Rory MacDonald, the UFC’s most talented young welterweight, and Hector Lombard, maybe the division’s most fearsome knockout artist, will face off this April at UFC 186 in MacDonald’s adopted home town of Montreal.
The news was first reported Saturday by Jay Russell of Vendetta Fighter. Lombard subsequently confirmed the matchup to Marc Raimondi of MMAFighting.com.
MacDonald, a native of British Columbia who now trains alongside Georges St-Pierre and other luminaries at Montreal’s famed TriStar Gym, is currently sitting at No. 2 on the UFC’s official welterweight rankings.
Lombard, currently riding a three-fight win streak in the UFC, is ranked at No. 5.
It is reasonable to suspect that the winner of the bout would be in line for the next shot at the UFC welterweight title. UFC brass has already announced that current champ Robbie Lawler and previous champ Johny Hendricks will have a rubber match for the belt. No date has yet been announced for that matchup.
Many observers felt MacDonald, not Hendricks, was the best candidate to face Lawler next. With that in mind, taking a fight with a competitor as dangerous as Lombard—when a loss might derail those title hopes—is a pretty confident decision from Team MacDonald.
MacDonald is next in line for a title shot and he still takes a fight against an absolute killer like Lombard. Love it and that fight.
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) January 10, 2015
MacDonald’s confidence may be entirely justified. Like Lombard, MacDonald (18-2) has three straight wins—in his case, over studs Demian Maia, Tyron Woodley and Tarec Saffiedine. After appearing to hit a stylistic plateau and suffering his first UFC loss to Lawler in 2013, MacDonald returned with a vengeance to go 3-0 in 2014.
On the other hand, at the moment, Lombard (35-4-1) appears to be a tough out for any fighter on the planet. The former world-class judo player is an extremely powerful striker, with 19 of his pro wins (including three of his last five victories) coming by way of the fist.
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