WWE star turned MMA prospect Bobby Lashley is reportedly in talks with Strikeforce to be a part of their upcoming November 7 CBS televised event. Lashley still has two fights left on his contract with Prize Fight Promotions, and was rumored to have a November match-up with Ron Waterman with the promotion. However, MMAFanhouse says they have reason to believe he will be making his Strikeforce debut on the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers headlined event, though no deal has been signed.
Lashley was last in action defeating Bobb Sapp via TKO June 27 in the headlining fight of Prize Fight Promotion’s “Ultimate Chaos” event, continuing his four fight undefeated career. Lashley had previously defeated Mike Cook at a May MFC event, as well as Jason Guida in March for Square Ring Promotions.
If Lashley were to sign with Strikeforce for the November 7th event, there has not yet been word of who his opponent may be. It is also still unclear if the Strikeforce deal, should it work out, would mean that Lashley would not be involved in a November event for Prize Fight Promotions.
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And well they should.
CLEARLY the UFC is stocking up on HWs, and if the Strikeforce Alliance wants an actual HW division, and not just Overeem, Fedor, and the guys they spar against, they’ll need to make sharp moves like acquiring Lashley.
Unfortunately for them, as soon as Lashley pops up on the MMA radar, Dana White will push the Mr Burns button, release the hounds, and Lashley will be fighting Heath Herring by year’s end in the not-so-white Octagon…
:D Good one dude
I for one think that Mr Lashley would have run through all of these guys we have seen so far on TUF 10. Infact I believe he probably could have won the show. Nothing wrong with Strikeforce going out and grabbing a young up and comer with tons of potential.
I am truly starting to look at guys like Lesnar and Lashley a lot differently now after seeing them in action and seeing the inexperience and lack of fundamentals and stamina in a lot of these TUF 10 athletes. Let’s face it, neither Brock or Bobby can be considered anything but rookies with a few pro MMA fights under their belts, yet they seem to be on a whole other level in terms of skill and potential.
My boy jcohl said it best, as soon as Lashley gets good enough for some “UFC Style” competition Dana White will go ‘George Steinbrener-NY Yankees Manager” and take Lashley away from Strikeforce.
Apparently the main reason for Lashley not being on TUF was his “appearance” fee was $100K….and Dana said he was not paying an appearance fee.
you just made that up right now. don’t put false sources on the site dude.
Lashley got paid 50k (disclosed) to fight at March Badness, so I doubt it was that high, but I do know that he and his managers considered TUF 10, but decided it wasn’t “right” for him. So instead he went and got some bread of the scripted variety.
I was kinda hoping Lashley would have been on TUF, and I agree he would walk through all of them. I’m just surprised no big MMA brands tried to pick him up sooner. The guy’s background is in wrestling (not pro wreslting) in both college and the army; Couture showed us what an army athlete can accomplish.
His marketablity potential is huge, and as jcohl pointed out, the UFC will pick him up after his first impressive win.
Lashley hasn’t been nearly as impressive as Lesnar, heck he nearly got submitted by Jason Guida. He is getting treated like a normal heavyweight might.
A couple reasons IMO why Lashley hasn’t been as impressive as Lesnar in MMA:
1) While Lashley is a former NAIA and Armed Forces champion, Lesnar is a former NCAA Div. 1 champion. No disrespect to small colleges or our amazing Armed Forces, but there is a big difference between levels of ability and competition there.
2) Lesnar has basically waved off pro wrestling, and has by all accounts devoted himself to MMA training with Greg Nelson and Erik Paulson fulltime, while Lashley is splitting time between fictional wrestling and MMA training with ATT.
3) Lashley’s body type is more for show than for go, so he’s probably semi-limited in what he can accomplish in the cage at this point, as opposed to the pro wrestling ring.
I’ve been told that pro wrestlers are 50% bodybuilder, and all that muscle mass must make rolling jitz and flexability drills a b!tch.
