Rising UFC welterweight Hector Lombard is out of his August 23rd, UFC Fight Night bout with Korean Dong Hyun Kim, replaced by Tyrone Woodley. For Lombard, it de-rails a run at the welterweight title, as a win would have likely propelled him to the upper echelons of the weight class, while Woodley needs the win to redeem himself after failing to win a step up fight against Rory MacDonald. For Kim, it is a different opponent, but he is likely to be a solid underdog at the books against either man.
For Lombard, any delay or postponement of a fight is a bad sign. Though he has looked like a freight train since dropping to welterweight, Lombard is on a short clock as he is 36 years old. The nature of his injury was not revealed, so it is hard to say when he will be back, though expect him to be in a tough fight as soon as the UFC can get him back in the octagon.
Keep an eye out for ‘Stun Gun’ Kim however. We are still looking to find out about Kim, who has a lot of potential. He is 19-2-1 overall, with his lone legitimate loss coming to Carlos Condit when he was at the peak of his rise. The loss to Demian Maiai happened due to an injury less than a minute into the fight. Since then he has gone 4-0, taking out solid mid tier competition in the likes of Paulo Thiago and Erick Silva among others. For a fighter 4-0 in his last 4, the Lombard fight was to be considered a step up fight, and Woodley is as well for Kim. But his chances are much better against Woodley.
Woodley’s game was exposed a bit against MacDonald, and Kim has a diverse arsenal of weapons at his disposal to try to deal with Woodley. He is going to have a reach advantage, and he is known to have confidence in his KO power and his overall aggressiveness could put Woodley on his back foot.
Woodley is returning to the octagon on short turn around time, as his loss to MacDonald was earlier this month. This might seem like the right thing to do for a fighter to try and get back on track, but Woodley could wind up wishing it had not been Kim when all is said and done.
