Though Mixed Martial Arts is a sport where all guarantees fly out the cage-door as soon as it closes, Dana White has thrown caution to the wind and announced Mark Hominick will have the dubious honor of taking on UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo at UFC 129 in Toronto if he’s able to earn a win against George Roop in a week-and-a-half at Fight Night 23.

White’s statements on the matter confirmed a recent report of the possible scenario from Canadian outlet SportsNet.

However, it’s doubtful Hominick is looking beyond his challenge at this month’s “Fight for the Troops” event scheduled for January 22, as Roop is no pushover in the ring and is coming off a devastating knockout head-kick of “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung last September. He is 11-6-1 overall with a draw against Leonard Garcia and the bulk of his wins assisted by a solid grappling base.

If Hominick loses, according to White, it’s “back to the drawing board.” However, “The Machine” has emerged with his hands raised in four straight appearances and six of his last seven. The 28-year old most recently outpointed Garcia at WEC 51 and holds past victories over Jorge Gurgel and Yves Edwards. He will also be fighting for more than a title-shot when he faces Roop, as Hominick is an Ontario native meaning he’d earn the opportunity to potentially win gold in front of friends, family, and countrymen at UFC 129.

Aldo will undoubtedly be anxiously awaiting their Fight Night 23 result as well. Sidelined with a neck injury since late last year, the dynamic Brazilian champion watched an expected match-up with Josh Grispi slip away when Grispi was soundly beaten by Dustin Poirier at UFC 125 and is likely looking forward to having a set opponent to prepare for.

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• Jose Aldo: “(Josh Grispi) is a great fighter and he deserves to be in there with me.”

It appears Jose Aldowill not be defending his UFC featherweight championship against Mark Hominick, as had been previously reported, who has opted out due to injury. Rather, it turns out the talented youngster will instead be facing Josh “The Fluke” Grispi at UFC 125 on January 1st, 2011.

News of the switch was reported by Heavy.com.

In a press conference earlier this week, UFC President Dana White stated that he considered Aldo one of the top three pound-for-pound fighters in the world. The Brazilian Muay Thai fighter is on an 11-fight winning streak, and has won all eight of his WEC bouts–with only one fight going to decision. His most recent outing was an impressive knockout victory over Manny Gamburyan, and he holds notable wins over Urijah Faber, Mike Brown, and Cub Swanson.

Grispi was signed by the WEC after going 10-1 in smaller organizations and currently holds a record of 14-1. He is coming off of a first-round technical submission victory over L.C. Davis. The guillotine earned him “Submission of the Night” honors. Grispi also defeated Jens Pulver and Mark Hominick by submission and defeated Micah Miller by TKO.

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The question surrounding WEC featherweight champ Jose Aldo eventually testing his skills at 155-pounds has long been a matter of “when” rather than “if” based on his success in the ring. The 24-year old Brazilian has compiled an 18-1 record in his six-year career, holds wins over some of the sport’s top featherweights, and has rendered seven of his last eight opponents unable to intelligently defend themselves with relative ease. As it turns out, the answer to the afore-mentioned query almost came as early as the end of this year.

Aldo recently spoke with Tatame and briefly mentioned the UFC’s proposal of a match-up with “Top 10″ lightweight Ken Florian, though he explained his managers declined the bout without going into specifics about why.

“I wanna fight – it can be at WEC or in the UFC,” said Aldo.

The versatile 145-pounder did, however, go on explain his current focus on featherweight was in-part related to his training partners at Nova Uniao in Rio Di Janeiro.

“When I was fighting in the division above (André Pederneiras) thought there were many people of the gym on that division, and in my division there’s me and Marlon (Sandro),” he elaborated on the situation. “I can play pretty hard in this one and I’m the champion, so I think it’s best for me to stay in this weight division.”

Just because they won’t be fighting each other in December doesn’t mean Florian and Aldo will be left looking for future opponents, as both have since gone on to agree to other bouts in their home-promotions. Aldo will be defending his WEC title against Mark Hominick at WEC 54 in January, while Florian will face Evan Dunham at UFC 126 at the company’s standard Superbowl Weekend card on February 5th.Similar Posts:

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The fight card is set for this month's WEC 51 event.

WEC officials today confirmed the 11-bout lineup, which is headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion Jose Aldo and challenger Manny Gamburyan.

