Hector Lombard jumped out to an early lead at UFC on FX 6, and fellow middleweight Rousimar Palhares never recovered before suffering a first-round TKO loss.

But Palhares’ reps said there’s a reason the fighter quickly faded.

According to a statement sent to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), the submission specialist suffered ligament damage and broken bones in his right foot after throwing an early-fight kick.

Lombard (32-3-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) and Palhares (14-5 MMA, 7-4 UFC) fought in a featured bout at UFC on FX 6. The event’s main card, which took place at Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Queensland, Australia, aired on FX this past Friday in the U.S. (Saturday in Australia due to the time difference).

After trading early low kicks with the former Bellator champion, Palhares shows little additional offense. Lombard scored two knockdowns and ultimately forced a stoppage with punches at the 3:38 mark of the opening round.

“During the fight, my kick was working well,” stated Palhares, who went to the hospital immediately after the fight. “But soon in the first round, one of my kicks hit Lombard’s shin below his knee. I heard a snap, and I knew something bad happened.

“From that moment on, I feeling my foot more and more numb and without strength to walk around the octagon. It was a very complicated situation. I went through something similar in the fight against Jeremy Horn when I broke my hand during the fight.”

A hobbled “Toquinho,” who soon became an easy target for Lombard’s heavy blows, is still unable to return to Brazil and will need another doctor’s consultation, according to his trainer, MMA notable Murilo Bustamante.

“What happened, happened,” Bustamante stated. “He is a great athlete and will overcame to be back up. The entire team of the UFC has done a great good job since the first medical care the arena of the fight. The hospital staff also made all necessary effort getting imaging tests with ‘Toquinho,’ and from then on, we started treatment immediately. His right foot is still very swollen. We still do not have prediction of when he will be able to go back training.”

The 32-year-old Palhares was on a 6-1 run in the UFC, which included a string of heel-hook and kneebar submissions, before his current back-to-back knockout losses to Alan Belcher and Lombard.

For complete coverage of UFC on FX 6, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.