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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
While a report from Tatame.com yesterday said the former WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo Filho would be facing Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard on a May 20th Bellator Fighting Championships event, a report from MMAJunkie.com this morning reveals the bout is not a certainty.
Per the MMAJunkie report, Filho is simply one of the fighters on a "short list" of potential opponents for Lombard. In addition, while the Tatame report stated the fight would be a Title bout, whomever is picked to face Lombard during Bellator's second season will fight him in a non-Title affair.
The new report doesn't name any other possible opponents for Lombard, though it does say the organization is specifically targeting Filho "because of his notoriety and longtime top-10 ranking."
All of Bellator's season one tournament winners, now the Champions of their respective divisions, will be in non-Title "Super Fights" during the second season. All of them will then defend their belts against the season two tournament winners during the organization's third season, which begins airing in May.
Penick's Analysis: I hope that a) Filho gets the nod and b) Filho shows up for their fight. His drug problems as well as his battle with depression led to much of the publicized issues he's dealt with over the last year, and if he is clean and ready to go against Lombard it would make for a great bout for Bellator. Hopefully they can get it put together.
RELATED STORY: For the original report with Penick's initial fight analysis click here.
FYI: Hector Lombard competed in Judo at the 2000 Olympic Games. He finished 5th at the Sydney-hosted Summer Games.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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