The UFC has always been known for having some of the best talent in the entire sport.And it appears UFC president Dana White is keen on acquiring two more talented fighters to his roster in the near future.White hinted at the idea that the UFC would so…
The UFC has always been known for having some of the best talent in the entire sport.
And it appears UFC president Dana White is keen on acquiring two more talented fighters to his roster in the near future.
White hinted at the idea that the UFC would soon make a bid to sign Bellator FC stars Eddie Alvarez and Hector Lombard.
“I think Eddie Alvarez is a great fighter,” White told MMAJunkie.com. “You know us, man. We’re always looking to get the best fighters in the world in the UFC, and he’s one of them.”
Both Alvarez and Lombard been successful for the promotion thus far. Lombard is the current middleweight champion, while Alvarez held the lightweight title until last November.
However their contracts are soon to expire, which leaves them with the allowance of pursuing the free-agent market. And with the UFC eager to make an offer to both fighters, the power and status of the company will play a significant role in luring them in.
White spoke highly of both fighters, and it is certain he will be in constant pursuit of two of the promotion’s biggest stars.
“I like him,” White said of Lombard. “I like him a lot. So we’ll see what happens.”
The possible departure of both Alvarez and Lombard would be damaging for Bellator FC, which is set to begin their television deal with Spike TV in 2013.
Although the company does not hold a lot of star power on its roster, it has rather adapted to constructing tournaments and producing marketable fighters to attract audiences and add more appeal and credibility to their brand.
It is likely that Bellator could always promote a new star in the absence of either fighter, but it seems like their trying to revolve the promotion heavily around Alvarez and Lombard.
Should the UFC acquire rights to both fighters, it will only expand the quality of the competition on its roster, ultimately making it the premier organization in the sport, but it would be detrimental to the future of Bellator.
Even if you weren’t glued to your Twitter account last night, you still had plenty of MMA news to keep yourself entertained. From a middleweight and lightweight tournament to a post-fight brawl to a referee ignoring a fighter’s cornermen throwing in the towel, there were plenty of things to talk about. All of these story lines came from Bellator 66 last night in Cleveland, Ohio.
While this season hasn’t been a stranger to dangerously late stoppages, last night’s main event, a rematch between former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki, provided one worthy of mention in our worst referee blunders roundtable. Alvarez dropped Aoki early, and although he initially seemed hesitant to jump into Aoki’s guard, Alvarez unloaded some heavy punches that almost immediately put Aoki out cold. When the referee in charge, Jerry Krzys, didn’t stop the fight Aoki’s cornermen threw their towel into the cage. Of course, everyone knows that “throwing in the towel” is just an expression for giving up, and not a sign that the fighter’s cornermen actually believe that the fight should be stopped, right? No? Well then someone should have explained that to Jerry Krzys, who allowed the fight to continue for a few more seconds before stopping the action.
After the fight, Alvarez had a very simple question for Bellator, and an equally simple follow up request: “Bjorn Rebney where you at? Show me the money.” Of course, if Bellator can’t- or isn’t willing to- comply with that request, something tells us that the UFC will.
Even if you weren’t glued to your Twitter account last night, you still had plenty of MMA news to keep yourself entertained. From a middleweight and lightweight tournament to a post-fight brawl to a referee ignoring a fighter’s cornermen throwing in the towel, there were plenty of things to talk about. All of these story lines came from Bellator 66 last night in Cleveland, Ohio.
While this season hasn’t been a stranger to dangerously late stoppages, last night’s main event, a rematch between former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki, provided one worthy of mention in our worst referee blunders roundtable. Alvarez dropped Aoki early, and although he initially seemed hesitant to jump into Aoki’s guard, Alvarez unloaded some heavy punches that almost immediately put Aoki out cold. When the referee in charge, Jerry Krzys, didn’t stop the fight Aoki’s cornermen threw their towel into the cage. Of course, everyone knows that “throwing in the towel” is just an expression for giving up, and not a sign that the fighter’s cornermen actually believe that the fight should be stopped, right? No? Well then someone should have explained that to Jerry Krzys, who allowed the fight to continue for a few more seconds before stopping the action.
After the fight, Alvarez had a very simple question for Bellator, and an equally simple follow up request: ”Bjorn Rebney where you at? Show me the money.” Of course, if Bellator can’t- or isn’t willing to- comply with that request, something tells us that the UFC will.
