Hector Lombard

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career and PRIDE
3 Cage Fighting Championships
4 Bellator Fighting Championships
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Hector "Shango" Lombard (born February 2, 1978) is a Cuban and Australian professional mixed martial artist and training out of American Top Team.

He stands 5 ft. 9 in. (175 cm) tall and fights in the middleweight division (185 lbs.).

Lombard is a black belt in judo and is a PRIDE veteran. He currently fights as a middleweight for the Bellator Fighting Championships (UFC).

"Shango" is a fictional supernatural and immortal being created by DC Comics.

Early Career and PRIDE

Hector Lombard made his professional mixed martial arts debut on September 26, 2004 for the Spartan Reality Fight promotion. He faced and defeated opponent, Michael Grunindike via unanimous decision after two rounds.

Following a No Contest with Chris Brown in March of 2005, Lombard picked up four victories from his next four outings. Included amongst those victories was a KO over UFC and PRIDE veteran, Daiju Takase.

Shortly after picking up that fourth straight victory, Lombard received a call-up to the PRIDE Fighting Championships. He made his PRIDE debut at PRIDE: Bushido 11 as one of 16 participants in the 2006 Bushido Welterweight (183 lbs.) tournament. He faced Japanese fighter, Akihiro Gono and was defeated via unanimous decision after 15 minutes.

After picking up two victories outside of PRIDE, Lombard returned to the Japanese promotion on November 5, 2006 at PRIDE: Bushido 13. He faced off against Gegard Mousasi in the alternate bout for the welterweight tournament. Lombard was defeated again by unanimous decision after two rounds.

The loss to Mousasi marked Lombard's last appearance in PRIDE.

Cage Fighting Championships

Lombard bounced back from the Mousasi loss with a TKO victory in the DEEP promotion. Following that, Lombard headed to his adoptive country of Australia where he began competing in smaller shows such as Warriors Realm and the Oceania Fighting Championships where he picked up three victories.

Midway through 2007, Lombard was signed to fight fellow judoka, Karo Parisyan at UFC 78. However visa issues stopped Lombard from being able to fight in the US and he became no longer affiliated with the UFC.

Lombard instead signed to fight for Australia's premiere mixed martial arts organization, the Cage Fighting Championships. At the inaugural event, Lombard faced future EliteXC competitor, Kyle Noke. After three rounds the bout was ruled a controversial draw.

After picking up a win in another Australian promotion, Lombard faced off against Jean Francois Lenogue at CFC 2 for the CFC middleweight title. Lombard obtained the title after besting Lenogue via decision.

With another victory outside of the CFC, Lombard faced off against American, Tristan Yunker at CFC 3 in his first title defense. It was a successful one as he stopped Yunker just over three minutes in.

In April of 2008, it was announced that Lombard has signed a contract with US promotion, EliteXC. Lombard stopped Fabiano Capoani at CFC 4 and Brian Ebersole at CFC 5 to defend his title again in May and September respectively and shortly after that it was announced that he would make his EliteXC debut at EliteXC: Night of Champions in November against TUF 4 and UFC veteran, Scott Smith. The bout would not go through however as EliteXC folded before the show could be put on.

Despite the disappointment Lombard kept busy and defended his CFC title for the fourth time at CFC 7 in February of 2009 when he stopped Ron Verdadero with a suplex and punches just 20 seconds into the fight.

Bellator Fighting Championships

In early 2009, Lombard signed with the upstart Bellator Fighting Championships. He made his BFC debut on April 17, 2009 at BFC 3 when he faced Virgil Lozano in the first round of Bellator's middleweight tournament. He defeated Lozano via KO (punch) at 1:10 of round 1 to move into the semi-finals.