Josh Barnett och Hector Lombard har en omtalad och händelsefylld historia med varandra. Rykten om vad som hänt har florererat länge och inkluderar oftast ord som gymkrig, blodiga mattor och brutna näsor. Hector Lombard gick nyligen ut och gav sin syn på vad som hänt och under gårdagen kände Barnett behovet av att återgälda tjänsten.
I den senaste upplagan av ”The Joe Rogan Experience” går ”The Warmaster” Josh Barnett (33-7) in på djupet av hur han ser på Hector ”Showweather” Lombard (34-4-1-2) och vad som skett emellan dem. ”So, Hector says the reason why we had beef was because he broke my nose the first day of sparring and I hated him ever since then. And that’s not true either. The first day he showed up at the gym we had one of the best days of sparring because he wasn’t trying to murder everybody. We all had a good time, I’m taping him out, taking him down whatever but there is no animosity. At some point I show up late for practice and Hector doesn’t have a partner so I decide to join him. We go light and all of a sudden; boom! He throws the biggest punch he has and tries to knock me out, starts my nose bleeding and I just go wtf and then it’s on for like twenty minutes”.
Lombard har sedan tidigare kritiserats av diverse fighters för att gå för hårt mot mindre erfarna personer i gymmet. Detta är något som Barnett bekräftar och redogör för; ”Then things started getting a little worse. He started beating up on people that are not pros and we would still spar like here and there but I always knew that with Hector, he would always go hard. He made it clear who he was gonna be in the gym, that’s fine. He was a part of the team but we knew that he was unstabile, we knew what to expect. Hector would take liberties with people, something that a lot of people did not like”.
”An amazing athlete, but a headcase”
En kod som många fighters tror på och följer är att vad som händer i gymmet stannar i gymmet. Detta är något som Barnett väljer att avvika från och han fortsätter att ge detaljer kring vad som hänt när de två har sparrats: ”The last time we sparred, I get on top of him and I’m working him over pretty good but I’m not trying to kill the guy, and he freaks out and says that he’s tired and I’m like every day you go hard and try to kill people and the one day you don’t want to go hard you don’t say anything so what did you expect was gonna be. Then he says that I almost beat him to death, I know I didn’t do that. I wasn’t trying to hurt the guy, but apparently he thought he was gonna die or something”.
Barnett passar dock även på att slänga in en och annan komplimang till Lombard som fighter men säger att han inte blivit i närheten av den fighter som han hade potential till att kunna bli. ”He’s an amazing fighter, in fact he’s even a better fighter than he can understand. If his head was right he would be untouchable. He is one of the most gifted, strong, fast athletes, throw aside the fact that he just got popped for steroids. You could give all his peers the same sh-t or different sh-t, it doesn’t matter, they are not gonna move, have the strength and the speed that Hector has. Hector is unreal. Hector should be undefeated, but Hector is a headcase and that is why he will never fully ascend to the top of the throne”.
Konversationen om Lombard börjar cirka efter 43 minuter i klippet nedan
