By Gareth A Davies
The Daily Telegraph
It didn’t take UFC middleweight Hector Lombard long to reveal what he really wants to do in 2013: keep on winning and then smash British mixed martial arts rival Michael Bisping out of the way at the earliest opportunity. Unscripted, unprompted, but Lombard really has a beef with the Brit.
The UFC returns to Japan for the sixth time in its history this weekend, its fourth visit to Tokyo. The Saitama Super Arena is set for nostalgia and thrusting ambition, with legends Wanderlei Silva – fighting in Japan for the 28th time – and Mark Hunt recalling the PRIDE fighting events of the past, while up-and-comers such as Brian Stann and Stefan Struve want to stamp their mark on the region where MMA once enjoyed its most lucrative, almost obsessive, market.
Former US Marine officer Stann faces the Brazilian Silva in the headline event – at light-heavyweight, while 7ft tall Struve, from Holland, will try to avoid the heavy hands of veteran Hunt, the New Zealander, as the telescopic 25-year-old advances on a UFC heavyweight title tilt.
Just over a year ago, Benson Henderson took the UFC lightweight title from Frankie Edgar, via unanimous decision (49–46, 48–47, 49–46), in Saitama, and there is even greater anticipation this time around.
Watch UFC on Sportsnet: Silva vs. Stann on Saturday night at 10 p.m. ET on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific. Also catch five preliminary bouts starting at 7:40 p.m. ET on Sportsnet.ca.
But back to Lombard (record 33 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw, 1 no contest), with his grudge for Bisping, who has led the British charge in the UFC for the last seven years.
“I want to pick up wins and go from there and try to keep my job in the UFC,” explained 185lbs fighter Lombard, who stands at 5ft 8ins tall but bristles with power.
He faces Japan’s Yushin Okami, a rounded ground and stand-up fighter who has been in with the division’s best without ever taking the title (record 28-7).
“I take it one fight at a time and focus on that. That’s what’s in my control, the one thing in my control. I win this fight and then anything is possible.
On his opponent Okami, Lombard gave the assessment: “He’s very strong in the clinch, you can see out-powers his opponents. He always tries to put a lot of pressure on guys when the fight goes to the ground. I’m focused on what I’m going to do and I’m going to knock him out.”
“My gameplan is put up a big KO and he knows that. Everyone in the division should fear my hands.”
Then, without prompting, the name of Bisping came up. “I want to fight Bisping badly, 100 per cent I do. That is the guy I want if I beat Okami.”
“I’d fight him yesterday, today, it doesn’t matter. I want to fight him. I don’t believe he should be where he is in the division. Look at his record, who did he beat ? He wins decisions, but against who ? He gets beat when he fights top opponents. He gets decidedly beat, no decisions, he gets beat by KO.”
Bisping was stopped in the second round against Vitor Belfort in Brazil in January, and is slated to face American Alan Belcher in New Jersey on April 27. It would mean Bisping-Lombard would not be in synch until at least August.
In the current UFC middleweight rankings, Bisping is currently at No 3, with Lombard at No 8.
“I don’t worry about the rankings, I focus on myself,” said Lombard. “I’m not a cry baby like Bisping, I’m a man. It’s one fight at a time, get this win and go from there. That is what I have to do. I don’t need to bitch about rankings and people and fighters and bullcrap. I don’t need to do the other stuff, that’s not me. Bisping is a guy who is a f——- crybaby and no big wins.”
Lombard, a former Olympic judoka for Cuba, who is now repatriated as an Australian, joined the UFC last July having amassed one of the most impressive winning streaks in MMA, with 25 fights unbeaten. That skewed in his opening UFC bout last year when he lost a lacklustre points decision to Tim Boestch. Lombard never got started.
“That’s behind me now, I’m not going to dwell on it,” he said. He followed up with a commanding first round knockout against the dangerous Brazilian Rousimar Palhares, and is happy that his turnaround has been a quick one.
“I couldn’t be happier to fight so quickly. It’s something I used to do before coming to UFC and that makes me happy. Now that I’m able to do that, it’s the best. I took two weeks off, and then got back into training camp.”
Lombard competed at the 2000 Olympic Games for Cuba, but he is bitterly disappointed that wrestling is being shunted out of the Olympic Games for 2020.
“It makes me sad, they have to think about how many dreams and how many things that you’re going to take from those young guys. People’s dream is compete in the Olympics and they’re taking it. Now that dream is gone, they should re-consider all of that.”
There could be re-newed hope, with the news yesterday that the International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge will hold a meeting with the new head of world wrestling to discuss the sport’s controversial axing from the list of core Olympic sports after Rio 2016.
Nenad Lalovic, elected as the interim President of International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) earlier this month, will hold talks with Rogge at the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne on March 7.
Lalovic has replaced Swiss Raphaël Martinetti, who stepped down after the IOC Executive Board voted to remove wrestling from its list of core sports.
“I will be received by the President and I will explain everything that we are doing and what we are ready to do,” Lalovic told insidethegames during an exclusive interview.
“I expect from him also some recommendations in order to stay in the Olympic Family.”
Lombard hopes that the talks bear fruit. “There are sports in the Olympics that should be removed over wrestling. I definitely disagree to be honest, and it’s very, very wrong. For so many thousands of people whose dream was to be an Olympian and right now they can’t. It’s just wrong and it’s simple as that.”
Silva admits he may take Stann to the ground
Silva talks about fighting in Japan for the 29th time in his career, admitting that although the fight against Brian Stann is expected to play out as a stand-up battle, he may take the fight to the floor. He does, after all, have a black belt in jiu-jitsu.
That said, he also says that once he gets into the heat of battle, he likes to prove things with his hands. Silva says while his body feels good, retirement is not on his mind, and he has been much more comfortable in this camp given that the fight is at light-heavyweight.
He once took a fight on two days’ notice, but he says that was a different era, and that the sport has moved on enormously, and although there is always pressure on him to show his best fighting skills, he simply loves his job.
Hunt thinks UFC champ from Polynesia or Oceania ‘matter of time’
Hunt, the PRIDE and UFC heavyweight fighter, gives his theory on why he believes UFC champion will eventually emerge from Polynesia.
“It’s a matter of time. There is a big pool of talent, fighting is in our blood it’s the way we were brought up and we are warriors,” says Hunt, who reckons that once Samoans and Maoris mobilise in MMA, and the right gyms are set up, a UFC champion will come. Hunt is the only K1 champion ever to come from Oceania.
“There are so many big men, with speed. Rugby league and rugby union have dominated, but we have a fighting spirit, and once the right gyms are set up, it will be a matter of time.” As for any misperceptions about MMA, he reckons that the sport’s critics “need to get with evolution in sports.”
Veteran Hunt, 38, faces 7ft tall Dutchman Stefan Struve at the Saitama Super Arena, Tokyo, on Saturday night, in the co-main event.
