There’s always a lot of talk about respect in MMA. Generally, after a fight, even two guys who have talked trash beforehand will profess their deep respect for one another, or at least call the other guy “tough.” Not Hector Lombard, whose Dec. 15 opponent, Rousimar Palhares, was last week suspended by the UFC after testing positive for elevated testosterone levels.
As Lombard said in an interview last week, he finds it hard to respect the man he recently knocked out:
My response is, like, he needs to be a better person on the inside, you know? I think that, the guy, something really wrong happened to him, and he needs to be a better person inside and out. Because, you know, I said something about him because he made the comment that he was going to break my leg, regardless of if I would have tapped or not. I don’t know what’s wrong with that guy. And now, that happened to him. He’s a cheater. What else I can say? ... I never had respect for him from the beginning anyway. How can I have respect for a guy that intentionally breaks people’s legs? I think he is a shame for the sport. I think the sport needs to be cleaned up from people like him. I think that he needs to go and fight people in the street or something, because this is a professional sport where you need discipline and you need to be a professional. Guys like that, they’re bad for the UFC. They’re bad for the sport. Shame on him.
While it’s tough to disagree that someone actively looking to snap limbs could have some discipline issues, it’s also funny to hear comments about conduct from Lombard, who has himself been criticized by former training partners for his behavior in the gym.