Former UFC Welterweight Champion Johnny Hendricks, who has had trouble making the 170lbs limit, is set to make his middleweight debut against Hector Lombard.
MMAFighting.com confirmed that the promotion is working on putting the fight together.
Hendricks (17-6 MMA, 12-6 UFC) went 10-1 in his first 11 UFC bouts, before earning a title shot against then UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre. Hendricks went five rounds with GSP, but came out on the wrong end of a very controversial decision. Following the bout, the American faced Robbie Lawler for the vacant title after GSP had decided to take some time off from the sport, and won the bout via decision. “Big Rigg” then had a rematch against Lawler, and lost the title via split decision. He returned with a decision victory over Matt Brown before dropping three successive losses to Stephen Thompson, Kelvin Gastelum and Neil Magny.
Lombard (34-6-1 2NC MMA, 3-4 1NC UFC) made his UFC debut at UFC 149, losing a split decision to Tim Boetsch. He rebounded from the loss with a knockout victory over Rousimar Palhares before coming out on the wrong end of a split decision loss to Yushin Okami. Lombard then put together his first win streak in the UFC, stopping Nate Marquardt before taking a decision over Jake Shields. In his next bout, Lombard faced Josh Burkman, but after originally winning a decision, tested positive for steroids, and the fight was overturned to a No Contest. Since returning from the suspension, the Cuban has been stopped twice in two bouts.
UFC Fight Night 105 takes place live from the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on February 19th, 2017. The card was expected to be headlined by a heavyweight bout between Junior dos Santos and Stefan Struve, but Struve pulled out of the fight with a shoulder injury.
