Hector Lombard on cruiserweight world title bout at BKFC 18
Hector Lombard takes on Joe Riggs at BKFC 18 on Saturday, June 26th. This prizefight goes down at 205 pounds and is for the BKFC cruiserweight world championship.
I spoke with Lombard ahead of this high-stakes bout and the excerpts from our conversation can be found below.
Working with BKFC/ Police Gazette heavyweight world champion Joey Beltran ahead of this one
“He is a great guy, I like him. Very, very humble. Good people. And that’s my point these days. You know like back in the days I was training with a bunch of freaking jealous people. All they did was came to ATT because of me and later on the jealousy starts. Including starting from Tyron Woodley and the list goes on. One day I want to tell you what really happened between me, Tyron Woodley, and a bunch of other people. But now we’re going to focus on the bare-knuckle. He’s a great guy (Joey Beltran). I like him and everybody does.”
The Joe Riggs fight being previously delayed and general thoughts on the bout
“Yeah, I like the matchup. Not only because Joe Riggs has been fighting for a long time. He’s a big name. Any way you mention his name from UFC, Bellator. Several organizations like myself. So we got to see who is best in bare-knuckle.”
Hector Lombard
Respect outside the ring but no respect whilst fighting Riggs
“Yeah but I’m going to have no respect for him when it comes to the fight. And obviously, he will not have respect for me either. So, we’re gonna get into there, we’re going to fuck each other up, and whoever is best is gonna win.”
“How good is (it) that I’m fighting a legend? That fought in StrikeForce, UFC, Bellator. I think the only thing that he didn’t fight in was PRIDE. So, myself, I’ve fought everywhere. Including, amateurs in BJJ. I’ve been competing in Abu Dhabi. So it’s gonna be great.”
Stories from past sparring partners about Hector Lombard going too hard
“Sparring is sparring. Something that happened to me like, sometimes wouldn’t go and spar. First of all when I go in American Top Team, all these motherfuckers tried to bully me. At a time when it was like all Brazilians. They were very territorial. So I came there and I sparred them all. But they want to bully me.”
“Then little by little, they slow down and separate… So, we could be cool if you don’t try to bully me. You don’t have to beat me up in sparring, I don’t have to let you fuckin do it…. I’ll die first. So from that day, I move into ‘oh, you cannot even be around these guys’.”
Josh Barnett’s Poland bare-knuckle bout, the infamous blood-drenched gym fight with Barnett, and if he would want to fight Josh Barnett in bare-knuckle
“For sure. Listen. Obviously, he understood that he was in the wrong. I cannot stay mad because I left the gym. Because he obviously had control over the guys. So, nobody wants to train with me because if you train with me, you piss off him. So I said to myself ‘I’m out. I’ll just drive myself to Florida and call it a day’. And that’s what I did. Truly, that was the best thing that ever happened to me. Because I truly love Florida. But I was cool with him. But the minute that he couldn’t impose his will with me, that was the problem.”
“I was strong and jacked. I was like a fucking killing machine at the time….Was just focused on train, train, train, and fuck people up. And he goes let’s spar, I said let’s go. I fucked him up. He can say whatever he likes. I fucked him up, broke his nose, fucked him up, he quit. He quit, he said no more.”
BKFC 18
BKFC figurehead David Feldman’s presence at Mayweather vs Paul and novelty boxing bouts
“He’s a businessman. First of all, he has to do things that provide his company with better contact. A better, you know, you’re a businessman, he’s a businessman. So whatever he does for his company and for his brand that he can accelerate the process, you know, I’m cool with that. Obviously, you would be too. If you want to get to me in any area. When it comes to media when it comes to the network. When it comes to whatever, sponsorship. If you weren’t there, you missed it. Everybody was there. The bread is over there, you got to go where the bread is.”
Overall thoughts on his Kendall Grove performance at BKFC 12
“Always happy and respectful to Kendall Grove. Going back, obviously he’s a legend. One of the first guys to win The Ultimate Fighter… Same thing, he fought in a bunch of different organizations. This is what I like. I like to fight people that have a name… I just don’t think he knew how to how to use his range when it comes to bare-knuckle. Because you saw him throw but he doesn’t know how to use his range. So I capitalized on that.”
BKFC
Thoughts on Bare Knuckle MMA
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Listen, I’m all in the game. And believe me, you haven’t seen it but you will see…This is what’s gonna happen. They’re gonna swing, dive into grappling, and the fight’s gonna be boring as fuck. Because, the good thing about bare-knuckle, you cannot grapple. So you’re forced to fight. You are forced to fight. So you got to get back or you’re gonna get KO-ed, or whatever it is you’re forced to do it.”
“If you gave me a chance to do it, I will do it. So, if you can grapple, I’ll fuckin grapple. And that’s what they’re gonna do. Everybody, they’re just gonna grapple the shit out of each other. I wish them well, you know, it’s impossible. It’s just like, Who can tell? you know, they try and they couldn’t. Who can tell me you cannot provide for your family? You’re in the fighting game. You got to protect yourself…It will be boring, but I wish him all the best.”
Parting thoughts for Hector Lombard
“I like this interview. I could talk about a bunch of shit that I couldn’t talk about to other people. Other people’s channel, other people’s podcasts, I couldn’t… I appreciate it, man.”
