A proposed October 3 bout between up-and-coming Quebec hockey enforcer turned mixed martial artist Steve Bosse and British heavyweight James "Colossus" Thompson at TKO 35 likely won't see the light of day according to Thompson's agent Ken Pavia.

Pavia says that taking a fight against a 3-1 opponent with just over one year of MMA experience "didn't make sense" at this point in the career of his fighter who has fought under the EliteXC, Cage Rage and PRIDE banners. Thompson is 3-7 in his past 10 bouts, losing his most recent fight to former internet brawler Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson via TKO in the main event of EliteXC's "Primetime" show on CBS May 31 after taking the opening two stanzas on the judges' scorecards.

TKO president Stephane Patry confirmed Monday that Thompson's camp had rejected the match but would not name a possible replacement opponent for Bosse whom he says is on the cusp of a title bout.

"We wanted a good opponent with a recognizable name for Bosse like we had in Wes Sims for his last fight. We'll bring in someone who can test him. He doesn't want any easy fights," Patry said. "If he wins that fight his next fight will likely be for the [TKO heavyweight] title. I think people would like to see a rematch against Icho [Larenas] but Icho lost his last fight so we'll have to see."

Patry says the rest of the October 3 fight card is coming together nicely and could include three title fights.

Featherweight champion Hatsu Hioki will return to defend his belt for the first time since defeating former champion Mark Hominick at TKO 29 in February 2007 when he takes on Stephane Vigneault. Patry is in the process of finding suitable opponents to face welterweight champion Jesse Bongfeldt and bantamweight champion Adrian Wooley at the event.

A potential bout between Mark Hominick, who recently re-signed to a multi-fight deal with the Montreal-based promotion, and Thierry Quenneville is in negotiations.

Chris Horodecki, who is waiting in limbo while the future of the IFL is decided will likely finish out the last fight of his TKO contract by the end of 2008, predicts Patry although he could not say whether or not the 20-year-old would be on promotion's scheduled October or December card.

TKO 35

Friday, October 3, 2008

Bell Centre

Montreal, Quebec

TKO Featherweight Championship Bout

Hatsu Hioki vs. Stephane Vigneault - FW Title Fight

TKO Welterweight Championship Bout

Jesse Bongfeldt vs. TBA

TKO Bantamweight Championship Bout

Adrian Wooley vs. TBA

Steve Bosse vs. TBA

Mark Hominick vs. Thierry Quenneville

--------------------

KANG POSSIBLY HEADED BACK TO TKO?

TKO president Stephane Patry revealed this week that he is working towards signing an international fighter that would create a stir amongst Canadian MMA fans. When asked whether the fighter in question was Denis Kang, who was recently given the go ahead from DREAM to fight outside of the organization, he would neither confirm nor deny the French-Korean born Canadian was on TKO's radar.

Patry did say that he would gladly welcome Kang who fought for TKO and its predecessor the UCC back to fight on one of his upcoming cards should the opportunity arise.

"Denis is a great fighter," Patry said. "I'd love to have him fight for us again."

When contacted Monday by TGFN, Kang, who has spent a great deal of time in Montreal in the past year as a training partner of UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre admitted he had spoken with Patry but had since fallen out of contact. Despite several offers to compete overseas and at home in Canada, Kang doesn't rule out the possibility of TKO return.

I thought about fighting for TKO but I kind of lost touch with Stephane [Patry]," Kang said. "We'll see what happens. You never know."

Although he has dropped his last two fights to Yoshihiro Akiyama and Gegard Mousasi at K-1 Dynamite and DREAM 2 respectively, many still consider Kang a top-ten welterweight. Kang was pulled from a scheduled DREAM 5 appearance and despite the cancellation and not being told of his opponent for the Akiyama and Mousasi fights until two weeks before each bout, he says he'll consider signing with them again after his next fight, which is the last on his current contract.

"I'm going to look at the offers and see what's best," Kang says. "They aren't the only organization that cancels fights and they have a lot of fighters since they combined all of the organizations to make DREAM."

Kang says he hasn't been officially given a date for his next DREAM fight but officials mentioned they want him on their tentatively planned Korea show scheduled for October.

------------------

LOISEAU TO MAKE XTREME MMA DEBUT IN SEPTEMBER

David "The Crow" Loiseau will make his first appearance fighting for Xtreme MMA, the promotion he co-founded with Steve Claveau and Chris Leblanc on September 13. The former UFC middleweight contender's agent Ken Pavia says no opponent has been decided upon for Loiseau but it will likely be a marquee fighter.

