Lots of people are looking forward to Hector Lombard‘s UFC debut. I’m one of them.
I’ve always been a sucker for seeing guys from another promotion debut for their competitors. I think this desire, at least on a personal level for me, can be traced back to my old days of hardcore pro wrestling fandom.
Some of the most visceral memories of my childhood involve seeing Ric Flair appear on World Wrestling Federation television for the first time, or that guy “Mean” Mark Callus suddenly growing a fetish for dead people and appearing as The Undertaker.
But that’s not the only thing that interests me about Lombard’s UFC debut. This is a man riding a 25-fight winning streak, and he’s finally appearing in the biggest promotion on the planet. We never got to see Fedor Emelianenko debut in the UFC during the height of his winning streak—the subtly brilliant minds at M-1 Global were responsible for that.
And while Lombard is not Emelianenko—though I’d probably give Hector the advantage if the two were to fight in 2012—his winning streak and vicious style is enough to make his UFC debut a highly-anticipated moment for me and others just like me.
Lombard nearly killed that interest dead during an appearance on Tuesday’s edition of UFC Tonight.
Look, I’m not saying that every single guy doing an interview needs to be Chael P. Sonnen. That’s impossible, and the sport would be hard to handle if everyone out there did an over-the-top Billy Graham impersonation. It’d be too much.
But Lombard was being interviewed about the biggest fight of his career. He’d finally made it to the big stage and was being featured on one of the UFC’s shows that caters to the hardcore segment of their audience. The least he could’ve done was show a little enthusiasm.
Instead, we got a version of Lombard that looked completely uninterested in what was going on and sounded like he was about to fall asleep. The evidence is in the video above. See for yourself.
Not every fight needs over-the-top promotion or a hype job. But at the rate Lombard is going, he’ll actively turn away viewers who might actually be interested in seeing what he can do against Brian Stann. That’s not what the UFC needs for its fourth FOX outing, and that’s not what Lombard needs if he wants to gain new fans.
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