Bellator Concedes | Hector Lombard UFC Bound
Bjorn Rebney, boss of Bellator Fighting, confirmed Tuesday that his best middleweight fighter Hector Lombard is headed to the UFC. As originally reported by Mike Chiapetta of MMA Fighting, The CEO of the up and coming Bellator had a chance to match the UFC’s offer but Rebney said the organization was incapable of matching the UFC’s deal with the pay per view structure the UFC offers being a big hurdle.
“We have a business model where we make decisions based on analyzing data.” Rebney said. “Since the first day we came into being, we made decisions based on real models, not hypotheticals. The UFC model is largely based on pay-per-view, and the offer they made to Hector is going to be monetized via pay-per-view.”
Hector Lombard is not the only Bellator fighter on the UFC radar. Former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez is also a future UFC prospect. Different from Lombard, Alvarez has a four month period where the organization can give him an opponent (which he can turn down) or wait out the four month period and become a free agent. Along with both fighters possibly moving to the UFC, they were close to Rebney and the Bellator family as they were two of the original fighters signed by the promotion in 2008. Lombard was an unprecedented 8-0 in the Bellator cage with an amazing seven knockouts.
“He (Lombard) was a great fighter here, and there is no doubt in my mind he will be a great fighter when he goes to the UFC,” again state Rebney. “I’ve said for a long time he’s the best middleweight in the world and I think he’ll win the UFC title in short order.”
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Good news!
Should be interesting.. This is where we see how real some of these fighters are.
that sucks they could of did the alexander rematch first, he earned it
vitor v lombard= dream fight
Why not let Lombard warm up on Bisping. ha ha no way the UFC wil put Bisping in with Lombard. They will match him up with Stann or Vitor, Munoz and keep protecting Bisping for their later Britain cards and have Bisping fight another mayhem Miller and then call him the top contender which is total b ullsh’t
lol i dont know how you think bisping is being protected, hes fought everyone in his class other than anderson silva.
hes fought guys at 205 too. you just dont like him
no, he’s protected.
the worst kind of pricks are the protected ones, of course you’d know that if you weren’t a protected prick as well
Bisping hasn’t fought all of the middleweights. To get a title shot you have to beat top ranked guys. Lisping has beat all the lower level guys but is 0-4 versus the upper echelon. He lost to Rashad, Hendo, Wanderlai, and Sonnen but hasn’t fought Vitor, Munoz, or Okami. Even his next fight is a joke. Bisping is talented but he doesn’t consistently fight the higher ranked guys.
Yeah right Bisping ahs fought everyone. you sir are an idiot. Hello when has Bisping fought Vitor Belfort, Okami, Palharis, Stann, Franklin, Weidman, Munoz, As far as Bisping fighting Sonnen who has no power all bisping did the entire fight to score any points was hold sonnen against the fence. Sonnen took Bisping down at will. Sonnen has lost to anyone who is considered top tier. Rashad, W. Silva, Hendo, How bisping is ranked in top 5 I will never understand. UFC will keep protecting him from all the big strikers in the 185 divsion. No everyone knows UFC underestimated Hendo and since then they have been very careful to keep Bisping away from strikers
I meant Bisping has lost to all teh top tier fighters he has fought
Most of the top guys in the MW division is already scheduled to fight. The guys that come to mind, that aren’t scheduled, but would be a nice intro fight for Lombard are…Belcher, Boetsch, or Palhares. But if I could do a match up, I’d pick Belfort as the welcoming wagon.
Can’t wait! Lombard vs. Sonnen, Lombard vs. Stann, Lombard vs. Belfort, & Lombard vs. Silva will be awesome!
win the title?? are they forgetting who is the ufc middleweight champion?
seriously… but silva is nearing retirement (possibly)
Lombard is a *****. He has fought no one. He will be one and done. The first tomato can UFC fighter he faces(probably Leben or Franklin) will wreck him. PPV money ha! Who would by a ppv with Lombard headlining, ****in joke.
What a hater … I think it would honestly be interesting … Bet you’re one of the many to tune in
whatever, Lombard is a beast by then end of next year this guy will be fighting for the belt id bet my house on it , ive seen A.Silva, Belfort & Franklin fight live and they have nothing on the intensity of this guy he’s a wrecking machine you’ll all see what i mean soon enough WOO HOO best news the UFC Middleweight division has had for a long long time.
