Highlights! Did Lombard Deserve This DQ Loss?

Hector Lombard just lost his tenth straight MMA fight.

Well, technically there’s a couple “No Contests” in that streak, one fight overturned due to a failed drug test and another due to illegal knees. Still, the general point stands: Lombard hasn’t won a cage fight in an awful long time (Jake Shields in March 2014 to be specific).

Moments ago (Fri. Nov. 10, 2023), Lombard ran over former professional boxer Chris Sarro while fighting for Jorge Masvidal’s MMA promotion, Gamebred Fighting Championship. He took down Sarro without much effort, advanced into mount, and then stopped his opponent with a quick flurry of strikes. The whole thing only took about a minute!

Unfortunately for Lombard, referee Fred Griswold declared the stoppage a disqualification loss rather than knockout win. The referee deemed that too many of the shots landed to the back of Sarro’s head. It’s definitely a grey area, so take a closer look at the slow-mo and decide for yourself:

As always, a major thank you to Caposa for the clips.

Lombard has to be kicking himself right now. Sarro clearly has no idea how to defend himself on the floor, and he was ready to tap anyway. A few slightly more accurate shots could’ve scored Lombard his first MMA win in years, but instead, it’s another complicated defeat.

It also doesn’t help that Lombard has a nasty reputation as a gym bully, and fighters have complained about him hitting the back of the head previously. Perhaps he’s better off sticking to bare knuckle boxing at this stage of his career?