Who wins this fight? Maybe if you are just the casual fan of canadian mma, you would immediately say Hominick. I mean the guy has been nothing short of awesome since he won the title in the first place. Of course, there was that brief problem with Rice, but he came back and dominated the rematch. He beat Diaz before as well. So it should be pretty simple right?
The thing is, Diaz is probably the best submission artist in the division. Some might argue that Shane Rice is, but we just have to have a look at both fighters last five fights to see that Diaz is a submission machine. Not only that, he has shown great improvment over the last year in his striking. If we remember Hominick and Diaz in their first fight, Diaz basically lost by cut. Not to take anything away from Hominick in that fight. You can't get cut unless you get hit, and Hominick can hit. Diaz hasn't lost since that fight. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a fight of his that has gone past the first round over his last seven fights. That because everybody was either running away from is strikes, or tapping the mat.
Bottom line is, this is going to be one hell of a fight.
For those of you who don't like the rant, don't read it.
This is a great fight. Strangely enough, I've seen all of Mark's and Ryan's TKO fights, except the one from 13 against each other so I have no real preconceptions except knowing Hominick beat Diaz by a cut stoppage.
Diaz is a warrior and can take some big shots. The Eddie Yagin fight is an example where Diaz showed no quit, another would be Steve Claveau where he got rocked in the corner but came back like a lil' Fedor. Hominck on the other hand has been through a couple wars and is capable of anything. The first Rice fight was a dissappointment, and it did show Mark can be caught if you put him in a bad position. Is Diaz's BJJ at the level of Rickson Gracie student ( Brown Belt? ) Shane Rice? Probably not. But he's got the all around game to bring it to the 3rd round or later and get something done if he can tire The Machine out ( good luck ).
Speaking of, I thought TKO put out a PR whre all title fights were 5 X 3 min. Rds. now? Is that true?
I'm thinking The Machine beats on Diaz for 2-3 rounds before getting over-confident and being caught with a backflip omoplata by The Lion.
Hey, I did add a little -good luck- tag to my comment about tiring Hominick out.
What do you think the best option for Diaz is? I don't think he can go head to head with Hominick, and even if The Lion does get a couple early takedowns they'll most likely be neutralised by Mark. Ryan almost has to wait for Mark to make a mistake( like the 1st Rice fight), and then make sure he capitalises and finishes the fight.
I never cared much for the Carvalho-Menjivar fight knowing this one was on the horizon. This is my most anticpated Canadian fight of the year, and under the 5 round title rules we could see a classic war.
It's hard to imagine where all the young Canadian LW's and FW's will be in 5-6 years. Carvalho, Menjivar, Hominick, Diaz, Stout, Horodecki, Frederiskon, Quenneville, Vigneault, etc, etc... Too much talent to name.