{"id":37712,"date":"2025-07-31T20:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/37712\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T20:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:47:10","slug":"ufc-veterans-with-combined-age-of-97-set-to-square-off-in-pillow-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/37712\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC veterans with combined age of 97 set to square off in pillow fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC veterans Cheick Kongo and Hector Lombard never met in the Octagon during their respective peaks.<\/p>\n

The main reason for this was the weight disparity between the pair. <\/p>\n

\"Kongo<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Kongo and Lombard will square off in Pillow Fight Championship on FridayCredit: PFC<\/p>\n

Kongo, now aged 50, spent his entire career at heavyweight, while 47-year-old Lombard campaigned between welterweight and light heavyweight.<\/p>\n

However, both men have finally been brought together to square off in a pillow fight (yes, you read that right) on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The MMA<\/a> icons will make their debuts in the new sport under the Pillow Fight Championship (PFC) promotional banner at Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort, live on ESPN 2.<\/p>\n

“This is the BIG one,” read a post from the PFC, Kongo and Lombard on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\u201cMMA Legends\u00a0@kongo4real\u00a0and\u00a0@hectorlombard\u00a0will face off in a historic \u2018Hush Super Fight\u2019 LIVE during\u00a0@hushblankets\u00a0Presents Pillow Fight Championship this Friday, Aug 1, when ESPN2 becomes ESPN8: The Ocho LIVE at 10 PM EST from\u00a0@disneyparks\u00a0and\u00a0@espn\u00a0Wide World of Sports. DO. NOT. MISS. THIS.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN 2 will become ‘ESPN 8: The Ocho’ for the event in a not-so-subtle nod to the ‘Dodgeball’ movie.<\/p>\n

The ESPN 8 branding, made famous by the 2004 film starring Ben Stiller, is used when ESPN airs obscure sports, and pillow fighting certainly fits that billing.<\/p>\n

What are the rules of pillow fighting?<\/p>\n

PFC ‘fights’ take place over three rounds, each lasting 90 seconds, with a one-minute break between stanzas.<\/p>\n

Matches are scored on a points-based system. <\/p>\n

Strikes must be swung at ‘full force’ to count for points.<\/p>\n

\"Lombard<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Lombard is a former Bellator middleweight championCredit: Getty\"Pillow<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Pillow Fight Championship leads the way when it comes to pillow fighting<\/p>\n

Competitors receive five points for a knockdown, three points for a 360-degree strike to the head and a single point for normal strikes to the head.<\/p>\n

If a winner cannot be determined by the judges, then a 30-second tiebreaker round will commence.<\/p>\n

What did Kongo and Lombard achieve in their MMA careers?<\/p>\n

Lombard and Kongo had mixed success in the UFC<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Kongo compiled an 11-7 record in MMA’s premier promotion, and was always in and around the title picture even though he never got his shot at gold.<\/p>\n

He is perhaps best known for his stunning come-from-behind knockout win over Pat Barry in 2011<\/a>, where he survived two knockdowns to flatten his adversary on wobbly legs.<\/p>\n

Lombard, meanwhile, went 3-8 under the UFC banner following an impressive run in Bellator, where he won the inaugural middleweight crown.<\/p>\n

\"Kongo<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Kongo fought 18 times in the UFCCredit: AFP<\/p>\n

The Cuban has remained active in combat sports deep into his forties and picked up the inaugural BKFC cruiserweight title in 2021.<\/p>\n

Kongo hasn’t competed in any fighting discipline since 2022, when he unsuccessfully challenged for the Bellator heavyweight title against Ryan Bader.<\/p>\n

But that is set to change (kind of) tomorrow night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC veterans Cheick Kongo and Hector Lombard never met in the Octagon during their respective peaks. The main…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,27071,641,7187,638,10325,27072,27073,82,702],"class_list":["post-37712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cheick-kongo","tag-fighting","tag-hector-lombard","tag-mma","tag-mma-news","tag-pillow-fight-championship","tag-pillow-fighting","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}