Hector Lombard gets what he wants. After mentioning his desire to drop to welterweight to face Nate Marquardt (via MMAfighting.com), the former middleweight standout Lombard has officially been granted his wish. According to a report from MMA…
Hector Lombard gets what he wants.
After mentioning his desire to drop to welterweight to face Nate Marquardt (via MMAfighting.com), the former middleweight standout Lombard has officially been granted his wish.
According to a report from MMAfighting.com, Lombard will make his welterweight debut against Marquardt Oct. 19 at UFC 166 in Houston, Texas.
Both men desperately need a win to stay relevant in the ever-deepening pool of talent that is the UFC’s welterweight division, and Lombard will look to reinvent himself at this lighter weight class.
A fighter who has never fought below 185 pounds in his career, Lombard is known for his knockout power and ferocious killer instinct, but with his stocky, muscle-bound stature, one has to wonder how a drop to welterweight will affect his performance.
Interestingly, Marquardt also fought the majority of his career at middleweight before dropping to welterweight in July 2012 at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy. There, Marquardt starched TyronWoodley via fourth-round knockout to claim the Strikeforce welterweight championship.
After an impressive start to his welterweight campaign, however, Marquardt dropped back-to-back fights to TarecSaffiedine and Jake Ellenberger, the latter which he lost via knockout in the very first round at UFC 158.
Lombard’s recent resume provides a similar roller-coaster experience, as he was one of the most hyped prospects to enter the Octagon in recent memory after a hugely successful stint as the Bellator middleweight champion.
Boasting an otherworldly 31-2-1 (1) record, Lombard failed to impress in his UFC debut, where he lost to Tim Boetsch via split decision at UFC 149. From there, Lombard bounced back and scored a first-round knockout of RousimarPalhares before dropping another decision, this time to longtime middleweight contender YushinOkami.
To Lombard’s credit, his losses have come to grapple-first fighters, and his standup has looked powerful and precise when he has decided to open up and throw leather.
Marquardt, who is also primarily known as a striker, will probably look to keep this fight standing, so fans will have plenty to cheer about when this one kicks off.
As an early prediction, I’ll take Lombard via knockout in Round 1. Marquardt has looked off recently, and I think Lombard will finally get his act together and channel the beast we all expected when he made his debut at UFC 149.
What do you think? Is my prediction crazy, outlandish or just plain wrong? Let me know in the comments, and we’ll talk about it.
(“What I want to know is, who is this Hocky Dennis person and why he no get hespect?” Photo via Getty Images.)
In an interview with ESPN yesterday, Dana White confirmed that Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez will meet in their highly-anticipated rubber match at UFC 166, which goes down on October 19th from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. We now go to Joe Rogan for a reaction…
(“What I want to know is, who is this Hocky Dennis person and why he no get hespect?” Photo via Getty Images.)
In an interview with ESPN yesterday, Dana White confirmed that Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez will meet in their highly-anticipated rubber match at UFC 166, which goes down on October 19th from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. We now go to Joe Rogan for a reaction…
After reclaiming his title at UFC 155 by beating the stuffing out of the very man who took said title at UFC on FOX 1, Velasquez was finally able to make his first successful title defense at UFC 160 in May with a quick beatdown of Antonio Silva. Dos Santos also saw success at UFC 160, spin-kicking the hopes and dreams of PRIDE fanboys right out the goddamned window in the third round of his battle with Mark “Blunderbuss” Hunt.
Who do you like for this third meeting of heavyweight titans, Potato Nation. More importantly, where do you think Dos Santos vs. Velasquez III will rank on your list of all-time greatest trilogies? Up there with Wandy vs. Rampage or, God forbid, among the likes of Sylvia vs. Arlovski or Shamrock vs. Ortiz?
Ask yourself this question: Within the next two years, will the UFC heavyweight title be held by anyone whose last name isn’t Dos Santos or Velasquez?
That’s the scenario the UFC heavyweight division currently faces. The division is like the grim days of old, when Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia traded the belt back and forth, stomping “top contenders” like Justin Eilers, Paul Buentello, and Tra Telligman along the way.
The only difference is that now, instead of a hairy Belorussian feuding with an overweighthunting enthusiast, we have a personality-challenged Mexican feuding against a Brazilian with a badly receding hairline.
This isn’t to disparage Cain Velasquez or Junior Dos Santos as fighters, though. Both men are insanely talented. But that’s the problem — they’re both so talented that the rest of the fighters in the division aren’t a match for them. The only challenge to Velasquez is Dos Santos. The only challenge to Dos Santos is Velasquez.
