Hector Lombard Didn’t Want To Make A Mistake Against ‘Strong’ Jake Shields

No. 12-ranked UFC welterweight Hector Lombard had a golden opportunity to announce his presence as a true welterweight title contender against Jake Shields at last Saturday night’s (March 15, 2014) UFC 171 from Dallas, Texas.

And early on, he was well on his way to doing just that.

Nailing Shields with some power shots that undoubtedly had the grappling ace questioning his decision to sign on the dotted line, it appeared Lombard would have his second straight knockout finish in the UFC welterweight division.

But then, Lombard decreased his pace, as he’s been known to do, making the fight slow to a snail’s crawl. A lot of that was probably due to Shield’s uncanny ability to make his foes (and himself) look bad in the cage, but the bottom line is the fight didn’t deliver.

“Lightning” was even dominating most of the grappling with his world-class judo skills, yet he was still noticeably cautious. He may have gassed a bit as well.

After the fight, the former Bellator middleweight champ defended his performance, saying that he took it a bit easier than normal because he didn’t want to make a mistake that Shields capitalized upon. Lombard had high praise for Shields’ sneaky strength:

“When you fight a guy like Jake Shields, you can’t make a mistake, because he is going to capitalize. He’s a very strong individual. He may not look like it, but when you get a hold of him, you can feel the strength. I feel like I was dominating every single area. A lot of people laughed when they scheduled me to fight him. They say, ‘oh, it’s gonna be an easy fight for Jake Shields,’ but it wasn’t.”

I wasn’t among the people who thought it would be an easy win for Shields, and neither was anyone I talked to about the fight, but Lombard must have been reading other opinions. Regardless, he now has his first win streak inside the Octagon, and looks to be a force in the most stacked division in all of mixed martial arts.

But did he do enough to earn a title shot? With so many contenders for Johny Hendricks’ newly minted championship, that’s tough to say. I think Lombard needs at least one more big win to solidify his shot at the belt, and it would help greatly if it was a finish.

Huge fights against Rory MacDonald, American Top Team teammate Tyron Woodley, and even Nick Diaz stand before “Lightning.”

Can he pass those tough tests and earn a long-awaited championship fight?

Photo: Anne-Marie Sorvin for USA TODAY Sports