behind the fence NEWS & EVENTS
NO MCDONALD
FOR LOMBARD
Hector Lombard and the UFC wanted
a Lombard vs. MacDonald bout, but
Rory MacDonald was against it.
When Lombard was suspended
from the sport for a year, it forced him
out of a planned bout with Canadian
welterweight MacDonald. When
Lombard’s stint on the sidelines was
up, many — including Lombard and
the UFC, apparently — wanted to
see the bout rescheduled, but not
everyone was so keen.
“I want to fight him, and I think the
UFC wanted to make that fight happen
— he’s the one that doesn’t want it,”
Lombard told MMA Junkie. “He’s the
one who doesn’t want to fight.
“He’s just taking the best options
to get back on track again. He knows
I’m a bad matchup for him, and he
knows I hit hard — I wouldn’t call it
scared; I would call it smart.”
Lombard now finds himself
matched up with Neil Magny
at UFC Fight Night 85 in
Brisbane, Queensland.10 | FIGHT AUSTRALIA fightaustralia.com.au
ROUSEY CLOSE TO THE EDGE
Ronda Rousey has broken down on The
Ellen DeGeneres Show, admitting to having
suicidal thoughts after losing to Holly Holm
at UFC 193.
The former UFC bantamweight
champion opened up about her
devastating loss to Holm that made her
question everything.
“Honestly, my thought in the medical
room, I was sitting in the corner and
was like, ‘What am I anymore if I’m not
this?’” Rousey said. “Literally sitting there
thinking about killing myself. In that exact
second, I’m like, ‘I’m nothing. What do I do
anymore? No one gives a s--- about me
anymore without this.’”
Rousey revealed she was rocked from
almost the first punch and struggled to
regain her senses for the entire fight.
“In that first (exchange) I cut open my
whole mouth and I knocked my teeth
loose,” Rousey said. “I knew she was out
there, but like I really don’t remember
most of it. So I was trying my best to
kinda hide the fact that I wasn’t even
there anymore.”OLD SCHOOL AUSSIE
Legendary UFC veteran Frank Mir feels
that the general public of Australia are
behind the times when it comes to their
opinion of MMA.
Mir recently visited
Australia to promote
his upcoming bout
with Mark Hunt in
Brisbane this March,
and while he thinks we
have some amazing
fans Down Under,
the general pubic still
seemed to have mixed
opinions about the sport.
“I sense there’s still a little
bit of apprehension against MMA,”
Mir told foxsports.com.au. “Like some
of the media and some of the things
I’ve read, I feel like they’re about fiveyears behind where we are in the
States, and Canada and Brazil, as
far as the generalised acceptance.
“In the US, even with those who
aren’t MMA fans, we don’t
have that many people
who are against it and
bringing up that it’s
human cockfighting
and brutes fighting in
a cage. That stigma is
pretty much washed
away now.
“When I came here I
kind of got to see it again
where people were trying to
suggest things like sucker punching,
maybe that has an influence from MMA,
and I’m like, ‘Man, I haven’t heard that
kind of speech for quite a few years.’”