Nate Marquardt vs Hector Lombard announced for UFC 166

UFC 166 adds Marquardt vs Lombard

by Tommy Strong @Strong_tea

Former Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard will be facing another former champion Nate Marquardt, who was once the Strikeforce Welterweight champion.
The two will clash at UFC 166 which will see Hector Lombard make his Welterweight debut after a rocky start to his UFC career at middleweight losing two of his three fights since joining the organisation. When he first signed for the UFC there was even talk of a fight against Anderson Silva but his record soon stopped that talk. The fight will take place on October 19th in Houston Texas.

Lombard (32-4-1) joined the UFC on very lucrative deal from Bellator and to date the UFC haven't seen much value for their money. Losing his debut fight to Tim Boetsch in what could only be described as an awful performance. He looked slightly more impressive in his second fight which saw him knocking out Rousimar Palhares inside the first round.
Thinking Lombard would build on this win, he done quite the opposite when he fought Yushin Okami back in March, where he was defeated via split decision.

Nate "Not So Great" Marquardt (32-4-1) made fans stand up and be noticed when he dropped to Welterweight to compete for the vacant Strikeforce belt. In doing so, he knocked out Tyron Woodley in the 4th round to become the new Strikeforce champion. Only for him to lose the belt 6 months later when he fought Tarec Saffiedine on the very last Strikeforce show via a unanimous decision.
More recently on his return to the UFC in March he faced Jake Ellenberger and lost in devastating fashion being knocked out inside the 1st round.

With both fighters having a lot to prove and potentially a loss could see get cut we could be in for a very entertaining fight!

UFC 166 main event will see the trilogy fight between current Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. Also the UFC have added a lightweight bout between Gilbert Melendez vs Diego Sanchez.

Video: Munoz "Lombard has been mediocre at best"

Mark Munoz talks Hector Lombard 

Following Lombard UFC on Fuel 8 loss to Yushin Okami, top 10 middleweight Mark Munoz (12-3, 7-3 UFC) went on record to give his opinion of Hector Lombards UFC performace:

“Since Hector Lombard has been in the UFC, he’s been mediocre at best," said Mark Munoz. "But at the same time, he’s been fighting high-caliber fighters. Yushin Okami has been in the top five for a long time, you know, so he’s no slouch. At the same time, he was asking for a title shot, I felt he needed to prove his own in the weight class. So he’s being introduced to the UFC."

"Down the road if it presents itself, yeah I’d fight Hector Lombard. I’m definitely a guy that accepts any fight that the UFC throws at me, you know? I’m that guy. But at the same time I wanna show the world that I can definitely compete at that weight class and I can fight high-caliber fighters.”