Two former champions are set to collide this fall.Ask and you shall receive.
Hector Lombard played matchmaker less than two weeks ago, officially announcing he'd cut to 170 pounds and that he wanted a fight against former Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nate Marquardt.
It wasn't the first time he'd asked for the fight either. Lombard has wanted a piece of Marquardt for over two years now, hearkening back to his Bellator days when "The Great" was originally kicked from UFC for elevated levels of testosterone.
MMAFighting has confirmed that Lombard vs. Marquardt will go down at UFC 166 this fall (Oct. 19, 2013) in Houston's Toyota Center.
Lombard (32-4-1, 1 NC), is a former Bellator middleweight champion. He got out of his contract and made his way to UFC last summer as a potential title contender for Anderson Silva, but everything didn't go exactly as planned. His debut was marred by an ugly loss to Tim Boetsch and he most recently lost a tough decision to top 185-er Yushin Okami.
While Lombard was able to sandwich a brutal first round knockout of Rousimar Palhares in between those bouts, he couldn't do enough to remain a top contender at middleweight.
Marquardt (32-12-2) won the Strikeforce welterweight title after his UFC release. He returned to the Octagon at UFC 158 on short notice after losing his belt to Taric Saffiedine, but was greeted by a very hungry Jake Ellenberger who made short work of him with a first round knockout. A victory over Lombard would certainly go a long way in regards to righting the ship.
UFC 166 is expected to feature a heavyweight trilogy title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos.
Source:
http://www.mmamania.com/2013/7/3/449091 ... al-for-ufc
