Will Hector Lombard fight in the UFC?

http://www.mmamania.com/2012/3/7/2851942/ufc-bellator-dana-white-hector-lombard-bjorn-rebney

Dana-
"I guess he's pretty popular down here. I've been hearing all about him since I've been here. I hear he's under contract though with someone else, so we''ll see. I'll probably end up with him. If he wants to fight in the UFC, then we'll probably end up with him."


Bjorn-
"Well, Hector remains our champion right now. We are in the midst of a pretty substantial negotiation relative to his future with the organization. I've said many times I think he's the best middleweight in mixed martial arts so it's not an easy negotiation by any stretch of the imagination. We've got the right to match on any deal. We're either gonna sign him before he goes out the to marketplace or he's going to go out to the marketplace and we're gonna have a determination as to whether we're gonna match or not match and we're gonna see where it ends up. I love the guy and he's an awesome talent. He's been nothing but a pure pleasure for me to work with. He's been a great guy for me to work with and he's done everything we've asked him to do and every time I've put him in a cage, he's knocked people silly. You can't really ask for more than that from a guy."

Yep. Sounds like he will fight a few times outside Bellator and then bolt from what I've been reading

I think so at some point next year, possibly this year.

The matching thing is interesting. Is that after the year negotiation period or starts at a certain point during? he wasnt clear. He's worth considerably more to Bellator than UFC but Bjorn does not seem prime to overpay, but UFC does not overpay either. I don't see UFC giving him anything more than 150K..that would be tops but i don't know what Bellator pays their fighters or are willing. Maybe while they are still on MTV2 and mainly doing small casinos they don't want to pay that much.

Rebney seems to have a pretty good relationship/friendship with Hector so if they don't reach a deal i can see him releasing him from his contract well before the negotiation period ends to allow him to go fight in the UFC.

In the meantime, Bellator should just match Shlemenko up with this seasons tournament winner for an interim that will turn to the title if Hector leaves, or the main title if Bellator decides to release him in the coming months. As for Lombard fighting outside of Bellator, he would probably still need permission. I thought their fighters had international freedom until Bellator started nixing Warren fights in DREAM and having to give Eddie permission. I don't know why Hector would be any different. He's just been fighting guys they have been pretty confident he'd kill. Letting him fight and potentially beat Mamed Khalidov(the big rumour fight at KSW) that would just up his value and they don't want that up any more.

Hopefully. He'd knock Spider da fuck out.

I hope he does land in the ufc cause I would love to see how he does in the ufc's mw division, some new blood for the division with proven skill.

Hector Lombard vs Michael Bisping straight up.

Maybe a fight between Munoz and Lombard can get set up this summer.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Maybe a fight between Munoz and Lombard can get set up this summer.

I'd rather he get a fight vs someone like Leben or Stann. Show off that standup to the casuals. I think Lombard vs Stann could be a good fight.