Before you run to the comments screaming about Alistair Overeem and other heavyweight fighters, hear me out.
The UFC heavyweight top ten isn’t what it used to be…well actually; it’s exactly what it used to be: A list of overrated fighters who people think are top-notch because of the UFC label, as well as a division with the UFC’s least athletically gifted fighters.
(See? It’s not as easy as it looks. / Photo via Getty)
Ask yourself this question: Within the next two years, will the UFC heavyweight title be held by anyone whose last name isn’t Dos Santos or Velasquez?
That’s the scenario the UFC heavyweight division currently faces. The division is like the grim days of old, when Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia traded the belt back and forth, stomping “top contenders” like Justin Eilers, Paul Buentello, and Tra Telligman along the way.
The only difference is that now, instead of a hairy Belorussian feuding with an overweighthunting enthusiast, we have a personality-challenged Mexican feuding against a Brazilian with a badly receding hairline.
This isn’t to disparage Cain Velasquez or Junior Dos Santos as fighters, though. Both men are insanely talented. But that’s the problem — they’re both so talented that the rest of the fighters in the division aren’t a match for them. The only challenge to Velasquez is Dos Santos. The only challenge to Dos Santos is Velasquez.
Before you run to the comments screaming about Alistair Overeem and other heavyweight fighters, hear me out.
The UFC heavyweight top ten isn’t what it used to be…well actually; it’s exactly what it used to be: A list of overrated fighters who people think are top-notch because of the UFC label, as well as a division with the UFC’s least athletically gifted fighters.
The UFC’s official rankings rightfully have Dos Santos as the number one contender. After him comes Daniel Cormier, Fabricio Werdum, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Alistair Overeem, Frank Mir, Roy Nelson, Stipe Miocic, Travis Browne, and Josh Barnett.
Bigfoot Silva spectacularly derailed the hype train of Overeem, whose days of being viewed as an invincible killing machine are over. Silva showed that once you start hitting the former K-1 champ back, he becomes a kitten. Silva also put down one of MMA’s Next Big Things™ in Travis Browne, who evidently still needs work before he’ll be a real threat to the division’s top two fighters, Velasquez and Dos Santos.
But Silva, himself, is no threat to Dos Santos or Velasquez. Velasquez ran through Silva twice and it’s probable that Dos Santos’ fast hands and footwork would decimate the slow, plodding, Silva.
Werdum was no match for Dos Santos in the past and wouldn’t be now. It’s also unlikely that he’d be able to threaten Velasquez. Werdum’s strength is BJJ but he possesses no way of bringing Velasquez to the ground, save for endlessly butt-flopping and then looking confused.
Stipe Miocic, with a loss to Stefan Struve and his biggest win coming over a Roy Nelson who looked like he was trying to do a Kimbo Slice vs. Houston Alexander re-enactment, is too green and quite frankly too unskilled to be relevant in the discussion of the heavyweight title.
And Mir? He’s had his shot multiple times and failed. As has Roy Nelson, who decided that the “fat guy” gimmick was more important than beating upper echelon fighters.
Outside of Dos Santos and Velasquez, there are only two men who can make the division interesting: Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett. But Cormier is leaving the weight class specifically to avoid fighting his longtime training partner Velasquez, and Barnett, at age 35, has seen better days, unless you consider submitting the mighty Nandor Guelmino to be a feat worth boasting about.
So…who’s left in the UFC’s top ten that can beat Velasquez?
Junior Dos Santos.
He’s the only one in the top ten that has a good chance at beating Velasquez. And Velasquez is the only other fighter in the division with a good chance at beating Dos Santos. They have wins over one another. While the optimistic among MMA fans and UFC marketing might present this as a good thing — as an epic rivalry that deserves a special place in MMA history — it’s a terrible thing.
It means that the division only has two good guys in it; the rest of it is full of fodder.
The UFC heavyweight division is in a dark age.
The winner of Velasquez-Dos Santos III in October will crush unworthy contenders while the loser strings together wins over fighters beneath his skill level. But since the fight happened three times, Uncle Dana & Co. will be unlikely to book a fourth match even though it makes sense. Thus, the division will be boring and useless until an injection of new blood resets the pecking order and makes the heavyweights worth paying attention to again.
