compete. I’ve talked about this before: I just choked. The only fight I’ve ever choked in was the Diego Sanchez fight. I was just not ready for that mentally, and by the time he was mounted on me, I was bleeding all over myself and was, like, “Alright, Kenny, let’s get out of here. Let’s do this.” I felt that I didn’t even get a chance to really compete or show my skills.
Best overall fighter: The person who matched up the best to me was the toughest challenge, and in my career, that was BJ Penn. Going into the fight, I felt like he would be the toughest match-up based on where my skills were at and where his skills were at. And he was the toughest.