The evening’s co-main event saw a wild back-and-forth brawl between Bellator newcomer Andreas Spang and Brian Rogers. Rogers appeared to have Spang in trouble early, but slipped while attempting a head kick. Spang immediately took Rogers’ back and attempted a rear-naked choke, but Rogers fought his way out of it and attempted a choke of his own as the first round came to an end. Rogers continued to control the fight throughout the second round, yet got caught by Spang with a left hook that shut his lights out.
After the fight, Spang was face-to-face with the other middleweight tournament finalist, Maiquel Falcao. As evident by the way that he pushed Brian Rogers at the weigh-ins before the fight, Andreas Spang does not like when other people get in his face. Spang responded to the way that bitch looked at me wrong with a shove (naturally). Falcao faked a punch before throwing a knee of his own as Bellator officials, including commentator Jimmy Smith, separated the middleweights. It wasn’t so much a brawl as an awkward post fight staredown gone wrong, but sometimes these things happen in MMA journalism.
Naturally, Maiquel Falcao made it past Vyacheslav Vasilevsky, although it was a far closer fight than most people anticipated it being. Vasilevsky started out strong, using his judo to keep Falcao on his back throughout the first round. However, Falcao managed to take down Vasilevsky towards the end of the second round, and owned the third round with his superior striking.
Elsewhere on the card, lightweights Rick Hawn and Brent Weedman advanced to the finals of this season’s lightweight tournament. Hawn outstruck Lloyd Woodard en route to a second round TKO, while Weedman defeated Thiago Michel Pereira Silva by split decision. Weedman winning on 4/20, eh? I’m sure I’d be the first person to make a joke about that, but I chose not to.
Full Results
Main Card:
Eddie Alvarez def. Shinya Aoki via first-round TKO
Andreas Spang def. Brian Rogers via second-round TKO
Maiquel Falco def. Vyacheslav Vasilevsky via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Rick Hawn def. Lloyd Woodard via second-round TKO
Brent Weedman def. Thiago Michel Pereira Silva via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Preliminary Card:
Jessica Eye def. Anita Rodriguez via unanimous decision (30×27 x 3)
Julian Lane def. Joe Heiland via submission (guillotine)
Frank Caraballo def. Donny Walker via fourth-round KO
John Hawk def. Marcus Vanttinen via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Attila Vegh def. Dan Spohn via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
(Jessica Eye and Anita Rodriguez face off at yesterday’s weigh-ins. / Photo via Bellator.com)
Before the main card kicks off on MTV2, Bellator 66 will feature a set of prelim bouts featuring two UFC vets — Jason Dent and Donny Walker — as well as women’s flyweight up-and-comer Jessica “Evil” Eye. For the first time ever, you can watch all the preliminary card action right here on CagePotato.com starting at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT, in the streaming video player after the jump. Free MMA is always a good thing, so give it a look!
(Jessica Eye and Anita Rodriguez face off at yesterday’s weigh-ins. / Photo via Bellator.com)
Before the main card kicks off on MTV2, Bellator 66 will feature a set of prelim bouts featuring two UFC vets — Jason Dent and Donny Walker — as well as women’s flyweight up-and-comer Jessica “Evil” Eye. For the first time ever, you can watch all the preliminary card action right here on CagePotato.com starting at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT, in the streaming video player after the jump. Free MMA is always a good thing, so give it a look!
Bellator 66 Preliminary Card Lineup
– Jessica Eye vs. Anita Rodriguez (131-pound catchweight)
– Frank Carabello vs. Donny Walker (BW)
– Tyler Combs vs. Jason Dent (LW)
– Dan Spohn vs. Attila Vegh (LHW)
– John Hawk vs. Marcus Vanttinen (LHW)
– Joe Heiland vs. Julian Lane (LW)
When Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki first squared off it was Aoki who took home the victory with an inverted heel hook. Alvarez has gone 7-1 since with the only loss coming to Michael Chandler in a title-losing barnburner for Alvarez. The former B…
When Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki first squared off it was Aoki who took home the victory with an inverted heel hook. Alvarez has gone 7-1 since with the only loss coming to Michael Chandler in a title-losing barnburner for Alvarez.
The former Bellator champion now sits at a crossroads. He can choose to enter another tournament and grind out three bouts to get back to Chandler, but it doubtful at this point that Eddie is going to consider going through the tournament process again.
Alvarez has now booked a significant career-boosting kind of fight with the man who defeated him at K-1 Dynamite 2008. Shinya Aoki has been a tear as of late. The Tokyo-based submission fighter has now won seven fights in a row, five by submission, since his loss to Gilbert Melendez at Strikeforce Nashville in April 2010.