Remember the old Mortal Kombat arcade ladders where the last two guys on the ladder where the final boss and the second to last boss (Shang Tsung and Goro in MK1, Shao Kahn and Kintaro in MK2 and so on)? That’s what the UFC heavyweight division is like. The two toughest, most important, most relevant guys are on a completely different level than anyone else. They’re the unplayable characters that everyone else in the division wishes they could be. But there’s no cheat code to unlocking them and no secret trick to besting them in the cage. They’re just better, and it looks like nobody else is coming along who will change this fact any time soon.
Cain Velasquez has 10 knockouts in 12 fights, but according to Junior dos Santos, he still “hits like a girl.”The former UFC heavyweight champ made a guest appearance on Panico, a Brazilian radio show, to talk about his upcoming rubber match with Velas…
Cain Velasquez has 10 knockouts in 12 fights, but according to Junior dos Santos, he still “hits like a girl.”
The former UFC heavyweight champ made a guest appearance on Panico, a Brazilian radio show, to talk about his upcoming rubber match with Velasquez, which is rumored for UFC 166 in October.
“I had no cuts against Cain Velasquez. And he hits like a girl. He hit me a lot during the five rounds, but did not open any cuts, although I was very bloated and had to go to the hospital,” said Dos Santos, who was translated by Fighters Only magazine on their website.
Perhaps Dos Santos isn’t giving his own self enough credit for having one of the sturdiest chins in MMA.
Dos Santos has competed against a plethora of heavyweights with devastating knockout power, including Mark Hunt, Roy Nelson, Shane Carwin, Gilbert Yvel and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. There is enough power in that list alone to light up an entire city.
Still, Dos Santos never even batted an eyelash in the stand-up with any of these individuals. Only one fighter in the UFC can lay claim to having hurt Dos Santos in the stand-up exchanges, and coincidentally enough, he’s the fighter Dos Santos is now claiming hits like a girl.
Velasquez made statistical history in the rematch with Dos Santos back in December by landing 111 significant strikes and securing 11 takedowns. Dos Santos’ face wasn’t even recognizable after the fight.
The first official verbal jab being thrown should only add to the anticipation for this heavyweight showdown.
For a long time, Velasquez and Dos Santos have been considered the best heavyweights in the world. Few times in combat sports are fans ever given a legitimate trilogy, and it doesn’t get any better than these two.
In 2011, it only took Dos Santos 64 seconds to knock out Velasquez and claim the UFC title. Velasquez immediately jumped right back on the horse in 2012 and avenged his loss in lopsided fashion.
The trilogy between UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and former titleholder Junior dos Santos will come to a close later this year, as the two fighters are expected to meet at UFC 166 in October. The October show will likely land back in Housto…
The trilogy between UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and former titleholder Junior dos Santos will come to a close later this year, as the two fighters are expected to meet at UFC 166 in October.
The October show will likely land back in Houston, where the UFC would potentially return for the first time since UFC 136 in October 2011.
According to Sportsnet’s Joe Ferraro, UFC President Dana White revealed details about the heavyweight tilt during a media session on Thursday in Winnipeg as part of the UFC 161 pre-fight activities.
Thus far, Velasquez and Dos Santos are tied at one win apiece in their fights. This third bout will settle the rivalry and who is the UFC heavyweight champion.
In their first meeting, Velasquez entered the fight as champion when he faced Dos Santos in the inaugural bout for the UFC’s new television deal with Fox.
As hyped as the fight had been in the months leading up to the battle, the result was much different, with Dos Santos clocking Velasquez with an early punch and finishing the fight at just over one minute into the first round.
Velasquez came back strong and earned a shot at redemption when he faced Dos Santos for a second time at UFC 155 to close out 2012.
The second fight was a much different result than the first, with Velasquez controlling every aspect of the bout with his wrestling, clinch work and dominant stand-up.Velasquez regained the belt with a punishing performance to hand Dos Santos his first loss in the UFC.
Now with both fighters coming off of wins at UFC 160, they will meet for a third time to hopefully settle the debate of who truly is the best heavyweight fighter on the planet.
The promotion had hinted following the conclusion of UFC 160 that it would consider bringing Velasquez and the heavyweight title fight to the city of Houston later this year and now it appears that wish will become reality.
The UFC has now set up several major title fights to bolster the lineup of pay-per-views to close out 2013.
The lightweight title will go up for grabs in August, followed by a light heavyweight main event in September and the newly announced heavyweight bout between Velasquez and Dos Santos now being confirmed for October.
Damon Martin is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report.
Hector Lombard gets what he wants. 