Keep your fingers crossed he doesn’t test positive. He’s a really big MW muscular wise like Pallahares.
rashad was aggressive till he fought jones
belfort was aggressive till he got kicked in the face
henderson was aggressive till he got KTFO
lombard is a great fighter he has awesome potential but hes only that aggressive because the level of opponent he has cannot cope with his pressure.
UFC fighters are a little more advanced
hey TURKEYNECK.so ur saying VITOR isnt aggressive? u must not watch many events,because since he fought Anderson his last 2 fights were 1st round finishes.and which henderson r u talking bout?cuz Dans never been KTFO
Lombard vs Stann as his first fight in the UFC. If he gets past Stann he should get an automatic title shot.
STANN are you serious this guy will kill Stann give him Belfort first up he’ll KO him then if Silva hasnt retired or lost his belt by then give him Silva, I dont think Silva could handle Lombard’s stand up.
Silva hasn’t been looking so invincible recently imo against Okami and Sonnen. I think he can defeat Lombard but it will be his hardest test because his age. Once he defeats Lombard I would be okay with him retiring even without a super fight.
Stann of Vitor would be fine. But Lombard needs a test to show if he is worthy a title shot. Stann is a good test, Lombard isn’t a wrestler.
Don’t forget that Lombard first dicipline isn’t striking, if you know anything he is Olympic judo competitor
loving the idea of Munoz vs Lombard…
That would be the perfect welcome to the UFC fight.
It would be, but Munoz is fighting Wiedmann in July.
why not right Eddie is next
this loser is going to be exposed fast…he cant even finish that alexander who aint top 20 …he wont be able take any top 5 in ufc…this wiill be great proven again that ufc fighters are the best always fighting the best
uh oh, another ufc fanboy.
HERE.
WE.
GO.
LOL!! Another uneducated fanboy. First, Shlemenko is no slouch. The guy is 45-7 with 27 KOs and he’s only 27. He’s beaten some tough guys too. Just because these guys aren’t in the UFC (yet), doesn’t mean they aren’t tough. Silva, Sonnen, Stann, Aldo, they weren’t in the UFC, yet they were tough guys. And look at their standing now IN the UFC. This isn’t WWE guy, learn to watch the fight game. UFC may be the main MMA promotion out there, but they aren’t the only ones. And every UFC Champion started somewhere else. Who do you know in the UFC that has a 20 fight win streak with most of them finishing in the first 2 rounds? Exactly. No one. Not even Silva. Silva is undefeated in 15 fights.
Dude takes lots of roids.
Lombard vs LEBEN
It’s about the same as these Dream fighters fighting in SF. They get ****ed up. Bellator and Dream are third Rate fighters. Against each other, they make interesting fights. The UFC is the BIGS. Lombard would need to KO every dude in under 3 minutes (in BFC)to be anywhere near the level of Stann, Andy, okami, etc. if they want to promote Hector, they better take it very ****ing slow.
Bisping is the only fighter in UFC who gets protected
Lombard vs. Paul Harris for a title shot
You mean Rousimar Palhares?
Huh? Paul Harris? What promotion does he fight for?
I was just talking about it yesterday how great it would be to see Lombard in the UFC, so this is obviously fantastic news to me.
I would like to see him against Okami in his first fight. Okami is always difficult to beat and I think that would be a very interesting fight. Okami is also the only one of the top 185ers that is not scheduled to face anyone in the next months (correct me if I’m wrong).
I seen Lombard KO the Australian Super Heavy Weight in under 40sec 5 or 6 years ago.
And he beat Ebersole easily in Australia a few years back too.
Should be interesting how he goes.
I’ve never seen a fighter live with so much rage in his eyes.
let em debut against Munoz or Leben.if he wins,and im sure he will,he can fight Brian Stann or Vitor.That will be his true test in top competition.Not doubting him hes a hell of a fighter and shouldve been in the UFC years ago.stylisticly his striking is very similar to VITORS.Honestly think that would be a ****in dream match!!!