Hector Lombard

[Uncle Chester]

Hecotr Lombard is the current Bellator middleweight champ and is just about the most badass fighter you will ever see.

Anyway, the guy is riding a pretty tight win-streak with shitloads of Ko's and even though he's faced no-one worth mentioning (Joe Doerksen?) he still, in my eyes has mad good potential. The guy is frighteningly strong and is built like a bull on steroids. He's scary, has wicked knockout power and fights like a mad man(he really does, it's weird to watch). He's like a more messy Vitor Belfort with his insane aggression when he has someone hurt which is extremely entertaining but probably not as impressive(maybe it's cause I'm a huge Vitor fan). But back to my point I think he can do some damage against the best, I think he's good enough to become a force at the elite level.

We've covered his striking (though not in great detail but to summarise: he's very very powerful, very aggressive and extremely relentless) but I also think with his hips he can defend the takedown- I mean he is a 4th-dan blackbelt in judo and has the grappling cridentials to hang ther with guys like Sonnen etc. And he's a black belt in BJJ so he's at least competent with his ground game.

Coupling all his achievements and skills I think Lombard could very well be among the best and I'm going to take it one step further; I think he can beat Anderson. It doesn't mean he will however but IMO he has a 40% chance to dethrone Anderson if Anderson doesn't diminsh in skill or retire when he comes to the UFC.

So with that being said:

Do you think he will fight in the UFC?

Do you think he will beat Anderson if they do fight, assuming neither loses their step?

Here's a nice little highlight package.

[YOUTUBE]CoHip6dfX64[/YOUTUBE]

Here's a better one:

[YOUTUBE]i5nsUFeVsjE&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Fizzy]

He is to unproven. He is a good fighter, but the only way we will know if he is great is to get him into the UFC. The guy does have credentials in a few Martial Arts, but that does not mean they will transfer over well. He is most certainly a good fighter though, and would add some spice to the bland UFC MW division. I would not say he has a chance to beat Anderson though, and I think saying he has a 40% chance is quite asinine. We do not know how good he is yet seeing as his biggest win is Doerksen. He has tons of potential, but it is way, way to early to say he has such a good shot to beat Silva man.

 

[INDYjon22]

I like Hector Lombard and think he has a ton of potential but his name shouldn't even come up with the likes of an Anderson Silva right now. He simply hasn't fought the same caliber of fighters and that isn't necessarily his fault either. Bellator is a growing company and it just doesn't have a deep Middleweight division right now, that's why they allow Lombard to fight for other promotions but the problem is that there aren't any top level Middleweight that aren't locked up by either the UFC or Strikeforce right now. Sure he could fight guys like Jesse Taylor or Jeremy Horn and that would give him some name recognition but those guys still aren't on par with guys like Anderson, Okami, Sonnen or Jacare. If Lombard ever does leave Bellator, which I suspect will happen somewhere down the line, I think he could be a top 5 but until then he just doesn't have the competition to get his name up there with the top guys. Though I will say his win over Alexander Schlemenko was incredibly impressive, he dominated a very tough guy in Sclemenko. That said, I am still very excited to watch Lombards career progress over the next few years. He may not be on Anderson Silva's level but he can still be just as good as anyone else.

 

[Via Armbar]

The consensus is that he's just too untested right now and who am I to argue. He's one of the best finishers in the game, no doubt about that. To overlook the fact that he hasn't fought the best opposition is naive. Who's his best win against, Shlemenko? Yeah no offense against Shlemenko but that isn't going to earn you much credibility. Not enough to be mentioned in the same sentence as Anderson Silva at least. I would definitely love to see him come to the UFC and take on a guy like Marquardt or even Munoz to see where he's at. I definitely think he could be a top 5 guy in the UFC and since the division is so weak I could see them giving him Anderson after just one win. How that fight would turn out however...I see Silva picking him apart from a distance. Still, an addition like Lombard to the UFC's MW division is very welcomed.

 

[jmt225]

I have to agree with Armbar here.

We have yet to see Lombard fight a top talent outside of Gegard Mousasi. Against cans, the guy does look GREAT; however, I still don't know if he can compete were he in the UFC. We haven't seen him against someone with the Jiu-Jitsu prowess of Damien Maia and Mayhem Miller; we haven't seen him against great wrestlers like Chael Sonnen and Dan Henderson; and nor have we seen Hector Lombard face off against great strikers like Anderson Silva and Wanderlei Silva. We don't have any idea what this guy has to offer until he starts fighting top talent, and unfortunately... he will not find that kind of talent in Bellator.

That said, I don't know his contract situation with Bellator, but I definitely see the UFC snatching him up whenever his contract expires. There's no way they're going to pass up on a guy with as long of winning streak as Lombard, especially considering he's still at a good age.

 

[ArcherCC]

Well being a BJJ black belt automatically means he could beat Sonnen, because he knows what a triangle is......

All joking aside, he has a lot of raw potential, after watching last night's fight though I saw one glaring weakness that would end any chance he had against Anderson, he is way to sloppy with his striking. Yes he has freakish, evil power but Silva is the best counter striker MMA has ever seen and would KO him. (yes anything can happen in MMA, and if he hit Silva he might KO him, I just don;t see that happening.)

I would love to see him go and train with someone like Freddie Roach, or better yet, Black House

And I do have a dream math up for him, now that Miguel Falco has been cut form the UFC Belator needs to sign him to fight Hector.

 

[INDYjon22]

Well since Lombard has fought since the last time I posted in this hear thread, I guess I can give my input on him once again. The man is a tremendous talent, but unfortunately Bellator doesn't have the competition needed to really test him. As big of a Bellator fan as I am, I would love to see him go to the UFC and fight the best Middleweights in the world to see how good he really is. I honestly believe he could defeat anyone in the UFC, other then Anderson and maybe Chael. And, depending how he approaches those fights he could even top those two, but I think he would need a slow build up first. Guys like Belcher, Maia, Okami, Bisping, Belfort and others would really help to tell us how good he is and if he is ready for the big name in Anderson. But, that won't happen until his contract with Bellator is up and even then you know BFC is going to throw some serious fucking money at him since he is one of their top two draws. But, hopefully we can see him against some top MW's some day soon.

 

[Window Licker 101]

That knockout at the weekend was a thing of beauty. I loved it, and it was my first ever Bellator event I watched! (I live in the UK and MTV 2 does not exist over here.) I reckon Lombard is in a similar situation as Alistair Overeem at the moment. The dude probably is one of the top ten middleweights in the world but he hasn't been fighting anyone big. With a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu, a phenomenal judo background and one punch KO power in both hands, Lombard has a great all round skill set. I think he would probably be stuck in the middle of the divison if he was in the UFC IMO. Leben, Wanderlei, Belfort, Sonnen, Okami, Maia, Palhares and Silva I feel would probably get the best of Mr.Lombard. For entertainment purposes only, I'd love to see Mayhem/Lombard

Interesting to see how Hector Lombard's appearance at Bellator 44 got the season it's highest ratings. The number almost doubled from the previous weeks. Bjorn was saying that they are considering bringing in Polish stand out Mamed Khalidov (who fights Matt Lindland this Saturday) to compete in next season's middlweight tournie, setting up a title match between the two. That would be a fantastic fight!