The Weekly Wrap: May 30 – June 5

Bellator: Lombard v. Hess

The final fight of the Bellator Fighting Championships middleweight tournament was set May 29 in Monroe, La., as Hector Lombard and Jared Hess notched emphatic technical knockout victories that put them on track for a showdown for the title June 19.

The surging Lombard, a Pride Fighting Championships veteran, continued to dazzle, as he dominated U.S. Army product James Damien Stelly. Both fighters came out firing dramatic punches, until Stelly shot for a takedown and appeared to get clipped by an uppercut not unlike the one Lombard used to score his first Bellator win. Lombard, who represented his native Cuba in the Olympics as a judo player, swarmed Stelly on the floor with ground-and-pound, drawing blood and eventually throwing punches from the mount until the referee stepped in.

Hess, an Oklahoma-bred wrestler, was dogged in his approach against Yosmany Cabezas, as he used repeated takedowns and grinded out strikes on the floor, forcing Cabezas to struggle for position. Though he dominated the first two rounds, Hess still came out aggressive in the third and earned the TKO stoppage at 4:26. Lombard looked on from ringside.

Both middleweight winners pocketed $50,000 paydays and will fight for a $100,000 prize in the final on June 19 in Hollywood, Fla. The promotion’s May 29 offering also featured a spectacular knockout by Chad Leonhardt, of Louisiana, as he put down fellow welterweight Dan Keenan with an overhand right. As Keenan rose to recover, Leonhardt landed a vicious knee that crumpled Keenan and put him to sleep.