Bellator champ Hector Lombard signs with UFC

Longtime Bellator champion Hector Lombard (31-2-1 MMA, 8-0 BFC) has officially signed with the UFC.

The 185-pound standout today announced the news via Twitter.

UFC president Dana White had expressed interest in the Cuban-Australian fighter, who recently fulfilled the terms of his Bellator contract after an 8-0 stint in the organization that's part of an overall 24-0-1 run in his past 25 outings.

Lombard didn't disclosed a debut date or opponent, and UFC officials haven't formally announced his signing. However, Bellator was in a matching period with the fighter, and according to MMAFighting.com, Bellator CEO and Chairman declined to match a lucrative UFC deal that includes pay-per-view bonuses for Lombard. (Only the UFC's top talent gets such PPV deals.)

With Lombard vacating the title, Rebney recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) No. 1 contender Alexander Shlemenko will fight the winner of the current season-six middleweight tournament for the belt.


The UFC nearly brought the 34-year-old Lombard into the fold in 2007, but visa issues halted the possible debut at UFC 78. He's since fought primarily for Bellator and regional promotions in Australia. With Bellator, he he won a season-one tournament, made one title defense, and also won four non-title fights after winning the belt.

While losing a top fighter such as Lombard is a hit for Bellator, the organization's business model doesn't allow it to truly capitalize on big-name talent. Instead, the tournament format and newly di such as Lombardinexpensive) regional and international talent are the star attractions.

Additionally, Bellator has struggled to find quality competition for highly ranked fights such as Lombard, and with the organization's move from the little-watched MTV2 to the bigger Spike TV delayed until 2013, most of their plans are geared toward the future, not the present.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28415/bellator-champ-hector-lombard-signs-with-ufc.mma

As long as Bellator has their champs fight 3 times a year with their increase in tournaments and include their 4 year champions clauses as they have now a champ would have to defend 12 times in 4 years to be pulled away to Zuffa. It won't happen often if they run it this way

Great news. Lombard finally has a chance to solidify his top three ranking and fight top ten opposition consistently.

Bellator now has a wide open, more interesting MW division. Can you imagine how fucking awesome a fight between Shlemenko and Falcao for the belt would be?

moronoRepublic wrote:Great news. Lombard finally has a chance to solidify his top three ranking and fight top ten opposition consistently.

Bellator now has a wide open, more interesting MW division. Can you imagine how fucking awesome a fight between Shlemenko and Falcao for the belt would be?

That will be a sweet fight. Hopefully Falcao tears Spang apart leading to this title fight.

So does Shlemenko automatically get the title now? That's annoying because I wanted to see the rematch, Hector "The Duck" Lombard.

AudaxPowder wrote:So does Shlemenko automatically get the title now? That's annoying because I wanted to see the rematch, Hector "The Duck" Lombard.

No, he will have to fight the winner of this MW tournament for the vacant title.

Watch him now jump to a top 5 ranking on Zuffa Dog before even taking a fight (despite that they somehow don't even have him in the top 10).

nodogoshi wrote:Watch him now jump to a top 5 ranking on Zuffa Dog before even taking a fight (despite that they somehow don't even have him in the top 10).

I would not be shocked at all if that happened.

Lol I saw this on the wikiderp yesterday.



HECTOR "THE SHLEMENKO DUCKER" LOMBARD

^^

LOL.

I do think he'd beat Shlemenko again, however Shlemenko would have had an excellent shot in the rematch.

Shlemenko will be the Bellator champ soon. Who knows, Sherdog may even give him an honorable mention in the "other contenders" section (though I'm not sure how likely it is).

Really though, I think he is just now hitting his prime.

AudaxPowder wrote:So does Shlemenko automatically get the title now? That's annoying because I wanted to see the rematch, Hector "The Duck" Lombard.

he ducked Shlemenko to try and get a shot at Anderson Silva?

reel coward shit