Hector Lombard on ‘boring’ Jake Shields, GSP, alien abductions

BRISBANE, Australia – You never have to worry whether Hector Lombard will tell you what’s on his mind, whether it’s blunt or a little nonsensical.

Lombard said he’s gunning for “boring” Jake Shields after a recent request to fight onetime welterweight title challenger Carlos Condit or frontrunner Martin Kampmann went unfulfilled.

“I think he’s been so boring and me always trying for the KO, it’s going to be exciting,” Lombard (33-4-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) said. “He’ll make it boring, or I’m going to end up knocking him out. It’s going to be one or another.”

Lombard also thinks welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre‘s head is filled with more than just strong emotions.

“He’s so scared of aliens coming up and taking him,” Lombard told MMAjunkie. “You have to be really messed up to think about all that stuff. Like honestly, I have a lot of respect for him and the stuff he’s done for the sport, but how can you think about an alien coming and going to take you? Are you kidding me or what? It’s stupid.”

It’s hard to take seriously all of the 35-year-old fighter’s opinions, but he still delivers them as though they’re fact. It keeps him in the headlines when he’s not headed toward the cage.

And Lombard is in a talkative mood two months after a blistering knockout of Nate Marquardt at UFC 166, which marked his debut at welterweight after a 1-2 stint at middleweight in the promotion.

He joked that he liked the challenge of competing at 170 pounds despite appearing on the scale like an “alien.” Or, someone of much concern to St-Pierre, whose mind has been the subject of much speculation since his controversial split-decision win over Johny Hendricks and troubled post-fight speech at UFC 167 this past month.

St-Pierre spoke earlier this year to Joe Rogan about his fear of extraterrestrials and abductions, which Lombard apparently latched onto.

“It doesn’t really matter to me, to be honest,” he said. “I just find it a little bit stupid. There’s no aliens, and they’re not coming here to take anyone. I haven’t seen it, and I will never see it.”

Not all of Lombard’s theories rise above the level of lip service, of course, and not all of his declarations become reality. His post-UFC 166 request to compete at Friday’s UFC Fight Night 33 event in his adoptive home of Australia fell on deaf ears, as did his opponent requests.

He showed up anyway to the event’s host city, where the event takes place Saturday (and airs live on Friday in North America) at Brisbane Entertainment Centre. UFC Fight Night 33's main card airs live on FOX Sports 1 following prelims on FOX Sports 2 and MMAjunkie.

Lombard, whose request to fight Saturday was informed by his emigration to Sydney and pre-UFC career in Australia, sported a wide smile and felt confident the UFC will put him back in the cage by February or March of next year.

He made it clear he isn’t happy about waiting four months between fights. But when you’re in the title hunt, he said, you follow the bosses.

“I think the only fight that makes sense for me at the moment is Jake Shields,” he said. “He doesn’t have a fight booked yet, and he beat everyone up there. It’s going to be a great test for me. Not only that, he came up with a couple impressive wins.”

Shields’ two most recent victories came by slim margins – split calls over Tyrone Woodley and Demian Maia. But Lombard sees decisions, controversial and otherwise, as a part of the game and nothing to get upset over.

You won’t hear him defending Hendricks, in other words.

“There’s a lot of bad decisions in this sport,” Lombard said. “I’ve had bad decisions. Nobody cares. You win or you lose. If you want to win the fight, like they told me, you go up there and you knock the guy out. That’s what they told me when I fought Tim Boetsch. And I won the fight easy, three rounds. Suck it up.”

Lombard is prepared to take that attitude when it comes to the title ladder, which at the moment seems in limbo due to the uncertainty surrounding St-Pierre’s future.

He ruled out fighting Robbie Lawler or  Woodley, with whom he trains in Florida at American Top Team.

Hendricks is first in line when St-Pierre returns, and contenders Matt Brown and Condit could make a case for the next in line next week when they fight at UFC on FOX 9. Lombard’s style guarantees he’ll never be far from a title shot, but despite his wacky theory, he said he doesn’t want to dog St-Pierre.

The stakes of his next appearance might be the only subject where he’s not shooting from the hip. Everything else, it seems, is fair game.

“Up to this point, [St-Pierre] can do whatever he wants,” Lombard said. “He’s done a lot for the sport. There’s no point for me to go and criticize the man. What I do know is that I have to win my next fight and go from there.”

For the latest on UFC Fight Night 33, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.