In the latest look at Canadian mixed martial arts we delve into Friday’s TKO 28 card, talk about The Crow’s bout against Joey Villasenor (Pictures) on Showtime, discuss at this past weekend’s MFC 11 card in Edmonton, and offer a short mailbag.
I’ll take this opportunity to add some extra info that I didn’t mention in my post-fight review.
The MFC really impressed me with the professionalism it displayed in all areas. From the press conference to the weigh-ins to the fight night, everything was very well thought out and ran smoothly from what I saw.
MFC owner Mark Pavelich is definitely what you’d call a character. I rarely saw him without a smile on his face, and it was plainly evident that he loved every second of the weekend.
The MFC is truly a family-run business. Mark is the promoter. His son Dave serves as vice president. Mark’s wife Manon runs the merchandise. And their young daughter Kayla helped mom and sang the national anthem.
The Shaw Conference Centre is a beautiful building set right in downtown Edmonton, and it was a terrific venue in which to hold an MMA event. The acoustics were phenomenal.
When Roger Hollett (Pictures) entered the ring it was amazing how many Nova Scotia flags appeared in the audience.
MFC 11 happened the same night as UFC 67. Everyone was dying to see the “Cro Cop” fight, so the morning after the event ECC President Rob Walker bought the UFC via “UFC on Demand,” and set up his laptop in the hotel lobby where it was immediately surrounded by a half dozen fighters, Mark Pavelich, and myself. I had a front row seat.
Everyone was very happy when Patrick Cote (Pictures) won against Scott Smith.
Hominick seeks revenge; Stout fights Holanda TKO title
Friday night TKO holds its 28th instalment in its six and a half year history.
This is a really terrific looking card.
The main event features Team Tompkins’ Mark Hominick (Pictures) attempting to regain the TKO featherweight belt that he lost to Japan’s Hatsu Hioki (Pictures) last summer.
It was quite a shock at the time, as Hominick hadn’t lost a fight in nearly two years. Hioki is still a tough match for Hominick, and it’ll be interesting to see how each fighter’s game plans will have changed.
The co-main event will also be for a title, this time at lightweight, as heavy-hitter Sam Stout (Pictures), who is also from Team Tompkins, faces BJJ mastermind Fabio Holanda (Pictures).
If you couldn’t tell, Holanda is a wizard on the ground. He’s leader of BTT Canada and is the former BJJ coach to current UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (Pictures).
Holanda has previously defeated Kenny Florian (Pictures) in BJJ competition, so you’d think that since Florian submitted Stout in less than two minutes last June, the result of this fight wouldn’t be too different.
This might not be the case, as apparently after the Florian loss it really hit home to Sam that he would have to drastically improve his ground game if he ever expected to be a contender in the UFC.
With that realization in hand, Stout devoted himself to making that improvement.
His final preparations have been the two weeks in January that he spent with his trainer Shawn Tompkins (Pictures) in Temecula, Calif., where Tompkins has taken over the role of Muay Thai/Striking instructor to Dan Henderson (Pictures)’s new chapter of Team Quest.
The TKO welterweight title, newly vacant since Georges St. Pierre (Pictures)’s acquisition of the UFC welterweight title from Matt Hughes (Pictures), was due to be awarded to Steve Vigneault (Pictures)-Jonathan Goulet (Pictures) winner.
However, Vigneault was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury, so that match-up has been rescheduled for June 1.
In the meantime, Goulet will enter into a non-title match against Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Thomas Schulte (Pictures), teammate of Carlos Condit (Pictures).
The Crow puts the UFC behind him
“The Crow,” David Loiseau (Pictures) is one of the most popular Canadian fighters out there, and he’s due to take on Joey Villasenor (Pictures) this weekend at the inaugural EliteXC event, headlined by Frank Shamrock (Pictures) and Renzo Gracie (Pictures), in Southaven, Miss.
Both these guys are capable of putting on an incredible show, and I’m willing to bet that when the night is over, this fight will be the one MMA fans talk about.
Junk fights at ICON Sport
Although not Canadian, heavyweight Scott Junk (Pictures) has recently signed to Pro Camp Sports Management based out of Edmonton. He’ll be facing John George at ICON Sports “All In.”
Student of B.J. Penn (Pictures), Junk is contracted to ICON on the Hawaiian Islands, but is free to accept contracts arranged for him by Pro Camp in North America.
I guess this guy has an amazing natural ability that allowed him to take former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures) to the edge in his first ever MMA match.
I can hardly wait to see him in the MFC.
Mailbag
Hey Andy, I just wanted to pass along that I have enjoyed your Sherdog.com articles on Canadian MMA, and the coverage so far on the MFC 11 event has been good as well. I wanted to get your thoughts on a couple things. Roger Hollett (Pictures), what kind of prospect is he on the Canadian scene? Is he the best light heavyweight prospect in Canada now? Also Kilkenny, even though he's lost 2 of 3, would be an interesting prospect as well, but what weight class do you see him best suited for, HW or LHW? And finally, any thoughts on a potential Jason Day vs. Roger Hollett (Pictures) match up in the near future? Thanks and keep up the good work. – Jeremy Meyers
Hi Jeremy, and thanks for your e-mail.
Roger Hollett (Pictures) is without a doubt someone who has all the tools to go extremely far in MMA. As for being the best prospect right now, it’s hard to say. In order to properly gauge someone’s potential you need to see how they stack up against tough competition.
So far Hollett’s toughest opponent to date has been Ray Penny, who looked very good in a loss to Hollett at ECC 4.
Hollett will get an opportunity to show us what he’s really made of at ECC 5 on March 31, when he’ll be facing his stiffest competition to date in Team Nestor’s Ricardeau Francois (Pictures).
This will be a good indicator to see how he stacks up in the National rankings.
Jared Kilkenny (Pictures) will find success at either light heavyweight or heavyweight; it’s up to him and his trainer, Lee Mein (Pictures).
I met Jason Day last weekend at MFC 11 and he seems to be a terrific guy. He’s the current Rumble in the Cage light heavyweight champion and he’s as tough as nails.
I don’t like making predictions, so all I can say is that if a Day-Hollett fight were signed I’d happily pay to see it.
I think it’s evident that the top dog in this category is the MFC champion Victor Valimaki (Pictures). Perhaps his defeat of Kilkenny last weekend will convince the UFC to bring him back.
Other light heavyweights of note are Todd Gouwenberg (Pictures), Martin Desilets (Pictures), Brent Beauparlant (Pictures), and Rob MacDonald (Pictures). Denis Kang (Pictures), Jason MacDonald (Pictures), and Patrick Cote (Pictures) have all fought at LHW in the past, but are at middleweight now.