Lombard Responds to Palhares' Suspension
Mods - Please change title to "Responds". Sorry for the typo.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hwmZup8u3iM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Quote:
Robert (Curtis): It just came out, I think today, Ariel Helwani and other places are reporting that Toquinho failed his drug test when he fought you. He's now going to be retroactively suspended from that time all the way to nine months. What's your response to that?
Hector (Lombard): Well, my response is like he needs to be a better person on the inside. You know? I think that the guy, something really wrong happened to him. You know? He needs to be a better person, inside and out. I say stuff about him, because he made the comment that he was going to break my leg regardless if I would have tapped or not. Which is, you know, I don't know what's wrong with that guy. And now, you know, that happened to him. I mean, he's a cheater. What else can I say?
Robert: With all the things that have happened between you and Toquinho, saying that he's going to break your leg, then making excuses after the fight saying that the only reason that he lost was that he broke his foot, and now being tested for steroids. Have you lost a lot of respect for him as a person?
Hector: Well, I never had respect for him from the beginning anyway. How can I have respect for a guy that intentionally breaks people's legs. I cannot have respect for that guy. You know, I think that he is a shame for the sport. The sport needs to clean up from people like him. I think that he needs to go and fight people in the street or something. This is a professional sport where you need discipline and you need to be a professional. Guys like that are bad for the UFC. They are bad for the sport. Shame on him.
Robert: When you did beat him, obviously in spectacular fashion, now knowing that he was cheating and using performance enhancing drugs, does that make your win even sweeter knowing that he was trying to get an unfair advantage because obviously he feared you?
Hector: Well, you know, it proves that ... I've always been clean and it proves that I've been competing like that without a thing. It proves that I'm an even better fighter. It bothers me like all the comments on the Net. They're always commenting on me, being on roids and stuff like that. I never talk sh-- even one thing. All my training partners and all the people that have been training with me, they know that. I'm muscularly built. You know? You can see since I started fighting MMA, I've was 185. Not the case for all athletes I believe, but since I start my professional career, I've always been 185 and I've always looked the way I do today. You know?
Robert: With Toquinho getting popped and now Joey Beltran along with other fighters, like Alistair Overeem, it really kind of casts a cloud over the sport and everyone assumes that all fighters are cheating. In your experience, you've said you've always been clean, do you see a lot of usage of steroids in the sport or do you really think it's the random person like Toquinho?
Hector: The facts talk. You can see the facts. They speak for themselves. But I don't want to make any comments about it. I'm gonna talk about myself. I've always been clean. I've always been. I've never cycled or any of the stuff they do. I'm constantly fighting, so I have no time to cycle and do all that, all the things that they do. For me, it's a different ball game. Other fighters fight once a year or maybe twice. For me, I like to fight. If I could, I would fight every two months I would be happier. It's not a case with me anyway.
| I'm sure we've all heard the stories about Lombard going heavy on guys in the gym and behaving in a way that could be described as being "outside the spirit of competition", but this makes me question the veracity of those rumours. I've gained a lot of respect for Lombard after this interview. |
