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For every great fighter they all need that breakthrough moment, when they make the millions watching in attendance or from their living rooms stand up and take notice. For Anderson Silva it was his obliteration of Rich Franklin, for George St-Pierre it was his first win over Matt Hughes and so on.

For Mark Hominick it was a different story though, his story doesn’t end with him having his hand raised and UFC President Dana White wrapping a ten-pound championship around his waist validating his life’s work. His breakthrough moment was a loss to top-ranked featherweight Jose Aldo.

Hominick had just moved over to the Ultimate Fighting Championship after fighting for nine years between Canada and North America but a three-win stint in the Zuffa, LLC sister-organization World Extreme Cagefighting had him at the top of the contenders list when he made his octagon debut.

Knowing what was on the line he wasted no time punching his ticket to challenge Aldo for the top crown at 145-pounds finishing George Roop in just 88 seconds.

The stage was set, second from the top of the card at UFC 129 in Toronto, Canada as 55,000 on his countrymen cheered him on in support – Aldo showed his dominance early blistering the legs of the challenger with his thunderous kicks and connecting with his uppercut but stamina became a factor as the war raged on.

Hominick showed the heart of a warrior, as the final five minutes of action began the Shawn Tompkins trained fighter looked like the elephant man as a giant hematoma swelled on his forehead. But when the doctor asked him if he wanted to continue, he didn’t hesitate for a moment.

The closing moments of the fight should have been out of a high-budget Hollywood movie as the heroic underdog hammer fisted as the champion covered up just as the buzzer went off signaling the end of their 25-minute affair.

Hominick might not have left with the ultimate validation for his spoils of war with the UFC title but he earned the respect of a worldwide audience.

The journey didn’t get any easier for the 28-year-old combatant, while preparing for his next trip to the octagon he lost his coach and friend Shawn Tompkins, almost three months later when it was time to go to work for the first time without Shawn by his side it played a major factor.

Hominick was once again on home territory in Toronto but his over-eagerness to get in the cage and perform cost him against Chan Sung Jung, more prominently referred to as “The Korean Zombie” losing in just 7 seconds.

“I fought out of character, I never fight that aggressively and reckless and I paid the price, it’s weird that after ten years you still need to have a learning experience but that’s what it was [laughs] it wasn’t a beginner mistake, it was ten years into my career”

Now on April 21 it’s time for him to get back on the horse as he finds himself in unfamiliar territory, dealing with two consecutive defeats, something he hasn’t dealt with in over five years.

“The main thing is, it’s tough coming off a loss but it also makes you hungry, it’s gotta make you come back to the gym and work hard here and stay hungry so that’s what’s always motivated me.”

He steps into the cage against Eddie Yagin, a tough battle because the Hawaiian product is a veteran of 21 fights and a 145-pound champion of two organizations but he doesn’t have the name value that his previous opponents in the octagon have had.

In fact, Yagin was one of the biggest stars of the SuperBrawl organization in the early part of this century where most considered him to be the second coming of BJ Penn but he hasn’t lived up to that hype.

“The thing with Eddie Yagin is he’s a veteran, he’s been around longer than I have in this sport – I remember fighting back in 2002 or 2003 in Hawaii and he was one of the headline fighters, he’s seen it all and he’s got a dangerous right hand and a really good guillotine as well.”

Hominick has been doing this for a long time and touched gloves with some of the best this industry has ever seen but he is not ready to call his career quits until he holds a UFC championship at 145-pounds.

“Not now anyway, I’m so motivated, every fight I want to climb back up and I’m hungry for a championship, that’s what I’m motivated by every day so it’s not on my radar right now, only winning and climbing that ladder.”

Catch the entire interview along with chats with ESPN’s Josh Gross and Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney on this weeks addition of MMA Sucka Radio that can be found here

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It appears that the random drug test at the UFC 146 press conference has caught it’s first UFC heavyweight and that man is none other than Alistair Overeem. Reports are now surfacing that Overeem has been flagged for elevated levels of testosterone. Apparently his TE ratio was greater than 10 which is a major No, No!

