Canadians in MMA For January

With no events scheduled in Quebec for January, MMA fans will be looking south of the border for 3 major events from UFC and Affliction to help appease their hunger! It's also a big month for Canadians trying to establish themselves on the international scene.

Starting on January 17th, UFC 93 will introduce Vancouver's Denis Kang to a new audience. Kang has been spending more and more time in Montreal training with the GSP camp in Tri-Star gym, the home of champions. In Alan Belcher, Kang is facing an opponent who is on a high after beating the up and coming Ed "Short Fuse" Herman.

However, "The Talent" Belcher is more of a gatekeeper of talent, since a win for Kang simply means that Kang will belong in the UFC. Kang is looking to make it 3 MMA wins in a row, after already beating Marvin Eastman and Jae Young Kim to end 2008.

 

In Affliction's 2nd MMA event called "Day of Reckoning", 2 Canadians will on the card,with Chris Horodecki on the main PPV, and Mark Hominick on the HDNet portion of the card. Both fighters have been teaching at Xtreme Couture's new gym in Toronto.

Mark Hominick was successful in Affliction's first ever MMA card, but suffered a neck injury since then that forced him out of TKO's last ever MMA event in October. This is a huge match for Mark Hominick, as LC Davis only has one loss in his pro-MMA career, and was recently signed to a three-fight contract with Affliction.

Having trained under Pat Miletich, you know that LC will revert to wrestling should he feel that Hominick's standup is too strong. Hominick was always known for having great take down defense, and for being a vicious striker, but is sometimes too cautious against high caliber ground fighters.

Meanwhile Chris Horodecki is a potential underrated and under appreciate phenom in the making. At only 21 years of age, Horedecki has been fighting for over 3 years for both TKO and the IFL, which his only loss in 13 fights coming in the IFL finals against a man he had previously defeated.

Chris rebounded from that brutal loss to Ryan Shultz by getting a decision victory over Nate Lamotte. His opponent may be considered another young phenom as well, as Joe Lauzon's "kid" brother Dan Lauzon will make his Affliction debut. He is only 20 years old, and has had 12 pro MMA fights in the last 2 years.

Lastly, in what is one of the most anticipated bouts of 2009, Georges St-Pierre takes on BJ Penn in a rematch of epic proportions. Both men are now champions in their respective divisions, with GSP owning UFC's Welterweight title, and Penn recently capturing the Lightweight belt.

Since their fight, St-Pierre has clearly demonstrated that he learned more from his loss to Matt Serra, than he has from any of his wins, and that he is now a totally different, much improved fighter.

As for BJ Penn, a light seemed to go on in his head after his loss to another Matt (Hughes). Since then, Penn has shown a hunger equal to his enormous skill that had him labeled "The Prodigy" when he became the first non-Brazilian to win the black belt division of the World Jiu Jitsu Championship.

Because their fight at UFC 58 ended in a split decision favoring GSP, St-Pierre wants to finish this fight decisively at UFC 94. If Georges does win by KO or submission, the fact that Anderson Silva's last performance was anything but exciting, the experts would have to seriously consider making GSP the No. 1 pound for pound fighter in the world.