Mark Hominick put up a spirited performance against Eddie Yagin at UFC 145 last night, but the split decision loss still marks his third in a row. It is a frustrating low point in the career of a man who once ripped through the featherweight division to set himself up for a championship showdown with Jose Aldo.

In many ways, Hominick has never recovered from the gutsy beating he took from Aldo, and against Yagin it showed. He was knocked down early in the first round and early in the second, to big telegraphed winging shots—shots the crisp striker should have avoided.

Yagin is a long way from a title shot, and the bloody mask he wore on his face for much of the fight showed how far he still has to climb up the division. But Hominick is an important scalp for him, as the Thamesford, Ontario native was a 5-1 favourite going into the match.

Fighters don’t recover from a broken chin, and the knockdowns Hominick is racking up has made his head an irresistible target. Against Chan Sung Jun in December he went out cold only seven seconds into the fight, an event that surely diminished his event pulling power in his home country.

That’s not to say that Hominick should hang up his gloves just yet. At 29 he still has a few fights left in him. But there’s only so much punishment a fighter can take in his career, and for Hominick that limit is drawing very near.

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