Lombard vs. Shields added to UFC 171 card

Hector Lombard vs Dong Hyun Kim was named the co-main event for an Aug. 23 UFC Fight Night event in Macau. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty)

Hector Lombard and Jake Shields are set to meet at UFC 171 in a battle of welterweight contenders, the UFC announced.

Both fighters are former middleweight champions in other organizations—Lombard went unbeaten in Bellator MMA, while Shields had an unblemished record in the defunct Strikeforce.

Lombard (33-4-1, 1 NC) is looking to build off the momentum he gained from a blistering knockout win in his 170-pound debut against Nate Marquardt at UFC 166 in October. The Cuban-Australian is an Olympic-level judoka with 20 first-round finishes.

Shields (29–6–1 1 NC) is coming off back-to-back split decision wins over Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley. The American holds career wins over the likes of Carlos Condit, Dan Henderson, Robbie Lawler, Yushin Okami and Hayato Sakurai.

UFC 171 takes place March 15 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas and will be headlined by a light-heavyweight title bout between Jones Jones and Glover Teixeira.

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.