Sean and I are treating this like our title fight you know like we've been the
same coaching student for you know almost 12 years now. Mark and I have
been in the sport together since the beginning you know and there's more
than just a coach and fighter relationship we have you know we're
brothers and most of all we're best friends. He's always been my head trainer
he's always been the guy in my corner I've never had a fight without him it's
as much a title shot it is for him and it is for me.
When they told us we were fighting Aldo I knew Mark couldn't couldn't prepare in
Bagus there was too much on the line with his family and you know a new a new
born baby on the way and this is the only way to do it. We've got to get ready
for this in Canada.
It's been huge having the whole training camp here and having Sean bring
guys up from Vegas and from Montreal and from all over the world really. I don't
have to travel you know it's 20 minutes to the gym 20 minutes home and
everyone's becoming here so it's been a huge addition that everyone's came to
help me. The fact that his wife is due four days after his fight and then you
know we all know when that's in a case scenario like that it could happen at
any time surrounding that fight before or after and out of our friendship and
my respect to him you know I decided it was it was a good idea to make it as
easy as possible and easy in this situation is for the fighter. Justin
you're with Jesse Lindsay and Chris are together take down for take down Chris
just stay loose. The last hard week of training you're just kind of getting
through everything you know it's not a lot of you're not really thinking of
both things right you're just kind of get through the work and that's what
that's a point is at. Well today's it's our Monday training session so what we
want to do is we're gonna start the week off with a real hard one that way we
can gauge what we want to do for the rest of the week. Every round Mark's gonna
have a new person in the cage with him that way I've always got somebody
fresh with him so not only is he testing himself but at the same time he has
to maintain keeping a high intensity level the whole class. Time in the cage
guys ready for small glove sparring. Vaseline stay young and beautiful. We
understand and respect Jose Aldo enough to know that I think he's pound for pound
probably the top three in the world and the best thing about Jose Aldo as a
fighter is he's good at everything and in knowing Mark Harmonic as well as I do
it's not a mean thing to say but he goes through supporting partners you know at a
very quick rate so not only did I bring certain guys for certain things but I
needed to bring guys that would either be dirtable or I could be half prepared
to have to go home if they're not keeping their weight. First round we're
gonna work is a guy named Jesse Gross one of our young up-and-coming
fighters and one of the main things with him is I want him in first because I
know he'll be aggressive and he'll try to test him and push him back.
Backing him up keeping the control of the cage find your spots. Think about that
inside leg a little bit today. I think I put together probably a team of up to
12 of the best sparring partners I could for Mark all being good at different
things and all being brought in at different times so the guys who are
here at the end of camp are here for a reason. First round guys five today.
Tom let's work. One of the key things that Mark's always had you know going
for him is he's probably the most mentally strong fighter I've ever trained
you know he takes this stuff seriously like he should but he you know he treats
it like it's his job. Beautiful heavy hip we've had to deal with the media with
the fans you know and as much as we love all that stuff it's it's a lot to add
in when you're getting ready for a world title fight but if there's one guy I
trust that can handle that kind of thing it's Mark Harmonic. Good job.
Tom. Good job. Great round Mark. I've always been like that even when I was in
university like I was training for title fights even back then and I you know I
planned on my day so I get my training I go to the school I you know study for a
bit go train again and study some more so it's it kind of reminds me of those
days. Full works on that's what I want. Those feet are moving you're gonna have
more chances to make decisions than he does. There's no free time there's no
time to to mess around like you know okay it's A to B B to C CDD and that's the
way the day goes it doesn't deviate from that. Second person in the cage with him
is going to be Chris Wardeski obviously everybody knows who he is. Chris is a
kicker so I want to have somebody in there in the second round because all
though tends to kick a lot more in the second round once he teaches people to
back up. Work time. Sean is there anything specifically for Aldo you guys been working on?
Absolutely. Obviously one of the biggest things with Aldo it's no secret he likes
to teach people how to move backwards. He gets him into a groove. The one thing
that impresses me the most about Aldo is he knows how to fight five round fights
better than almost any fighter I've ever seen. He's that much of a pro and what he
does that first round is he gets you in the motion of moving backwards without
knowing you're doing it. So what we want to do is we want to give him pressure
back and not allow him to do that and if he is moving us backwards he's got to
deal with us possibly going around him. Mark's always been a pressure fighter too.
Well that's that's that's what makes this fight to me anyways the most
interesting of any of the Aldo fights because everybody he's fought is guys
that run in and back up and majority of them he'll sting them once and they run
for the whole round. With Mark that's I mean I've been sparring partner for Mark
I'm twice as size for 12 years. I don't think he's ever backed up once you know.
Time! Good round guys. Well I mean it's it's it's been a long time coming but it's
been a great feeling especially this fight coming up with Mark. We've really
realized how much support we have. I spent probably a month of preparation
getting great sponsors behind us to take care of all these little things that
it takes to not only fly fighters here but feed them and and have a house over
their head. What's up fight network? Welcome to the fighter crib. Come on in.
