Close but, no (Cuban) Cigar

Bellator middleweight champion and the promotions star attraction Hector Lombard almost fought in the biggest mixed martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) back in 2007.

Yes, you read that right.

At UFC 78 Lombard was penciled in to face the once rising phenom and accomplished judo player, Karo Parisyan. The interesting part was the bout was to be contested at welterweight not middleweight where Lombard has dominated for Bellator.

The bout was scratched when the Cuban-born Lombard was unable to secure his visa and passport issues into suffcient time. He is what he had to say in regards of the visa issue:

"I'm not going to get my visa. I only have a Cuban passport, so I've been told it's impossible for me to migrate. I went to the American embassy twice and they said no to me both times."

Bellator head honcho Bjorn Rebney recently said that UFC middlewieght champion Anderson Silva was the ONLY man on the planet able to beat Hector Lombard. The question is, what kind of success would you invision Lombard having at 170 pounds in comparison to his current 185 stature? Do you think the UFC welterweight landscape would look a whole lot different?

For MMAmania's archived blogs on this bout please read here and here