Is Hector Lombard in Jeopardy of Being Cut By the UFC?
Hector Lombard was one of the most highly sought after free agents in the MMA business just a little over a year ago. Back then the former Bellator Middleweight Champion was 31-2-1 and was riding an extremely impressive 25-fight winning streak. That kind of streak doesn’t just come around every day and UFC president Dana White knows that, so he took action and made Lombard an outrageously big offer that he could not turn down. However, since signing with the UFC and finally scrapping with the big boys in the business Lombard has been disappointing, to say the least. The highly touted veteran has gone 1-2 in his first three UFC fights and both losses have been extremely boring fights.
Lombard first stepped into the UFC cage against the scrappy and tough Tim Boetsch in a fight that many considered to be a fight between top contenders and if Lombard could put together an impressive victory over Boetsch he would likely set himself up for a UFC middleweight title shot against Anderson Silva. That never came to fruition as the fight was one of the biggest disappointments in the company’s history. Lombard looked hesitant, unprepared, and unimpressive. Many fans were left scratching their heads while thinking, “this is the guy everyone was talking about?”
Lombard lost that fight to Boetsch by split-decision and was forced to reinvent himself and prove to the UFC that he was indeed worthy of fighting inside the octagon. He came back strong in his next performance by earning an exciting, quick KO over the dangerous Rousimar Palhares and he looked as if he was back in the hunt for a UFC title shot.
That hunt, however, was also short lived as Lombard again allowed himself to be out-pointed in his next performance in another split-decision loss, this time against Yushin Okami at this past weekend’s UFC on FUEL TV 8 event in Japan. Lombard came out strong and aggressive but was unable to win the grappling exchanges that Okami constantly initiated. The loss now puts Lombard at a 1-2 mark inside the UFC cage with two ugly performances in the two losses. The crazy hype that once surrounded Lombard has pretty much vanished completely at this point and many fans and fighters are wondering what the company is going to do with him next.
UFC middleweight and light heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen stated in the UFC on FUEL TV 8 post-fight show that the UFC should cut Lombard because it can no longer justify paying him such a large amount of money based on the performances he’s put on inside the cage.
With all the cuts and pink slips being handed out by the UFC brass as of late do you think Lombard should be sweating bullets or do you think he is safe and employed for at least one more fight? And if he is sticking around for another scrap, who would you like to see him paired up against? Let’s hear what you have to say Penn Nation…
Related:
About the Author
Writer/Journalist for BJPENN.COM
Following his impressive UFC debut last week at UFC on FX 8 over Chris Camozzi, former…
While you wait for this weeks episode to air on Sunday, get caught up on…
By JAKE CHASTAIN | AKA Coach Javier Mendez joined the boys over at BJPenn.com Radio…
UFC 160 is set to take place this Saturday May 25th at the MGM Grand…
In a recent interview with Bloodyelbow.com, Roy Nelson talked about UFC middleweight fighter Vitor Belfort….
Mike Pyle spoke with BJPenn.com Radio Wednesday night, only days before stepping into the Octagon…
Last Night BJPENN.COM RADIO returned to the airwaves with a ‘all UFC 160′ guest panel….
Gambling itself is risky; however, gambling on mixed martial arts is one of the most…
UFC 160 is upon us and this weekend Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva will attempt to take…
One of the rising talents in Bellator’s Lightweight division is Saad Awad. After being unknown,…
Heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez mic’d up Octagon-side for UFC 156 as his next opponent is…
Gentlemen, be careful out there. Mixed martial artist Waylon Lowe ventured to a sex shop…
Feed him to the Spider.
It’ll be funny to watch.
**** that just cut Okami and boetch for fighting like pussies. A decision win means nothing except for that one fighter ran out of time. If you don’t finish your opponent, you did not win, unless it was a totally 1 sided beating then I coiuld agree.
No.. I think he did good. You people posting this out here it seem’s are trying to “Make” him get cut by putting it out there. He annhilated a rousimar and a close bout with botesch and if you didn’t know, he had a stubbed toe going into that fight, that’s why he didn’t explode. And wtf idiot who posted this? Okami didn’t work him, Hector’s good. Just need’s to get use to fighting the top leauge and he’ll be in the top leauge.
True, if people didnt know Hector was advised to actually not fight Boetsch but he didnt want to pull out of the fight because he didnt want to let down his new employers.. Give him that fight again at 100% and guarantee it would be a different outcome with him winning.. He smashed Palhares and Okami was a bad match up but u have to fight them sometimes.. He losses again, he will be cut but he didnt lose to in a row and his win was very impressive.. I want to see him against Bisping as Lombard has been wanting that fight for awhile but Bisping might need surgery..
If you watch his fight with rousimar you will see he was loosing till the point when rousimar broke his hand then he started the offense..
They should cut sonnen after he gets destroyed against jones
And Bisping after Belcher tunes him!
why should michael bisping be cut, because you dont like him? he only looses to cheats.. & hector lombard is a good fighter, he should not be cut.. mark munoz, michael bisping, vitor belfort & alan belcher would be good fights for him.
1 complete robbery, 1 KO over a guy with an iron chin and one very close fight with Yushin. They won’t cut him. He has to win his next fight though.
cut him for what? for being humped? for losing a fight to a guy that ran from him? Yeah I don’t think so. He’ll be good in any weight class, but honestly I don’t count his two losses as legit losses. How do you fight a guy that doesn’t want to fight you?
do not cut him, he showed desperation, and goes hard in every fight……the worst thing to ever happen to him was going undefeated for so long…im NOT COMPARING HIM TO FEDOR….but that shit gets to ur head for sure, thats all im saying
Im pretty sure Lombard and Overeem shop at the same pharmacy.
It comes down to one of two things as far as I’m concerned. Either he isn’t as good as his record makes him out to be (which is true enough) or he needs to change the way he fights. He has Olympic level judo and a BJJ black belt, but he hasn’t used it in these last three fights. He looked lost in the grappling against Okami, and waddled forward doing nothing but hunting for the big KO punch against Boetsch, in one of the worst fights I’ve ever watched (which I fully agree he lost). Looking for the KO against low level fighters gave him his record, but against the higher tier, it’s predictable and avoidable, especially since he’s short for a MW. He needs to make them worry about more than that right hand again.
He got robbed twice, Boetsch should have been cut right after that fight. And Okami lost that third round 10-8 and second round was close enough to give Lombard the nodge. Okami was boring as shit.
I dont hink he should be penalised for fighting w an injury,or the Okami fight.Hector showed up to fight,Okami was the one that fought like a bitch.He should fight Wanderlei,or Leben.Those would be some bad ass fights