Following UFC 149, Hector Lombard Has A Score To Settle With Mark Munoz

CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA – Hector Lombard may have a co-main event bout with Tim Boetsch this Saturday night at UFC 149, but that hasn’t stopped him from setting his eyes on another middleweight on the UFC roster.

That middleweight? Mark Munoz.

At the UFC 149 open workouts Wednesday in Calgary, Lombard told FightCove.com that following his fight against Boetsch on Saturday night, he plans on calling out Munoz.

“I’m focused on this fight (against Tim Boetsch), Saturday night I’m focused on the fight, then after that I’m going to call out Mark Munoz.” Lombard said. “That’s my goal.”

“I’m going to make a statement no matter what, but after that I’m going to beat up Mark Munoz.” He said. “He has been talking a lot of trash about me, and I’m one of those fighters I don’t like to talk about any fighter, I focus on myself. When I see people that do the wrong things, I have to do something about it.”

The “wrong things” Lombard is referring to is when Munoz said, in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, that the former Bellator champion has “been fighting cans… As far as I’m concerned he was recycling”, a shot at the level of competition Lombard has been facing so far in his career.

Although Lombard would be considered for a title shot with a win against Boetsch at UFC 149, the Cuban middleweight wants to fight Munoz badly, even if it means passing up a shot at the title.

“I 100 percent (want Mark Munoz before fighting Anderson Silva).” Lombard said.

Munoz recently lost to fellow top contender Chris Weidman at UFC on FUEL TV 4. The loss slid “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” down the rankings, below where Lombard would be with a win on Saturday night. Even with that in mind, Lombard has no concern about potentially facing an opponent below him in the pecking order.

“It won’t be a step backwards because I want to beat him up bad.”

Although Lombard seemed to have his mind on Munoz, he says he will not be overlooking Boetsch come UFC 149.

“Saturday night will prove who’s best. There’s no point in standing here saying, ‘I’m going to do this to him, I’m going to do that to him.’”

“When I look across the cage, I don’t want to shake hands, I want to fight. No shaking hands, we’re fighting.”

This article was written by Mike Bohn, founder and lead writer of FightCove.com. You can follow Mike on Twitter at @FightCoveMike. Also, be sure to follow @FightCove on Twitter and “Like” Fight Cove on Facebook.