Obviously first and foremost like any other fighter crib you've got the air
mattress with sleeping bag slash makeshift pillows from a couch. A bonus for
me when renting a house is a floor that can be easily cleaned. If puked on, bled
on. We've got our cases of water which I will replace daily for cases of water
daily and you know as owed to a great fighter George Forman. Oh and look here
fighters throughout the entire month we will have had probably 18 guys who have
separated change back and forth to the house. Anybody that's ever trained with
Mark Hominick will attest to the fact that sometimes the guys don't make it
all the way through camps. So of course being the coach of course they give me
the best room with the best furniture and everything. My beautiful mattress on
top of a box spring with my wooden floor covered in paint specks. Of course a
place to hang all my beautiful clothes. Third person in is a kid that I brought
with me from Las Vegas. His name is Justin Lin. An up and coming for 145
pounder. He's had about 90 amateur fights and he's 2 and 0 as a pro. I brought him
on purpose because he's a real scrappy aggressive kid and he's very well
rounded. I'm gonna put him in the third round with with Mark and then I'll
decide from there who I want for his last few rounds depending upon how I want
Mark tested. There you go good. That'll put him on his heels. See what Mark's
doing right there. It's teaching Justin to move backwards. Get taking his
respect in the first minute of the round and then even if Justin wants to move
forward by the end of the round he can. He's on his heels. It's impossible to find
your balance again which makes it hard to kick hard.
Yeah I'm real excited about this this kid Justin. 21 years old. He's got so much
potential. He doesn't even know he's got potential. He's got so much you know.
Nice job. Time. Good round. Good round. Good job Justin. Come on out.
Time in the ring. I've been training with Sean for about three years now on and off
lately but this past year and a half pretty pretty much straightforward and
I think it's a great opportunity for me man. He's not taking place. He takes care of me you know.
Don't stay in his guard. Try to pass his guard. Try to get him to turn over.
Okay if we can try to get him to turn around I want him to have to deal with
you're trying to get to his back. Okay. You know I mean of course I'm not an
old I'm not an Aldo but I mean I'm gonna push him as much as I can because I
really wanted to bring back the bell you know and I can tell you I kind of
helped in a little bit on that you know and that's to be kind of a cool to be a
part of that so. Worked on.
Justin I want to sit for this whole round. Okay get your breathing back. I might
use you for the last one. You're doing good. That was the best round you've done
this camp so we need from you that's why you're here. Beautiful job all the way
out. Aldo and his camp got to know that they're dealing with Mark's hand speed
Mark's striking but do you care? Does that matter that they know that? Not at all. I
mean we realize through percentages that most of the time when you lose you're
more concerned about what the other guy is doing. When you go out there and you
put in a performance that's adapt to your style you generally win and that's
what we've seen especially with Mark in his last five fights. He's been going
out there and just not not caring what they do. Caring about what he does.
Tom! Good job guys. It's funny but you almost like erase that stuff from your
mind. You have to or to leach you alive and and if you do keep that stuff in
your mind all the time these things will never happen. You know we've always
known who we are and what we deserve and we just keep clawing and trying our
best to get to that point. Fifth and final coming up. Work time. Last one. Let's go.
You know I'm looking for Justin. Let's make it happen. That's it right there.
Pressure, pressure, pressure. That's what we want right there. That's our hand
speed. Beautiful job.
He's in great shape. Most important thing in this camp that I've been really
stressing is he's healthy. It's so hard to get through just any normal fight
camp being healthy with no injuries and especially Mark he's been doing this for
close to 14 years and that helps you be fresh for five rounds. Last minute it's
been a great camp but to see this happening right now I'm impressed.
I'm happy where we're at. We just need that day to come. It can't come fast
enough man. I'm seeing things today that we've been working on for the last two
weeks happening and that's that's key. Tom! Good finish. Good start. Good finish
guys. Good job. You know the start of the end of the week I know my mind's gonna
be starting to think more about the fight than the training right now. You
know right now I'm just making sure everything's on point. I'm staying
healthy. I'm staying sharp and you know eager on the train every day. Come over
pizza tonight? Yeah. Which bossa pizza? One on Wellington.
Guys just want to make a quick cheers for everybody's support and help you know
everybody's really stepped up to help Mark out get ready for this fight. If we
got our way we're gonna take that belt home so cheers guys. Now let's eat
everything Mark can't. Sean and I are treating this like our title fight. His
mindset going in there he wants to win so bad I want to win so bad and it's
just this is our time this is our opportunity and we've done everything
we can. If we've trusted ourselves and know that we haven't missed anything in
training and preparation then there should be no reason that we can't go
out there and impose our will. We have each round planned out you know we know
how Jose fights and he's a round-by-round fighter as well so we just got to be
better in each round you know if I finish him the first round great but if it
goes all five rounds I'm gonna beat him every five round that's that's kind of
the game plan. I mean we know what fighting is you know we've been on
both sides of it we've won and we've lost and we've dealt with some of the
best in the world already and we know that at any time anything can happen in
this sport.
