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| Hector Lombard Bio | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Courtesy: Bellator.com Release: 02/20/2010 |
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Known for his fierce fighting style, Hector “Shango” Lombard became the first ever Bellator Middleweight World Champion on June 19th, 2009.
As a favorite in the Middleweight tournament, Lombard made his U.S. fighting debut when the inaugural season of Bellator began in April 2009. In the first round of the Middleweight tournament Lombard delivered a solid KO to Virgil Lozano, capitalizing on a misstep by his opponent at 1:10 of the first round. Lozano was dropped instantly as Lombard made his dominant presence known in Bellator.
In the second round of the 185lbs tournament, Lombard served up another first round TKO (2:56) dominating Damien Stelly, who had a three inch height advantage, to advance to the Bellator Middleweight World Championship bout. Lombard proved that he could overcome the reach of the U.S Army Staff Sergeant Stelly while convincingly advancing to the final.
On June 19th, Lombard faced off against Jared Hess at Bellator XII in Hollywood, FL as part of the season-ending double-championship event. Hess, a skilled wrestler out of Oklahoma, had also already defeated several tournament opponents to advance to the championship bout. After four convincing rounds of punishment, Lombard was able to best Hess by TKO (doctor stoppage). With the win Lombard collected a $175,000 purse and earned the first ever Bellator Middleweight World Championship.
Lombard will defend his title against the No.1 contender, which will be the winner of the Season 2 Middleweight tournament.
Having a storied fighting career, Lombard is also a multiple-time Cuban National Judo Champion, former member of the Cuban Olympic Judo team and world-class mixed martial artist.
Specializing in judo and currently holding a black belt, Lombard amassed a collection of four Cuban National Judo Championships before making the Cuban Olympic Judo team in 2000. Shortly there after, he followed the advice of friend and transitioned his passion for Judo and boxing into a full-time MMA career.
It was not long before Lombard began to create a name for himself as an international fighter for promotions such as PRIDE, where he fought world-renowned fighter Gegard Mousasi and later in the Australian-based Cage Fighting Championships, an organization where he has holds the Middleweight championship title through five defenses.
Lombard currently trains at the world-renowned American Top Team facility in Miami, FL. He resides in Sydney, Australia, which he considers his second home after competing in the Olympics.
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