Keith Kizer of the NSAC has confirmed with MMASucka.com that indeed Overeem has been flagged and more information will be coming. This will no doubt mean the end of what was supposed to be the most anticipated UFC fight of the year. Alistair Overeem vs. Junior Dos Santos was a fight that a lot of fans were looking forward to seeing and a fight the UFC would have made millions off of. UFC 146 is to take place on May 26th from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. With Overeem’s current legal battles and now with this positive test for elevated levels of testosterone, it could mean the end of Overeem in the UFC.

Prior to UFC 141 Alistair Overeem was asked to take a drug test and provide the NSAC with urine. Overeem took his sweet time and missed the deadline in providing the NSAC with that urine. In response the Nevada State Athletic Commission had an emergency hearing on the issue but did eventually allow Overeem to participate in the Main Event of UFC 141 against Brock Lesnar. Overeem was given a conditional licence to fight Lesnar and he needed to pass two subsequent tests. So the question is now will Overeem’s win over Lesnar be ruled a no contest?

Here is the email we received from NSAC head Keith Kizer:

The following athletes were tested on March 27:  Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos, Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez, Roy Nelson and Antonio Silva.  All test results were negative, except Mr. Overeem tested positive for an increased T/E ratio (> 10).  Mr. Overeem will need to appear before the Commission if he seeks licensure.

Keith Kizer

Executive Director

Nevada Athletic Commission

More information will be coming on MMASucka.com.

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Chael Sonnen came within seconds of being crowned the first UFC middleweight champion not named Anderson Silva in over four years at UFC 117.

For the better part of twenty-five minutes Sonnen did exactly what he said he would do but he let his guard down a moment too long and the Brazilian threw his legs in the air securing a textbook triangle armbar to retain his crown.

A money laundering conviction, a positive test for testosterone and two fights later he finally gets his chance at redemption and he isn’t going to make the same mistake.

As the top-ranked middleweight contender prepares to walk into enemy territory in front of a partisan crowd in Rio de Janero, Brazil on June 23 he has an ace up his sleeve bringing in Vinny Magalhaes.

Magalhaes tweeted this earlier:

Magalhaes was considered to be the breakout star of the eighth installment of The Ultimate Fighter but Ryan Bader stole his thunder with a first-round knockout, another loss to Elliot Marshall later and he was exiled from the elite MMA organization.

In his three years away from the Zuffa umbrella he has finished seven opponents, five of them by submission.

But his real strength outside of the cage is his submission grappling — A fifteen time medalist in jiu-jitsu he capped off his impressive grappling resume winning a gold medal at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club submission championships.

While a UFC title is the highest level of achievement in the UFC and a K-1 World Grand Prix championship is the highest for kickboxing an ADCC championship is the peak in submission grappling, making him the best grappler in the world at 99 kilograms right now.

Submission defense might he the only chink in the armor of the gangsta from America and working with Magalhaes will be a giant leap in the right direction to plugging that hole.

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The rumor mill has been running rampant over the past few days with reports that former UFC heavyweight kingpin Brock Lesnar would be making his return to his former home in the WWE.

Tonight those rumors were confirmed as Lesnar marched into Miami, Florida, as thousands of screaming fans went ballistic for his return, interrupting a highly-promoted promo with WWE’s poster-boy John Cena.

Cena fell short in his efforts to defeat the returning Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson last night at the WWE’s biggest event Wrestlemania 28 and on Monday night RAW Cena was calling for his rival to join him in the ring, but instead, he was answered by Lesnar who simply gave him his F-5 finishing maneuver and posed for the hot crowd.

Lesnar grabbed peoples attention from the first time he showed his face on WWE television. In the early shades of 2002 he obliterated the likes of Spike Dudley, Steven Richards and The Hardy Boyz  with former Extreme Championship Wrestling figurehead Paul Heyman as his mouthpiece.

Within months he would defeat The Rock to become the WWE’s top dog and it was off to the races as he became one of the company’s biggest stars before he left to pursue a career elsewhere.

Before he even gave stepping into the UFC Octagon a serious consideration he had an unsuccessful run in trying out for the NFL. He eventually fell into MMA and much like he took the scripted-action world by storm right away, he did so in the octagon too.