Aoki, however has shown a weakness to more powerful wrestlers, which was on display in his loss to Melendez in which he was manhandled and lost a one-sided decision. Eddie has a strong wrestling base like Gilbert does and this could be where he can win the bout.
The two major motivating factors that will drive Eddie Alvarez are his size and wrestling advantage coupled with his possible UFC offer that could material after a win of this caliber.
1) I can remember it like it was yesterday. I walked down to Broadway Avenue to get some barbecue and a beer before the bout. The group included a good friend, my father, myself and my sister. Skyler and I went to the strip first to get some chow and a brew. We got to the arena just before the first preliminary bout began.
It’s incredible that I remember anything else from this card besides the brawl at the end, but that is irrelevant to this story. The Aoki vs. Melendez bout was one the most anticipated of the evening, and it turned out to be a total domination that would have been a fast forward DVR moment waiting to happen. The point here is that the size and wrestling ability of Gilbert proved to be an Achilles heel for Aoki. Eddie can use similar advantages to smother Aoki and avoid getting a limb dislocated.
2) Eddie’s other major motivation in this bout will be the fact that he may be fighting for a UFC contract. He could likely get a pretty nice deal even if he loses, but it would greatly benefit his athletic stock if he wins this rematch tonight. Alvarez will use his wrestling and ground and pound to wear the smaller man out and will likely end up with a decision victory.
It’s looking like current Bellator middleweight champion and world renowned can-crusher Hector Lombard may finally get his chance to make waves in the UFC. Yes, it seems the man who has vowed to “take Anderson Silva’s head off” was recently offered a contract with the UFC in light of his dispute-ridden contract with Bellator expiring earlier this month. The Cuban-born knockout artist has been out of action since steamrolling Trevor Prangley in the second round of their catchweight non-title affair back in November of 2011, and has still yet to grant season five middleweight tournament winner Alexander Shlemenko his much deserved rematch. We can likely call that one a wash at this point.
And although that sucks for Shlemenko, we’ve got to admit that we’d much rather see “Lightning” in the UFC. If you recall, Lombard was supposed to make his promotional debut way back at UFC 78 in November of 2007 against Karo Parisyan, but Visa issues forced him to withdraw after he was denied entry into the country. He was eventually replaced by Ryo Chonan, who couldn’t handle “The Heat” and was defeated by unanimous decision.
Five years and countless corpses of MMA journeyman later, we may finally see Lombard live up to his potential.
But before we start setting ourselves up for disappointment, we (and the UFC) are awaiting a move from the Bellator brass, who still have an opportunity to match the UFC’s offer. Bellator CEO told Sherdog that a “strategic decision” would determine Lombard’s future with the company, but that they wouldn’t even begin deliberation until after this weekend’s Bellator 66 event:
We’ve received the final proposed UFC agreement from Hector’s attorney, and right now we are in the process of reviewing it to determine whether we’re going to match the agreement. We’ve got the 60 pages of UFC contract that were forwarded to us by Hector’s counsel.
Out of respect for Hector, I think we will turn [the UFC contract] around very quickly. Obviously, we have a huge event coming up Friday. As soon as that is over, we will sit down with our partners and go through the UFC contract line-for-line and make a strategic decision whether we’re going to match it or pass. [If we pass, we will] wish him the best and let him go knock out everybody in the UFC.
It’s looking like current Bellator middleweight champion and world renowned can-crusher Hector Lombard may finally get his chance to make waves in the UFC. Yes, it seems the man who has vowed to “take Anderson Silva’s head off” was recently offered a contract with the UFC in light of his dispute-ridden contract with Bellator expiring earlier this month. The Cuban-born knockout artist has been out of action since steamrolling Trevor Prangley in the second round of their catchweight non-title affair back in November of 2011, and has still yet to grant season five middleweight tournament winner Alexander Shlemenko his much deserved rematch. We can likely call that one a wash at this point.
And although that sucks for Shlemenko, we’ve got to admit that we’d much rather see “Lightning” in the UFC. If you recall, Lombard was supposed to make his promotional debut way back at UFC 78 in November of 2007 against Karo Parisyan, but Visa issues forced him to withdraw after he was denied entry into the country. He was eventually replaced by Ryo Chonan, who couldn’t handle “The Heat” and was defeated by unanimous decision.
