When Hector Lombard disappointed in his UFC debut, dropping an uninspired decision to Tim Boetsch it appeared that the former Bellator champion might not ever see a fight against longtime middleweight king Anderson Silva. Lombard rebounded from the loss with a vicious disposal of Rousimar Palhares in December and suddenly the Silva fight again became interesting to many fans.

But Lombard told reporters that there's no way the UFC is going to give him Anderson any time soon:

"Let's cut the bullshit, let's be honest, they won't give me Anderson Silva,'' Lombard said. "We have to be realistic and talk about things that might happen.

"I've got to take one fight at a time and one-by-one I can take them out and by the end of the year people are going to say he deserves the title shot.

"I want it to just be my hard work. I want people to say that no one deserves the title more than him.''

With the loss to Boetsch there's not even really any case to be made that Lombard deserves a shot at the champion without proving his point.

But a motivated Lombard remains one of the most dangerous men in the division.