The Minnesotan had a natural magnetism from the moment he stepped foot on the amateur wrestling mats and it translated everywhere he went. Within nine months of his UFC debut he was the heavyweight king and the promotions biggest cash-cow.

On December 31, when he announced that he would step away from the octagon after a deadly loss to Alistair Overeem, most suspected he would return to the wrestling ring for one final run, and now its finally going to happen.

Reports are that he has signed a one-year deal for $5million with fifteen appearances guaranteed over the twelve month period but that has not been confirmed by any major publications.

As I noticed on my twitter feed over the past 24 hours professional wrestling is drawing back a lot of the old contingent that viewed Monday night WWE programming for years in the past, this might be their next step in keeping a few of them.

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Pound-for-pound one of the most entertaining fighters on the planet, Ben Saunders has had no troubles staying in the mainstream spotlight despite not being cuddled by the warm arms of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“Killa B” was a part of the UFC for three years beginning on The Ultimate Fighter before becoming a mainstay in their 170-pound division before back-to-back defeats to Jon Fitch and Dennis Hallman ousted him from the organization.

Since then the American Top Team product has been a man on a mission, his all-violence approach to fighting blistered Elijah Harshbarger and Matt Lee to earn a place in the Bellator Fighting Championships welterweight tournament.

The reign of terror continued with back-to-back stoppages of Chris Cisneros and Luis Santos before he was stopped by his friend and training partner Douglas Lima in the finals of the series.

Last night he bounced back from his lone defeat since leaving the UFC with a three-round domination of Raul Amaya showing off his slick grappling skills.

“I think it went really well, actually it went extremely well, I got out with no injuries and with the tournament format that’s what you’re looking for, need to get the W and come out unscaved, I personally wanted a submission the entire time though”

Next up he’s going to be paired with Bryan Baker, the Greg Jackson trained former middleweight also punched his ticket into the welterweight semi-finals last Friday with a victory over heavy-handed Brazilian Carlos Alexandre Pereira.

“My next opponent is Bryan Baker and I know he’s a very talented veteran, I haven’t seen too many of his fights but my teammates have and my coaches have,”

He continued “I’m actually looking forward to it because he’s got a name to him, my last fight was more of a wildcard with [Raul] Amaya because nobody really knew who he was so we were just sort of going out there to make things happen so it’s good to fight a name and really test myself against an experienced veteran.”

Bellator have done a great job with limited resources and cash flow to keep the flame of Saunders and many others alive over their almost four years of existence and the Bruce Lee enthusiast is glad to be a part of something special.

“They’re not as big as some of the other major promotions but they are 100% doing everything in their power to play the game smart, a lot of people throw millions of dollars and they’re nowhere to be seen now and these guys move on”

One of the key reasons to the success of Bellator has been their tournament-based fighting, despite its clear flaws the Chicago-based organization’s leader Bjorn Rebney is firmly against changing it and Saunders is okay with that.

“It’s kind of like being a part of history, it’s like when I got to watch my favorite fighters growing up in the UFC, for me personally it’s just something cool to be a part of, it would be like being a Gracie or a Shamrock of the UFC era not to mention they treat us great.”

Next week the Bellator welterweight title will be on the line as Olympic squad freestyle wrestler Ben Askren looks to defend his belt for the second time against Douglas Lima.

One things for sure, Saunders will be watching this fight very closely because if he wins the series he will face the winner and could have to meet a friend in the Bellator circular cage once again.

He’s my teammate man! It sucks y’know we fought each other the first time and the funniest thing is we were texting back and forth and he was saying “Congrats “ and I’m saying “Yo, I want you to smash Askren” but it is what it is, it’s nice to avenge a loss but it’s the only loss I’m not grudging about,”

He went on “If we end up doing battle again then the fans are going to get a good show, if Askren pulls off a lay and pray victory or ground control victory, not saying he won’t try or anything, but if he’s going to defend his belt then I’m definitely going to go out there and try get some ATT revenge there, I’m coming for the belt man!.”

