By James Brydon, Sportsnet.ca
It was an emotional night for Shawn Tompkins. He stood outside the dressing rooms in the Bell Centre, where the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens play, and listened as two of his fighters were talking about their wins at the TKO 30 post-fight news conference.
Tompkins, the renowned Muay Thai instructor and trainer from London, Ontario, was back in Montreal, the city as much responsible for the growth of his fighters as the town where he established his gym over a decade ago. And he had just watched two of his longest-running pupils, Sam Stout and Mark Hominick, perform just as he expected they would.
Less than an hour earlier, Hominick (nicknamed The Machine) had come bursting toward the cage to the tune of The Final Countdown. With the energy in the arena high, boosted by the 6,500 fans in attendance, Hominick had taken down an eager Ben Greer in just over a minute with a flurry of right hands. Shortly after that, in the main event of the night, Stout had landed a brutal left jab, overhand right combination that knocked his opponent Martin Grandmont out cold.
Tompkins couldn’t have asked for better performances from his two young fighters. Yet in the afterglow of individual celebration backstage, his fighters were heaping the praise his way and dedicating their wins to him.
“I attribute all my wins to Shawn,” Stout tells me after the fact. “He’s taught me everything I know about fighting. He has been in my corner every time and helped me through every fight. There’s no question in my mind the reason I am where I am today is because of Shawn Tompkins.”
It’s a sentiment Hominick shares to a tee: “His commitment to us is like no-one else. Regardless of where I’m at in life or in my fighting career, he’s always got that confidence in me,” Hominick added.
I catch a glimpse of Shawn, who is standing beside his fiancee, Emilie. He’s clearly a bit choked up. I call him on it afterward. “Aw man,” he says, as if trying not to betray his tough image. Inside the cage, it’s all about aggression. Outside, it can be anything but.
“It’s the loyalty,” Tompkins admits. “This is a sport where a lot of fighters start with somebody and throughout the course of their careers move to different gyms and go to different states or different countries to train so sometimes that sort of loyalty you just don’t have.
“I’ve always been very fortunate that guys I’ve worked with have stayed very loyal and dedicated. And to hear them say things like that sometimes it just reinforces that feeling and brings back a lot of good memories.”
Those memories go back a long way – more than seven years for Stout and Hominick – and are centered around a sense of family Shawn has built at his London-based gym Team Tompkins.
That sense of family will soon become deeper for Tompkins. Shawn’s fiancee also happens to be Sam’s sister and they are due to be married in July back in the town where he was born, Tillsonburg (which is just outside London). The ceremony will be in his parents’ backyard, and Sam and Mark will be in his wedding party.
Then it will come full circle for the London native Stout because it was through his sister that he met Shawn and in turn got into the fighting game.
“My sister brought Shawn home to meet the family (in 2000) and that’s when I met him,” Stout recalled. “He invited me to come watch a kickboxing show (when I was 16). He even let me be a little part of it, standing next to fighters and stuff like that. After that first show I asked him when I could start myself, and I haven’t looked back since.”
Hominick, who is actually from another small town outside London called Thamesford, got started a little earlier than Stout. He had competed locally as well as internationally with smaller martial arts competitions before moving to London for the bigger facility and more training partners. That’s when he met up with Shawn and got into Thai boxing and then mixed martial arts. And it’s also when he became part of the Team Tompkins family.
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Mixed martial arts is not legally sanctioned in the province of Ontario (a topic for another day) so the two had to go out of province to compete. London is about two hours southwest of Toronto, which is about four hours southwest of Montreal, so Quebec is as close as you’re going to get. And the Montreal-based promotion – formerly called UCC and now named TKO Championship Fighting – was the pioneer for MMA in the country and remains one of the top Canadian promotions today.
Hominick made his MMA debut beating Richard Nancoo and won via strikes in June 2002 to capture the UCC’s Canadian super-lightweight title and followed that up with two straight wins in Montreal. Stout helped Hominick get ready for his first fight and less than two years later it would be his turn.
In March 2004, Stout appeared on a TKO Future Stars card in nearby Victoriaville where he knocked out hometown favourite Stephane Laliberte at the end of the first round. He followed that up with six wins in the next six shows over the next eighteen months. Four were by knockout. It’s no wonder he earned the nickname Hands of Stone.
By that time, MMA had grown tremendously in the Montreal area, even if popularity had not yet reached mainstream levels. The two exciting strikers were right in the middle of it. “Montreal’s always been a huge supporter of MMA,” Hominick said. “When the sport wasn’t as big with the lights, the cameras, the money and there wasn’t a lot of driving force behind it, the fighters were really at the grassroots level pushing the sport and you could tell the passion was there.
“There wouldn’t be a Georges St. Pierre or a David Loiseau or myself or Sam without the Montreal-based promotion.”
While St. Pierre was already establishing himself as one of the most recognizable fighters to come out of the Great White North, Stout and Hominick were working on making names for themselves south of the border. Each parlayed his early success to earn a spot at UFC 58: USA vs. Canada in March 2006 and they managed to join St. Pierre as the only victorious Canadians on the night. Hominick submitted the veteran Yves Edwards in the second round, while Stout won a hard-fought decision over Spencer Fisher in what was a fight-of-the-year candidate.
Since then their results have been mixed. Stout lost his next two in the UFC, including a rematch with Fisher last June. Hominick beat Jorge Gurgel in his next fight, then decided to switch to the WEC so he can fight at 145 pounds which his more natural weight. But he too lost in June, getting choked out by Rani Yahya.
That’s why getting back on the winning track – and doing it convincingly – was so important. Hominick’s September win was the 11th in 14 bouts in TKO for the former featherweight champion. And Stout, the organization’s lightweight title-holder, remained undefeated in Montreal.
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Tompkins now lives in Las Vegas full time and since August has worked as gym manager and head instructor at Xtreme Couture. He remains one of the most highly sought after trainers and in November cornered Karo Parisyan in his win over Ryo Chonan.
But he always makes room for his loyal stable of fighters from back home, with whom he spends at least two months before each of their fights preparing them in Las Vegas. These days that also includes IFL phenom Chris Horodecki, who along with Hominick came to stay with him in preparation for their fights in December.
“When I moved out to Las Vegas I made sure I got a nice big house so my fighters could have a home when they come out here. They’ll live at my house here and we’ll go right back into what I’ve always done, being a family and being a team.”
Both Stout and Hominick still live in London and fight out of Team Tompkins, carrying on their mentor’s legacy, and both plan to continue to fight in Montreal. Stout says he has no intention of relinquishing his TKO belt, while Hominick always has sights on getting back that featherweight crown.
But both are hoping to make even bigger marks in their current Zuffa contracts. Stout expects a third match with Fisher in the near future, while Hominick is quite happy fighting in the WEC. Tompkins? No matter where they are, he’ll have their backs.
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After the post-fight festivities at the Bell Centre are over, Sam and Mark get set to go out and celebrate. As much as come fight time it’s serious, they are like typical guys in their mid-twenties who like to go out and have fun. But later I catch up with Sam and he makes sure I know one thing.
“The whole Team Tompkins, we’re all like a big family. And Shawn’s been like a mentor and a big brother and a best friend (to us).”
Family and loyalty. That sums up Team Tompkins.