A spokesperson later confirmed to MMAjunkie.com that five bouts, including a potential slugfest between featherweights Mark Hominick and Leonard Garcia slugfest, are part of the Sept. 30 Versus broadcast.

World Extreme Cagefighting officials today formally announced the upcoming WEC 51 card, which features a championship headliner between featherweight title-holder Jose Aldo and Manny Gamburyan and a co-headliner rematch between Donald Cerrone and Jamie Varner.

"WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan" takes place Sept. 30 at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo.

Other officially announced bouts include Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia, Leonard Garcia vs. Mark Hominick, and Chan Sung Jung vs. George Roop.

While many fans that had the pleasure to witness one of the greatest fights put on in recent memory between “The Korean Zombie” Chang Sung Jung and Leonard Garcia at WEC 48 had anticipated an immediate rematch between the pair, it now looks likely that that particular fight will have to wait.

It now looks likely that “The Korean Zombie” will in fact face off with George Roop at WEC 51, while Garcia is expected to face off with Mark Hominick at the same event according to recent reports at MMAWeekly.

WEC 51 is expected to take place on September 8 from the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colorado while airing live on Versus.

Nothing has been announced yet, but the card is expected to be headlined by a featherweight title bout between Jose Aldo and Manny Gamburyan.

Garcia recently edged out Jung via narrow split decision in a wild slugfest widely considered to be the front-runnner for “Fight of the Year” honors, while Roop went to a draw with Garcia in his previous outing, and Hominick is looking for his fourth consecutive victory.

Fresh off a barnburner with fellow Canadian Yves Jabouin at WEC 49, Mark Hominick takes on another hard-swinging featherweight when he meets Leonard Garcia on the televised portion of WEC 51.

The match-up was first reported by MMAWeekly.com and confirmed today by MMAjunkie.com via sources close to the promotion.

Although not officially announced, WEC 51 takes place Sept. 30 at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo., and airs live on Versus.

It's not very often that fights become larger than life and actually
live up to the hype.

But at this past weekend's WEC 49 event in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,
Mark Hominick and Yves Jabouin combined to deliver a toe-to-toe battle that lived up to every bit of
the hype generated by eight years of build-up.

Surprisingly, despite getting up off the canvas to deliver a second-round
TKO of Jabouin, Hominick said he wasn't sure exactly how great the fight
was. In fact, there are a few seconds he doesn't even remember.

WEC 49 took place on June 20 from the Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and the ECSC(Edmonton Combatative Sports Commision) has issued their list of medical suspensions from the night. Every fighter has been suspended, though most can get back to training with a quick doctors clearance. The biggest suspensions went to Jamie Varner and Kamal Shalorus both of whom were suspended indefinetely.

Jamie Varner: Suspended indefinitely until cleared by a doctor. X-rays are required for right hand, right foot and ribs.
Kamal Shalorus: Suspended indefinitely until cleared by a doctor. X-rays required for hands and right leg.
Yves Jabouin: 30 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Mark Hominick: 30 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Will Campuzano: 30 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Diego Nunes: 30 day suspension for precautionary reasons
L.C. Davis: 21 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Daniel Downes: 21 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Anthony Leone: 21 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Chris Horodecki: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Eddie Wineland: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Frank Gomez: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Wagnney Fabiano: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Bendy Casimir: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Raphael Assuncao: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Chris Cariaso: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Rafael Rebello: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Renan Barao: 14 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Josh Grispi: 7 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Will Kerr: 7 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Karen Darabedyan: 7 day suspension for precautionary reasons
Erik Koch: 7 day suspension for precautionary reasons

MMAjunkie.com Radio airs at a slightly delayed 12:30 p.m. ET timeslot and welcomes WEC 49 winners Chris Horodecki and Mark Hominick to the show.

Today's show starts 30 minutes later than usual to allow for fans (and the crew) to enjoy the U.S. vs. Algeria clash in the World Cup. Horodecki and Hominick will each call in once the show begins to discuss their wins at this past Sunday's "WEC 49: Varner vs. Shalorus" event in the two fighters' native Cananda.

MMAjunkie.com Radio airs live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino's Race & Sports Book. Listen to and watch a video stream of the two-hour show at www.mmajunkie.com/radio.