The Florida-born mixed martial artist has his eyes set on winning the top prize in Bellator at 170-pounds but there are three other fighters who are looking to stop that motion, keep it on MMASucka.com for more on Saunders and the development of the welterweight tournament.

Listen to the full interview with Saunders, as well as former UFC middleweight kingpin Rich Franklin and The Fight Club Chicago’s Steve Muelhausen here

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Wrestlemania 28 takes place from Miami Florida this Sunday (April 1, 2012) and there are rumors that former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Brock Lesnar has made the trip. According to a report by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, Lesnar has begun negotiations with the WWE about a return to the wrestling ring.

Regarding Brock Lesnar rumors for the weekend, the two sides have been talking in recent weeks, as was hinted in the Dwayne Johnson interview last week when Lesnar’s name was brought up as a possible opponent for next year.

Now it’s not known if Lesnar will be involved in any way in the upcoming Wrestlemania 28 event, but there have been a lot of rumors from good sources that are saying that it’s not a matter of “IF” Lesnar comes back to professional wrestling it’s a matter of “When” does he come back. Lesnar is a very private person and for him to be in Miami for those negotiations seems odd. Whether or not those rumors are true or if they are just planted rumors by the WWE in order to get more eyes on their PPV is yet to be seen. Judging by the buzz, Wrestlemania 28 will probably be one of the WWE’s biggest and most successful PPV events of all time. Having rumors of Lesnar’s involvement may garner even more viewers.

If I had to guess, I would not be surprised to see Lesnar interfere or be involved in the HHH vs. Undertaker Main Event, setting up some giant Main Event going into Summer Slam. There is a tremendous amount of heat between Undertaker and Brock Lesnar that goes way back, that you know the WWE would love to cash in on.
Duane “The Rock” Johnson stated recently that he would love to have a match with Lesnar in the not too distant future even hinting at Wrestlemania 29. However, something tells me that Lesnar will be back sooner than that. My money is this weekend.

When Lesnar does come back don’t expect him to do a lot of Monday Night Raws. It will most likely be a similar situation that “The Rock” had where it’s select TV appearances leading up to a large event like Summer Slam. Stay tuned.

-Corner Man-

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For full MMA coverage and the latest news, keep it locked to MMASucka.com. You can also follow Trevor on Twitter @tdueckmania.

Seemingly overnight twitter has grown rapidly and enormously – Beginning as a small-time social media tool to combat the issues with social media juggernauts Facebook and Myspace it has grown into arguably the most useful tool at your fingertips.

With over 350 million users online it gives a mainstream star the opportunity to converse with their fans while giving them the chance to keep up with their lives and voice their opinion on the hot points of discussion inside their Twittersphere.

Unfortunately, with the good also comes the bad – When a star with millions of users following them is frustrated or has had a few too many drinks and should be sleeping it off decides to log into twitter, that’s when things take a turn for the worse.

Muhammed Lawal, more prominently referred to as “King Mo” went before the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) due to a positive test for a banned substance after his one-sided beat down on Lorenz Larkin.

As most expected to happen, the American Kickboxing Academy standout was fined $39,000 and slapped with a nine month suspension from competition.

But the real action began after he left the room, within minutes he was typing away on his smart phone sending a tweet out to his 16,571 followers calling NSAC commissioner Pat Ludvall a “racist bitch”.

Issues arose during the conference when Ludvall asked Lawal if he “speaks or writes English” despite being seven minutes into the meeting where the college graduate had been speaking.

Whether or not her comments were race related or not are unknown, in fairness the question was likely to establish on the record that he had a full understanding of what was going on during the proceedings but I can understand Lawal getting upset from this statement.

His now-deleted tweet in return got him released from his deal with Zuffa, LLC the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Strikeforce.

But Lawal is not the first person to ruffle a few feathers from their statements made in 140 characters or less, Bryan Caraway threatened to beat up a woman, both Miguel Torres and Forrest Griffin have sent out tweets making light of women being raped and Tito Ortiz even showed the world his junk.

Even at the top of the food chain UFC President Dana White is hardly a saint on social media, blasting fans who disagree with his comments or calling female MMA journalist Loretta Hunt a “dumb bitch”.

