The Great Fight North – Bosse-Thompson Nixed
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A
proposed October 3 bout between up-and-coming Quebec hockey enforcer turned mixed martial
artist Steve Bosse and British heavyweight James “Colossus” Thompson at TKO 35
likely won’t see the light of day according to Thompson’s agent Ken Pavia.
Pavia
says that taking a fight against a 3-1 opponent with just over one year of MMA
experience “didn’t make sense” at this point in the career of his fighter who
has fought under the EliteXC, Cage Rage and PRIDE banners. Thompson is 3-7 in
his past 10 bouts, losing his most recent fight to former internet brawler
Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson
via TKO in the main event of EliteXC’s “Primetime” show on CBS May 31 after
taking the opening two stanzas on the judges’ scorecards.
TKO
president Stephane Patry confirmed Monday that Thompson’s camp had rejected the
match but would not name a possible replacement opponent for Bosse whom he says
is on the cusp of a title bout.
“We
wanted a good opponent with a recognizable name for Bosse like we had in Wes
Sims for his last fight. We’ll bring in someone who can test him. He doesn’t
want any easy fights,” Patry said. “If he wins that fight his next fight will
likely be for the [TKO heavyweight] title. I think people would like to see a
rematch against Icho [Larenas] but Icho lost his last fight so we’ll have to
see.”
Patry
says the rest of the October 3 fight card is coming together nicely and could
include three title fights.
Featherweight
champion Hatsu Hioki will return to defend his belt for the first time since
defeating former champion Mark Hominick at TKO 29 in February 2007 when he
takes on Stephane Vigneault. Patry is in the process of finding suitable
opponents to face welterweight champion Jesse Bongfeldt and bantamweight
champion Adrian Wooley at the event.
A
potential bout between Mark Hominick, who recently re-signed to a multi-fight
deal with the Montreal-based promotion, and Thierry Quenneville is in
negotiations.
Chris
Horodecki, who is waiting in limbo while the future of the IFL is decided will
likely finish out the last fight of his TKO contract by the end of 2008,
predicts Patry although he could not say whether or not the 20-year-old would
be on promotion’s scheduled October or December card.
TKO 35
Friday,
October 3, 2008
Bell Centre
Montreal, Quebec
TKO
Featherweight Championship Bout
Hatsu
Hioki vs. Stephane Vigneault – FW Title Fight
TKO
Welterweight Championship Bout
Jesse
Bongfeldt vs. TBA
TKO
Bantamweight Championship Bout
Adrian
Wooley vs. TBA
Steve
Bosse vs. TBA
Mark
Hominick vs. Thierry Quenneville
——————–
KANG
POSSIBLY HEADED BACK TO TKO?
TKO
president Stephane Patry revealed this week that he is working towards signing
an international fighter that would create a stir amongst Canadian MMA fans.
When asked whether the fighter in question was Denis Kang, who was recently
given the go ahead from DREAM to fight outside of the organization, he would
neither confirm nor deny the French-Korean born Canadian was on TKO’s radar.
Patry did
say that he would gladly welcome Kang who fought for TKO and its predecessor
the UCC back to fight on one of his upcoming cards should the opportunity
arise.
“Denis is
a great fighter,” Patry said. “I’d love to have him fight for us again.”
When
contacted Monday by TGFN, Kang, who has spent a great deal of time in Montreal
in the past year as a training partner of UFC welterweight champion Georges St.
Pierre admitted he had spoken with Patry but had since fallen out of contact.
Despite several offers to compete overseas and at home in Canada, Kang
doesn’t rule out the possibility of TKO return.
I thought
about fighting for TKO but I kind of lost touch with Stephane [Patry],” Kang
said. “We’ll see what happens. You never know.”
Although
he has dropped his last two fights to Yoshihiro Akiyama and Gegard Mousasi at
K-1 Dynamite and DREAM 2 respectively, many still consider Kang a top-ten
welterweight. Kang was pulled from a scheduled DREAM 5 appearance and despite
the cancellation and not being told of his opponent for the Akiyama and Mousasi
fights until two weeks before each bout, he says he’ll consider signing with
them again after his next fight, which is the last on his current contract.
“I’m
going to look at the offers and see what’s best,” Kang says. “They aren’t the
only organization that cancels fights and they have a lot of fighters since
they combined all of the organizations to make DREAM.”
Kang says
he hasn’t been officially given a date for his next DREAM fight but officials
mentioned they want him on their tentatively planned Korea show scheduled for October.
——————
LOISEAU
TO MAKE XTREME MMA DEBUT IN SEPTEMBER
David
“The Crow” Loiseau will make his first appearance fighting for Xtreme MMA, the
promotion he co-founded with Steve Claveau and Chris Leblanc on September 13.
The former UFC middleweight contender’s agent Ken Pavia says no opponent has
been decided upon for Loiseau but it will likely be a marquee fighter.
