Former Bellator middleweight champ Hector Lombard will return to 185lb in his next fight, against Dan Henderson at UFC 199, after an unsuccessful run in the UFC’s welterweight division.
According to Lombard, ‘Hendo’ was less thna courteous with him when the two trained together at Team Quest in California.
“He never gave a s**t about me,” Lombard told MMAjunkie Radio. “I went there, and he never talked to me, so I was like, ‘OK, no worries.’ And the week after, I made a move.”
But, despite any possible dislike, Lombard remains an admirer of the former two-division Pride champion and future Hall of Famer. But that doesn’t mean he will let respect cloud his vision or dampen his performance.
“I’m very excited about fighting him,” Lombard said. “He’s one of the guys I look up to. Nevertheless, I’m going to go and knock him out. But it’s going to be an entertaining fight.”
Lombard dropped to 170lb in 2013 and went 2-1 (1 NC). His last bout ended in a TKO loss to Neil Magny. The Cuban-Australian cites injuries due to a difficult weight cut – no doubt made even more difficult by the UFC’s recent IV ban – as the primary reason for his poor performance and decision to move back up in weight.
“I’m a guy that never had injuries, throughout my whole career, and I started getting injuries, and I’m like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ And the reason is, your body has very little nutrients, so I was getting injured left and right. The weight cut harms your body a lot. I’m a person that has no fat on me. I’m very muscular. So all these muscles, when you suck all the juice of them, it’s brutal.”
Lombard also expressed an interest at competing at light heavyweight (205lb) in the future.
UFC 199 is set to take place June 4th at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