With all of this commotion it’s clear that a strict code of conduct needs to be put in place to stop idiocy plaguing social media – At this stage there is no cement rules on what combatants can or cannot say on social media sites.

UFC hold the annual Fighter Summit each year which holds classes encouraging their fighters to responsibly use twitter but is that enough? Without a consistent set of guidelines it’s worth nothing.

Both the NBA and NFL have done their part to stop inappropriate uses of social media with a few simple rules and consequences that don’t allow their players to tweet during games or within certain times before and after.

Now more than ever the UFC is encouraging their fighters to be on twitter with financial benefits for doing so, all that we need now are some ground rules.

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The consensus top-contender for the UFC middleweight title, Chael Sonnen has denied that the bout is official in the past stating that his Brazilian counterpart wouldn’t accept the fight.

All that talk has been put to rest with the news out of the Calgary UFC press conference that their rematch is set in stone, likely for UFC 147.

“Think about this, the Chael Sonnen/Anderson Silva fight, I’m probably going to put my foot in my mouth again, and probably not supposed to be talking about this either, but I always do it so, this thing’s going to be in a soccer stadium in Rio,” White said.

“This thing’s going to have over 80,000 people are going to be at this event down there.”

The venue that White is likely talking about is the Estadio Olimpico Joao Havelange, better known by its nickname Engenhao and is the arena that plays host to all the biggest and most important soccer matches.

The number of 80,000 people packing the arena has been thrown around, whether or not they can fit that many into the building without being cussed in Portuguese because half the building cannot see is a whole different kettle of fish.

In fairness, the UFC have never tried to just pack a building to the rafters if it would compromise the experience for the viewer so I don’t expect that to happen.

The building is set to host 60,000 people for the upcoming Olympic games and would probably be a more accurate estimation and if it went ahead would be the largest attendance in UFC history yet still 30,000 short of the record set by Pride Fighting Championships in 2002.

Sonnen vs. Silva is a fight that will draw the people in to the growing Brazilian market for certain, with Silva’s rise in popularity since the UFC’s first venture there last year coupled with his promotional work with Burger King he is a huge celebrity.

Also expected for that event is the coaches battle for the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil with home-grown heroes Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort squaring off coupled with both TUF champions being crowned from the series.

Keep it locked to MMASucka.com for more as one of the biggest events in the promotions history develops.

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UFC President Dana White and Director of Canadian Operations Tom Wright were in Calgary on Wednesday, March 21 to make a major announcement.

The organization did not fail to impress, as they announced a trio of shows which will take place in Calgary, Toronto and Ontario.

Calgary will be slated for July 21 and will be UFC 149. With follow up stops in Toronto on September 22 (UFC 152) and Montreal on November 17 (UFC 154).

Fast forward to about the 8:30mins mark.

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Dana White landed in “Cow Town” (Calgary), Alberta and threw down a few juicy announcements regarding Canadian UFC dates. It is now official that the city of Calgary will be getting UFC 149 on July 21, 2012 at the Scotiabank Saddledome with the headliner bout being a Main Event involving UFC’s featherweight champion Jose Aldo. Most likely Aldo’s opponent will be the winner of the Dustin Poirier vs. “Korean Zombie” fight on May 25th at UFC on Fuel TV 3.  No other matchups were announced for the Calgary show but we are sure those will be coming down the pipe in the next few weeks. However Dana White did promise that the card would be something special.

I’m so pumped to come back up here with a sick card and blow the doors off that arena, White said.

Dana White also announced that both Toronto and Montreal will be on the UFC PPV radar this year with Toronto getting a show September 22 (UFC 152), and Montreal on November 17 (UFC 154). It also appears that those two cities will be annual Canadian destinations of choice for the UFC moving forward with another city like Edmonton, Calgary or even Halifax added as the third. There was no mention of Vancouver which has to be regarded as a major snub to one of Canada’s most popular destinations.

Dana White mentioned that as of right now there are no plans to put George St. Pierre on any of those cards due to not knowing when GSP will be 100% from his knee injury.