Five years and countless corpses of MMA journeyman later, we may finally see Lombard live up to his potential.
But before we start setting ourselves up for disappointment, we (and the UFC) are awaiting a move from the Bellator brass, who still have an opportunity to match the UFC’s offer. Bellator CEO told Sherdog that a “strategic decision” would determine Lombard’s future with the company, but that they wouldn’t even begin deliberation until after this weekend’s Bellator 66 event:
We’ve received the final proposed UFC agreement from Hector’s attorney, and right now we are in the process of reviewing it to determine whether we’re going to match the agreement. We’ve got the 60 pages of UFC contract that were forwarded to us by Hector’s counsel.
Out of respect for Hector, I think we will turn [the UFC contract] around very quickly. Obviously, we have a huge event coming up Friday. As soon as that is over, we will sit down with our partners and go through the UFC contract line-for-line and make a strategic decision whether we’re going to match it or pass. [If we pass, we will] wish him the best and let him go knock out everybody in the UFC.
When reviewing the situation, Rebney was very aware of the value Lombard holds in his promotion, but wants to assure the media that there would be no hard feelings between Lombard and Bellator were he to leave:
The reality is that Hector is going to do extremely well whether he is fighting in the Octagon or the Bellator circle, and I think everybody knew that. He’s one of the best middleweights on the face of the earth. He hasn’t fought in a long time, and he had to wait through these periods contractually to get to a point where he could go out and seek an offer from a competing organization.
We’ve been waiting on the actual contract itself to see all of the specifics and every conceivable detail and know exactly what is being offered. Now we have something really specific to look at.
We don’t want to wish any ill will towards our buddy Bjorn, but needless to say, we would really like the chance to see Hector prove (or disprove) himself against a fighter who is somewhere close to his skill level. Bellator hasn’t provided that since the first Shlemenko fight, which was absolutely dominated by Lombard. And let’s face it, after Anderson Silva guides Chael Sonnen to a higher plane of existence at UFC 147, the UFC’s middleweight division will be all but dried up. Unless you think Vitor Belfort, Brian Stann, or Mark Munoz actually stand a chance at beating Anderson, in which case, you likely eat your food through a straw and still think The Rolling Stones sound great live.
So what do you guys think about this? Will Hector do work in the UFC or prove his haters right?
Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard is the hottest free agent of the moment. It has long been expected that he would seriously entertain offers to jump ship from Bellator and head to the UFC, and we now know that Lombard has received a UFC co…
Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard is the hottest free agent of the moment. It has long been expected that he would seriously entertain offers to jump ship from Bellator and head to the UFC, and we now know that Lombard has received a UFC contract.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney told Sherdog.com that he’s received Lombard’s UFC contract offer. Bellator doesn’t have a champion’s clause in their standard contracts, but they do have the right to match any offer one of their fighters receives from another organization. Rebney told Sherdog that he’s going to sit down very soon and decide Lombard’s fate:
“Out of respect for Hector, I think we will turn [the UFC contract] around very quickly,” said Rebney. “Obviously, we have a huge event coming up Friday [Bellator 66]. As soon as that is over, we will sit down with our partners and go through the UFC contract line-for-line and make a strategic decision whether we’re going to match it or pass. [If we pass, we will] wish him the best and let him go knock out everybody in the UFC.”
If I had to put money on Lombard’s next landing destination, I’d put down money on the UFC. Lombard doesn’t have many real challengers at this point in Bellator, and he’s openly discussed the idea of facing the best his weight class has to offer. If that’s what he wants to do, he’ll need to go to the UFC.
Bellator can obviously opt to keep Lombard. They might do it. We don’t know what kind of offer the UFC made Lombard, and we likely won’t know for quite some time. But even if Rebney chooses to match the UFC’s offer, I still think there’s a chance Lombard could tell Rebney that he wants to leave and try his hand in the Octagon.
And knowing Rebney, he’ll probably let him go.
So who should Lombard face for his debut match? They’re not going to give him an immediate fight with Anderson Silva, but he should get a top middleweight for his first fight in the UFC.
Brian Stann is a name that springs to mind. Stann is a credible middleweight and would serve as a tough test for Lombard. A win over the American hero would give Lombard plenty of steam for a title fight.
Mark Munoz is another viable option, though I suspect they’ll want to keep Lombard away from strong wrestlers in his first fight. With Michael Bisping and Tim Boetsch already locked in for a summer fight, Stann is the best option for a meaningful bout that could elevate both guys into the title picture.
When 