Loiseau seems to have found solid ground again after a slide that saw the French-Canadian lose three fights in a row to Rich Franklin, Mike Swick and Joey Villasenor. Since then, he has gone 3-1, defeating Freddie Espiricueta, Todd Gouwenberg and most recently, Andrew Buckland. Loiseau's only loss in the past year, a debatable decision to Jason Day, could have as easily gone the other way.

Since being unceremoniously dropped by the UFC as a result of the two losses in a row to Franklin and Swick, Loiseau has made no secret of his desire to return to the Las Vegas based promotion's roster. UFC president Dana White said at the post fight press conference for UFC 83 in Montreal that he would love to see Loiseau back in the Octagon but he would have to notch some quality wins first.

------------------

THE MACHINE PRIMED AND READY TO FACE YOUNG

Heading into his fight with Savant Young at this Saturday's inaugural Affliction Show in Anaheim, California, Mark Hominick says he's never been more prepared for a fight and that he's looking forward to getting back in the ring to prove himself.

The Thamesford, Ontario native has been shoring up his weaknesses training with some of Canada's top wrestlers at the new Xtreme Couture training center in Toronto such as Georges St. Pierre's former wrestling coach Nick Johnson and Abu Dhabi trials champion Misha Cirkunov. According to Hominick, remaining at home for this training camp instead of traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada to train with his Xtreme Couture teammates has been a good change of scenery.

"Training at Xtreme Couture [in Toronto] has been awesome. You get into your comfort zone training at home and I've been training with some really good [wrestling] guys that helped me work on what I needed to work on," Hominick says. "I'm putting everything together again so this has been a strong camp."

One thing Hominick says he did miss while training at home was the tutelage of his longtime mentor and trainer Shawn Tompkins who last year moved to Vegas to take the helm of their Xtreme Couture branch as gym manager. With the trainer's return to London last week, Hominick says the final piece of the puzzle is in place for him to beat Young and get back on track following back-to-back submission losses in the WEC to Rani Yahya and Josh Grispi.

"Shawn came back to London and fine-tuned everything a couple weeks ago so I'm ready to go. This is a big fight for me and I'm hoping for big things," Hominick explains. "Getting a win will put my foot back in the door to becoming the number one contender and that's my intention. I have a three-fight deal with them so I'm focusing on fighting for them and winning fights and hopefully going good places."

The fight with Grispi was the last of Hominick's WEC contract and despite a 2-0 UFC record he compiled fighting at 155 pounds - ten pounds above his usual weight - including an impressive rear-naked choke victory over veteran Yves Edwards, he was not offered a new deal.

Wanting to keep busy, Hominick signed a new three-fight deal with TKO - the organization that launched his career. His goal for his next stint with the Montreal-based organization is clear: get back the title he lost to Japanese fighter Hatsu Hioki last year.

"I have three fights with TKO but I have no Idea when I'll be fighting for them at the moment," Hominick says. "All I want there is to work back into title contention and get a title fight."

When Affliction called and offered him a contract he signed without hesitation after hearing the other names on the card, He says he knew right away the promotion had something special and feels that the show will be the first of several the company has planned.

"I'm honored to have been asked to be a part of this show. There are so many great fighters on the card," Hominick explains. "We're expecting big things from them."

As far as the fight with Young goes, without revealing his game plan, Hominick, who is renowned for his cardio among his training partners says he's going to use his reach advantage to keep the former IFL fighter outside until he tires himself before imposing his will.

"He's a short and stocky guy who's very powerful. He loads up all of his punches.  I think this is a good style match up for me being in there with someone who wants to exchange punches. I have more technique speed and reach than he does so I think that will be the difference in the fight," Hominick predicts. "Controlling the first round will be key because Savant comes out flying and goes downhill from there whereas I usually come out a bit slower and start climbing as the fight goes on. I'm going to have to be smart and come out strong in the first round and continue to hurt him."

The Fight Network will feature the televised preliminary portion of the card Saturday at 8:00 pm EST.

Affliction: Banned

July 19, 2008

Honda Center

Anaheim, California

WAMMA World Heavyweight Championship Bout

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia

Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo

Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao

Ben Rothwell vs. Andrei Arlovski

Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead

Mike Pyle vs. J.J. Ambrose

Undercard (The Fight Network)

Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Edwin Dewees

*May not be broadcast

Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin @ MW

Justin Levens vs. Ray Lazama @ MW

Mark Hominick vs. Savant Young @ FW

CANADIAN CALENDAR

July 19 - King of the Cage: Ex-Calibur, Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta July 25 - Maximum Fighting Championship 17: Hostile Territory, River Cree Resort and Casino, Enoch, Alberta July 26 - Freedom Fight: Title Quest, Robert Guertin Arena, Gatineau, Quebec

Canadian Correspondent Mike Russell can be reached via e-mail at gfn@thefightnetwork.com.