Loiseau
seems to have found solid ground again after a slide that saw the
French-Canadian lose three fights in a row to Rich Franklin, Mike Swick and
Joey Villasenor. Since then, he has gone 3-1, defeating Freddie Espiricueta,
Todd Gouwenberg and most recently, Andrew Buckland. Loiseau’s only loss in the
past year, a debatable decision to Jason Day, could have as easily gone the
other way.
Since
being unceremoniously dropped by the UFC as a result of the two losses in a row
to Franklin and Swick, Loiseau has made no secret of his desire to return to
the Las Vegas
based promotion’s roster. UFC president Dana White said at the post fight press
conference for UFC 83 in Montreal
that he would love to see Loiseau back in the Octagon but he would have to
notch some quality wins first.
——————
THE
MACHINE PRIMED AND READY TO FACE YOUNG
Heading
into his fight with Savant Young at this Saturday’s inaugural Affliction Show
in Anaheim, California, Mark Hominick says he’s never
been more prepared for a fight and that he’s looking forward to getting back in
the ring to prove himself.
The
Thamesford, Ontario native has been shoring up
his weaknesses training with some of Canada’s
top wrestlers at the new Xtreme Couture training center in Toronto
such as Georges St. Pierre’s former wrestling coach Nick Johnson and Abu Dhabi trials champion
Misha Cirkunov. According to Hominick, remaining at home for this training camp
instead of traveling to Las Vegas,
Nevada to train with his Xtreme
Couture teammates has been a good change of scenery.
“Training at
Xtreme Couture [in Toronto]
has been awesome. You get into your comfort zone training at home and I’ve been
training with some really good [wrestling] guys that helped me work on what I
needed to work on,” Hominick says. “I’m putting everything together again so
this has been a strong camp.”
One thing
Hominick says he did miss while training at home was the tutelage of his
longtime mentor and trainer Shawn Tompkins who last year moved to Vegas to take
the helm of their Xtreme Couture branch as gym manager. With the trainer’s
return to London
last week, Hominick says the final piece of the puzzle is in place for him to
beat Young and get back on track following back-to-back submission losses in
the WEC to Rani Yahya and Josh Grispi.
“Shawn came
back to London
and fine-tuned everything a couple weeks ago so I’m ready to go. This is a big
fight for me and I’m hoping for big things,” Hominick explains. “Getting a win
will put my foot back in the door to becoming the number one contender and
that’s my intention. I have a three-fight deal with them so I’m focusing on
fighting for them and winning fights and hopefully going good places.”
The fight with
Grispi was the last of Hominick’s WEC contract and despite a 2-0 UFC record he
compiled fighting at 155 pounds – ten pounds above his usual weight – including
an impressive rear-naked choke victory over veteran Yves Edwards, he was not
offered a new deal.
Wanting to
keep busy, Hominick signed a new three-fight deal with TKO – the organization
that launched his career. His goal for his next stint with the Montreal-based
organization is clear: get back the title he lost to Japanese fighter Hatsu
Hioki last year.
“I have three
fights with TKO but I have no Idea when I’ll be fighting for them at the
moment,” Hominick says. “All I want there is to work back into title contention
and get a title fight.”
When
Affliction called and offered him a contract he signed without hesitation after
hearing the other names on the card, He says he knew right away the promotion
had something special and feels that the show will be the first of several the
company has planned.
“I’m honored
to have been asked to be a part of this show. There are so many great fighters
on the card,” Hominick explains. “We’re expecting big things from them.”
As far as the
fight with Young goes, without revealing his game plan, Hominick, who is
renowned for his cardio among his training partners says he’s going to use his
reach advantage to keep the former IFL fighter outside until he tires himself before
imposing his will.
“He’s a short
and stocky guy who’s very powerful. He loads up all of his punches. I think this is a good style match up for me
being in there with someone who wants to exchange punches. I have more
technique speed and reach than he does so I think that will be the difference
in the fight,” Hominick predicts. “Controlling the first round will be key
because Savant comes out flying and goes downhill from there whereas I usually
come out a bit slower and start climbing as the fight goes on. I’m going to
have to be smart and come out strong in the first round and continue to hurt
him.”
The Fight
Network will feature the televised preliminary portion of the card Saturday at
8:00 pm EST.
Affliction: Banned
July 19, 2008
Honda Center
Anaheim, California
WAMMA World Heavyweight Championship Bout
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia
Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao
Ben Rothwell vs. Andrei Arlovski
Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
Mike Pyle vs. J.J. Ambrose
Undercard (The Fight Network)
Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Edwin Dewees
*May not be broadcast
Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin @ MW
Justin Levens vs. Ray Lazama @ MW
Mark Hominick
vs. Savant Young @ FW
CANADIAN
CALENDAR
- July 19
- King of the Cage: Ex-Calibur, Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta - July 25
- Maximum Fighting Championship 17: Hostile Territory, River Cree Resort and
Casino, Enoch, Alberta - July 26
- Freedom Fight: Title Quest, Robert Guertin Arena, Gatineau, Quebec
Canadian
Correspondent Mike Russell can be reached via e-mail at
gfn@thefightnetwork.com.
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