Weighty issues for UFC 129's Hominick
TORONTO – A procedural error led to controversy over the weigh-in of featherweight title contender Mark Hominick the day before UFC’s biggest live event in history.
Hominick weighed in at 145.25 pounds according to the scale reading at the Ricoh Coliseum, which was the initial public announcement for the championship fight against Jose Aldo Jr., but it was then listed as being 145 pounds.
While the difference sounds minuscule, 145 is the exact limit for a featherweight title fight. If a fighter goes over the mark, the match is supposed to become non-title.
The weight was recorded at 145 pounds on the button and the Ontario-based challenger was approved and confirmed for his title shot against champion Jose Aldo Jr. as part of UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
The reality is Hominick would have likely made weight, given that he was wearing his shorts while weighing in. And he seemed ready to dispense with them and go back on the scale to weigh in again, which would have alleviated any controversy.
Instead, the Ontario Athletic Commission official on site waved him off. Nobody would speak on the record about the controversy. One explanation given was the potential that the loud music that was playing when he stepped on the scale could have caused the stage to shake enough to slightly affect the weight.
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However, earlier, when lightweight Ben Henderson weighed in a half-pound over the limit for his fight, they ceased playing music in the arena and had weighed him again with no difference.
Aside from the Hominick controversy the weigh-in was routine, with a decidedly pro-Georges St. Pierre crowd estimated at about 6,000 in the building, adjacent to the UFC’s Fan Expo at the Direct Energy Centre. The welterweight champion clocked in at 169.5 pounds, and then guaranteed victory against challenger Jake Shields, who came in at 169 pounds.
“It’s going to end with a victory is all I promise,” St. Pierre said.
“I’m bringing the belt home,” said Shields, with most of his words drowned out by a loud negative reaction to the San Francisco-based challenger. “They can boo all they want.”
All other fighters made weight, although former WEC lightweight champion Henderson had to continue cutting to shed the excess half-pound after the weigh-ins.
Randy Couture, who has said his fight with Lyoto Machida would be his last, came in at 203.5 pounds, looking smaller than he has ever looked for a fight in his career.
Aldo Jr. made weight. But in making an appearance as the UFC had all seven of its champions together on stage an hour before weigh-ins, a gaunt Aldo looked miserable, like he didn’t want to be there, before being allowed to leave early.
St. Pierre, who also had to weigh-in, was at least outwardly smiling during the champions' festivities, although it was obvious he also wanted to return to getting ready for weigh-ins as quickly as he could.
The weigh-ins climaxed a long day of UFC activities where fans from six continents converged to gather autographs, buy merchandise, watch grappling matches, including one with UFC star Diego Sanchez.
UFC president Dana White, former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, announcer Joe Rogan and ring announcer Bruce Buffer all did question-and-answer sessions with fans.
The White session was the highlight, as fans asked the UFC president for favors, and White bent over backwards to grant them.
The wildest was a fan who asked to be able to strap the title belt around the winner of the main event’s waist, specifically asking if he could strap the belt around St. Pierre’s waist. White at first seemed negative on the idea, but later agreed to it, causing the surprised crowd to cheer. He also agreed to let a fan who asked sit with him at ringside during Saturday night’s show. He allowed a couple of fans to attend the post-fight press conference. And he allowed another fan a chance to sit at ringside with the Octagon girls.
White made it clear early on that the one thing he couldn’t give away was tickets to tomorrow night’s show, noting he had saved 300 tickets to give away to Twitter followers, and he had given them all away on Thursday night and there were no seats left in the stadium that is set up to accommodate about 55,000 fans.
However, he did give away tickets to one fan who asked for the the August 27 show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and gave another tickets to the July 2 show in Las Vegas.
White did turn down a few requests, including a fan who wanted to walk to the ring with St. Pierre, and another who asked if he could trade seats with White for a prelim fight. He also wouldn’t let a fan spend the rest of the day with him. When asked if he could at least eat a meal with him, White noted that he had no time to sit down and eat, and just gets fed food on the run.
In between the barrage of requests were some serious questions, including one about five-round non-title fights.
“It’s under consideration,” White said. “We were thinking about doing it for the Brock Lesnar vs. Junior Dos Santos fight, but you can’t go back to those guys after we had made a deal and change it.”
One fan was critical of the current season of The Ultimate Fighter, saying that it was boring.
White noted that Spike TV had allocated fewer episodes this season than in previous seasons, so they felt in losing an episode, they got rid of the usual first episode where fighters have to fight to get into the house.
“That will never happen again,” White said. He also said that the season really picks up and there are some strong fights later in the season.
He dismissed the idea of adding a 225-pound weight class, saying that there wasn’t enough depth in the heavyweight division at this point to justify splitting it in half.
When asked about returning to the Rogers Centre provided they could do a St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva dream fight, White indicated Toronto as the live site was a strong possibility.
“There’s a very good chance,” he said. “There are three places we would consider: Las Vegas, because it’s the fight capital of the world, but they don’t have a building big enough; Dallas, Texas, at Cowboys Stadium; or here in Toronto. It would be a no-brainer to consider having it back here.”
There was some talk of Strikeforce vs. UFC fights, in particular when White was asked about a new contender for St. Pierre should he beat Shields, and White brought up Nick Diaz’s name. He noted that after this weekend’s events, he’s going to Stockton to speak one-on-one with Diaz.
“He had a verbal agreement that he could do a boxing match,” said White, who indicated he didn’t like the idea, but if Diaz was insistent on doing it, he wouldn’t stop him. “We’re living up to everyone’s deals.”
White also talked about Gilbert Melendez, the Strikeforce lightweight champion, possibly facing the UFC champion, but said that the next guy in line for the Frankie Edgar vs. Gary Maynard winner on May 28 in Las Vegas is still former WEC champion Anthony Pettis.
Without exactly saying so, it appears that there will be a major UFC event on Oct. 8 in Houston, as White closed with the announcement that they will be doing another Fan Expo on Oct. 7 and 8 in that city.
Weigh-in results:
Pablo Garza (145) vs. Yves Jabouin (146)
Kyle Watson (155) vs. John Makdessi (155.5)
Ryan Jensen (185) vs. Jason MacDonald (185)
Charlie Valencia (135) vs. Ivan Menjivar (136)
Daniel Roberts (170.5) vs. Claude Patrick (169.5)
Sean Pierson (170) vs. Jake Ellenberger (170)
Rory MacDonald (170.5) vs. Nate Diaz (171)
Ben Henderson (156)* vs. Mark Bocek (155)
Jason Brilz (204.5) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (205.5)
Lyoto Machida (204.5) vs. Randy Couture (203.5)
UFC featherweight championship: Jose Aldo Jr. (145) vs. Mark Hominick (145)**
UFC welterweight championship: Georges St. Pierre (169.5) vs. Jake Shields (169)
*Henderson first weighed in at 156.5, but later was weighed in at an allowable 156
**Hominick’s actual weigh-in weight was 145.25, but it was recorded at 145 and approved as a championship fight.
