Hector Lombard vs Paulo Filho confirmed

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Bellator Fighting Championships has booked another of its title-holders for a season-two non-title "super fight" with middleweight champion Hector Lombard (25-2-1 MMA, 3-0 BFC) meeting former WEC belt-holder Paulo Filho (19-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC) at Bellator 18.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) reported earlier this month that Filho was on a "short list" of possible opponents for the champ.

Now booked, the fight takes place May 13 at Bellator 18 at a location and venue to be announced.

Bellator officials initially targeted May 20 (Bellator 19) for the fight.

Lombard won Bellator's season-one middleweight tournament, and with the three consecutive victories, earned the organization's first-ever 185-pound championship. All of Bellator's season-one champs are expected to fight in season-two non-title fights. The belts won't be on the line until season three later this year, when No. 1 contenders are determined by Bellator's season-two tournaments in the featherweight, lightweight, welterweight and middleweight divisions.

As we mentioned in our initial report, Filho was targeted because of his notoriety and longtime top-10 ranking. Although he's recently struggled with depression and chemical-dependency issues, the Brazilian has won three consecutive fights since a bizarre loss to Chael Sonnen at WEC 36 in which Filho appeared distracted and sluggish throughout the fight.

The former PRIDE fighter, who's beaten the likes of Melvin Manhoef and Alex Schoenauer (at light heavyweight) in recent fights, could re-emerge as a top middleweight with a win over a notable opponent such as Lombard.

Lombard, after all, is riding an 18-fight undefeated streak that included wins over Virgil Lozano, Damien Stelly and Jared Hess in Bellator's season-one tourney. Lombard, a 2000 Cuban Olympian in judo, most recently topped Art Santore to defend his Cage Fighting Championship belt for the sixth time. He won the Australian promotion's title in 2007.

"Our super fights are designed to test our champions against the best available fighters," founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney stated. "Paulo's won three fights in the last eight months including an impressive submission victory over Melvin Manhoef in DREAM in July. When Paulo’s on his game, he is one of the most dangerous middleweights in the world. Just over a year ago he was ranked as one of the top 185-pounders on earth. Now, he’s back and winning frequently.

"And, whereas other top middleweights wanted nothing to do with Hector Lombard, Paulo and his team agreed to take this fight. As I have said frequently, I believe Hector Lombard is one of the top middleweights in the world, and this fight could be a great test for Hector and a great fight for MMA fans."

http://mmajunkie.com/news/18523/bellator-confirms-hector-lombard-vs-paulo-filho-non-title-super-fight-for-bellator-18.mma

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Mooie pot!

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Filho Blames Bellator for Visa Issues; Says Organization Was Scared Because They Heard He Was in Shape

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(Don't be scurred, Bellator. You can't fight the power of the plaid vest)

I was going to say the Paulo Filho saga has officially jumped the shark with the embattled Brazilian fighter's latest whacked out accusations, but then I realized that to do that there would have had to be some semblance of believability that he was not crazy.

In an interview with TATAME today, Filho blamed Bellator for his inability to obtain the American work visa necessary for him to face Hector Lombard on Thursday night's card as originally planned and said it was likely because they were scared that the old "Ely" was back to form.


“Honestly, I don’t know. I think maybe people knew I was in a good shape, strong, so they got scared… In fact, I’ve been informed it was a mistake of the event, which didn’t gave me the letter so I could take it to the council. Things were left to be solved at the last minute, unfortunately I won’t fight.”

Besides blaming Bellator for his not being able to fight at the show, Filho also had harsh words for Sherdog for perpetuating the rumor that he pulled out of Bitteti Combat's February 25 show because of a drug relapse. According to the 31-year-old, the reason for his removal from the card was a disagreement with the organization's promoters and had nothing to due with his previous battles with depression or prescription drug addiction.


“My biggest concern is that people start to think that my absences are because of other things better than from what it actually is… I didn’t fight on Bitetti Combat for reasons between me and the organization and it came out on Sherdog that I was doing drugs and medicines once again. I fear that people actually believes that… I was training hard, working on my boxing with Distak, conditioning, running on the beach, doing Jiu-Jitsu… It was everything going pretty good, but there’s always something to get in the way.”


Funny how other fighters seem to be able to avoid having things get in the way of scheduled bouts.

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