UFC Middleweight Hector Lombard came over from Bellator amidst a wave of hype and on the back of a contract that was designed to be too rich for Bellator to match. Unfortunately his first bout against Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 stunk up the joint and saw Lombard lose a listless three round decision.
The Cuban-born Judoka claimed later that a cracked sternum kept him from fighting to his full potential. Nonetheless, the poor performance was enough to see him exiled from the UFC PPV cards (where he is widely assumed to be getting a bonus based on buys) to the lowly international Fuel TV cards where no such lucrative bonus offers apply.
Even after mirking Rousimar Palhares in his second UFC bout, Lombard still fears the axe going into his UFC on Fuel TV 8: Silva vs. Stann bout with the formidable but methodical Yushin Okami.
“(Okami)’s extremely strong, and he has a long reach. It’s going to be fun. He’s going to come and hug me. I don’t want to be hugged, so I’ve got to punch him,” Lombard told MMA Junkie.
“Lombard is worried however that if he plays into Okami’s clinch-fighting game he could “become boring, and then get cut because you’re boring. I don’t want to do that. I want to go out there and punch him and be exciting. I don’t care if I get KOd. I just want to punch him left and right.”
SBN coverage of UFC on FUEL TV 8