Music: {allcanada} London, Ont., MMA fighters share bond

Mark (The Machine) Hominick, Chris (The Polish Hammer) Horodecki and Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout are the three amigos of Canadian MMA.

They own their own gym in London, Ont., and train together in Las Vegas before fights under coach Shawn Tompkins, who doubles as Stout's brother-in-law.

It makes for a tight band of cage-fighting brothers.

Hominick (18-8) and Horodecki (14-2) campaign in the WEC, where they have separate fights on Thursday night's WEC 51 card in Broomfield, Colo.

Hominick takes on featherweight Leonard (Bad Boy) Garcia while Horodecki faces lightweight Ed (9mm) Ratcliff. Stout (14-4-1) fights in the UFC, with a bout against England's Paul Taylor set for next month at UFC 121 in Anaheim, Calif.

Back home they are co-owners of the Adrenaline Training Center, but they refine their fight strategy in Sin City where Tompkins teaches the pros at the giant Tapout Training Center.

"The facility's awesome but what it comes down to really is the people in it," said the 26-year-old Stout.

All three have other specialty coaches but Tompkins is their overall MMA coach -- and landlord when they train in Vegas. They stay at Tompkins' home where each gets their own room.

"He knows what we're going through with our diet and our sleep and everything like that," said the 28-year-old Hominick. "So it's really nice that we're taken care of by him and (wife) Emily."

Tompkins said he knew that they would be putting up out-of-town fighters, so "we made sure we picked the right house that we could do that and still be able to be somewhat sane."

In their upstairs quarters, the fighters relax together after the demands of training.

"Everyone's in that same mindset," said Hominick. "You're not at home and your friends are saying 'Hey we should go out for dinner, we should go out for a drink or something like that."'

The three have known Tompkins for almost a decade.

Horodecki, 23, was involved in martial arts when he met Tompkins.

"Shawn came in and taught a seminar at the karate school I was training at and I got hooked," he said. "I knew he was for real, I knew he was serious. A couple of weeks later he started teaching a few classes out of the gym and I've been with him ever since. That first day I met Sam and Mark.

"Ten years later look where we are now. . . . We're all still here, it's a strong core."

Tompkins provides direction away from the cage, reminding his fighters when in Vegas that "there's other streets other than the Strip and the Strip can always kind of lead them the wrong direction."

The bond is easy to see when any of the three fight. Tompkins yells out the instructions and the fighter immediately responds.

"We've been with him for so long, so many years and he's just got you trained where he knows you better than you know you, believe it or not," Horodecki said.

"It just works, we click and it is like clockwork. It's like playing a video game."

Said Stout: "That just comes with 10 years of working together. I've been training with him so long I can pick his voice out of even a really large arena."

Tompkins says the bond is strengthened by the time they spend together in training -- "When it's camp time, we're together almost 100 per cent of the day. We get that partnership."

In the main event at the 1STBANK Center on Thursday, Brazilian star Jose (Junior) Aldo defends his featherweight title against Manny (The Anvil) Gamburyan.

Aldo (17-1) has not lost in almost five years and is coming off a dominant win over former champion Urijah (The California Kid) Faber in April.

Hominick and Horodecki, like most, are picking the champ. The Venetian bookmaker in Las Vegas has the Brazilian a 7-1 favourite.

"It's an intriguing match but I don't think Manny brings all the things that Jose does," Hominick said. "He (Aldo) is so well-rounded and he's so dangerous, but one thing Manny does bring is he's not afraid of Aldo."

Said Horodecki: "Aldo, he's proved he's one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in MMA right now. He's looking really good -- standup, on the ground. I think this is a really tough fight for Manny. I think Aldo's going to be too fast for him. I can't see Aldo not winning this fight."

The co-main event features a bad blood rematch between lightweights Jamie Varner and Donald (Cowboy) Cerrone. Cerrone was forced to apologize in the leadup to the fight for saying in an interview he hoped Varner "is the first death in MMA."

Varner won a split decision when they first met in January 2009 in a fight that went to the judges early after Varner was unable to continue after taking an accidental illegal knee to the head.

The two were nose-to-nose during their staredown and Wednesday's weigh-ins, yapping at each other though smiling. Cerrone weighed in at 155.5 while Varner was 156. Varner said that because of the incentive each has to beat the other up, it's the fans who will benefit.

"No matter who wins, you win," Varner told the crowd.

The card also marks the WEC debut of Chinese lightweight Tiequan (The Mongolian Wolf) Zhang, who takes on Pablo Garza.

Also, the Korean Zombie returns. Bantamweight Chan Sung Jung, who turned heads in an April slugfest loss to Garcia, is matched against George Roop.

The card showcases two former champions looking to get back on track.

Mike Brown, who lost his 145-pound championship to Aldo and was beaten by Gamburyan last time out, takes on featherweight Cole Province.

And Miguel Angel Torres, who lost his 135-pound title to Brian Bowles and then was beaten by Joseph Benavidez, hopes to bounces back against bantamweight Charlie Valencia.

NOTES: All fighters successfully made weight Wednesday, although one needed to drop his shorts after weighing in one-half pound heavy on the first attemp. Torres, who was accompanied by trainer Firas Zahaba of Tri-Star MMA in Montreal, was 136.5 pounds before requiring a towel to be placed in front of him for his second stand on the scale, at which point he made 136. Hominick weighed in at 145 while Garcia was 146, and both Horodecki and Ratcliff came in on the number at 155 pounds.