Hector Lombard Ain’t No Friend Of Tyron Woodley
There has been a lot of talk recently about a possible match-up putting two of the top welterweights in the world, No. 3-ranked Tyron “The Chosen One” Woodley and No. 6-ranked Hector Lombard, up against each other. UFC president Dana White has even stated that the company was looking to book this fight to headline a UFC Fight Night card in Australia. Lombard agreed to the fight and has been pushing for it ever since the news of it being a possibility broke. However, Woodley’s side did not have the same feelings.
When approached by the UFC brass about the fight here’s what Woodley had to say:
“He can say whatever he wants, he’s about him and he’s always been about him. This fight doesn’t work for me and my brand.”
“When talking about how Lombard has always been about himself, Woodley is regarding the fact that he and Lombard are “team mates”. They both train under the American Top Team banner in Florida, but according to “Showeather”, Woodley isn’t a full member of the gym and he only trains there when he has a fight scheduled so there is no relation between the two men which would stop this fight from happening. When speaking to MMAJunkie.com, Lombard elaborated on the subject:
“We’re not friends. He just comes to use the gym. He doesn’t even live here. It’s not a difficult decision at all. “Training partners are the ones that train with you full-time, all year-round,” he said. “They help you on other fights, fights that you have with someone else. That’s a training partner. A training partner is a person that lives in your camp. Like Robbie (Lawler), he moved all his family, his wife, everyone, and now he lives here. If you live in Mississippi or whatever and you just come when your training comes and use the trainers and the trainers help you to go for your stuff, and you leave, I don’t know.”
“Woodley was previously gunning for a fight with the ultra-tough brawler Matt Brown who currently sits at No. 5 in the welterweight rankings despite coming off a decision loss to title challenger Robbie Lawler. Lombard also had a few words on this fight and what it means to be a “company man”.
“That doesn’t make sense anyway. I’m going to make him be the next Dana White. Is that fair? I don’t think that’s fair at all. You’ve got to do what the company wants you to do. I understand that once you get injured, there’s no way you can fight. Whoever you have to fight, you have to fight. Period.The company is so strong because it is what they tell you to do, not because it’s like, ‘Hey, lemme fight in Australia, and I’m going to fight so-and-so. What a beauty. Lemme fight over there, and I don’t want to fight three rounds; I want to fight two rounds, and let’s see how it goes. That’s not the way it goes.”
By these bold statements from the former Bellator champion, it seems like he has no problem fighting Woodley and is hoping the fight becomes a done deal. For Woodley, his feelings may change after he hears what his “training partner” had to say. Either way this would be quite an interesting fight and one I would definitely like to see happen. What do you guys think, does Woodley have the right to duck this fight because they are apparently team mates or should “The Chosen One” sign on the dotted line and make it happen?
Tune into LowKickMMA.com for any more news on this potential scrap.