4) Lashley’s woman is far hotter than Lesnar’s, so y’know, there’s a distraction and cardio drain happening there.
;)
5) Personality.
It takes the soul of an wild animal to advance as far and as fast as Lesnar has, and from everything I’ve read Lashley is not only an intelligent, well-mannered sportsman and military veteran, but he’s an entrepenuer with all sorts of business concerns and speaking engagements across the country, while Lesnar lives like an isolationist out in the woods and interacts with humanity only for food, sex, and MMA.
Makes sense why Lesnar and Lashley are where they are in their respective MMA careers when you think about it…
Who is Lashley’s lady?
Bobby Lashley [according to my partner who is majorly into pro wrestling] is dating Kristal Marshall, some laser-hot model and former WWE performer who was a Deal or No Deal model, and a Miss California runner-up.
Not bad. Looks younger than Mrs. Lesnar, at least.
roy nelson can beat him up. KO 1st round.
I honestly don’t see Bobby Lashley making as big of an impact in MMA as Brock Lesnar. Although Lashley’s athleticsm is impressive and the dude is undefeated with a really good wrestling base, i think he is rather small for a Heavyweight and his stand-up is lacking to say the leat which IMO is a must have at Heavyweight being that most Heavyweights carry one punch ko power. I know the dude is still progressing but IMO he needs a steup up in competition and challenge himself a bit more which in all fairness he is trying to do and with new and better competition, he’ll have more experience and will grow more as a fighter. He has talent and drive, but the clock is ticking.
lASHLEY IS SMALL????????? Please explain Marvel.
for a Heavyweight he is small, Lashley wouldn’t stand a chance against Brcok or someone like Frank Mir
I don’t know who this Brcok character is but he sounds like he is from Polndad :-)
fr702, :D you know i mean Brock Lesnar dude, funny though
Rather small for heavyweight????
He’s 6ft1 and 251 pounds!!!!
How can you say that is small for a heavyweight? Not to mention he doesn’t have an ounce of fat on him, incredible athleticism and a wrestling background.
251???? SMALL!!!! lol.
I’m thinking Lashley would look small if and when he steps in with men like Carwin or Lesnar.
Also, Lashley would probably be average sized in the TUF house this season.
I mean, honestly, have you seen some of these guys?
They look like orcs from the Lord of the Rings movies…
Lashley smaller than Mir?
You couldn’t be more wrong. He weighed 255 against Sapp and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him.
He should step up in competition?
The dudes been in MMA for a year and his striking isn’t anywhere near where he needs it to be.
Fights like the one he had scheduled with Ron Waterman are perfect for him now.
Ya judging by the pic above lashley looks pretty tiny, I think he needs to bulk up. I guess that make gonzaga,Dos santos,mir,Nog,herringand just about 90% of the UFC’s HW realy petite.
I think Lashley would beat Nelson though. Lashley has decen power and a way better ground game than Kimbo. I think it would be Lashley not Nelson who would control the fight on the ground ans score a tko victory.
Lashely can step up the competition by taking on Hershel Walker. After all that dude can walk through everybody on TUF 10. :)
I have a question for the collective in general, and out resident Strikeforce Alliance expert fr702 in particular, regarding Bobby Lashley.
Does anyone know definitively if Strikeforce [Scott Coker] is willing to allow Lashley to continue his “side job” as a professional wrestler for the TNA company on SpikeTV?
One of my business partners is a hardcore pro wrestling addict, and he tells me that TNA is building some sort of storyline, I’m not sure that’s even the correct word in their industry, around Bobby Lashley and his “pursuit” of the TNA pro wrestling “championship”.
I’ve been told that the awarding of such championships are based more on TV and PPV drawing power than on any sort of actual wrestling ability, and by all accounts Bobby Lashley is a big draw for TNA, which is a fraction of the size of Vince McMahon’s outfit and can use all the help it can get in the ratings, pulling something like a 1.9
One “legit” aspect of pro wrestling is the signing of contracts, which I understand Lashley has done with the woman that runs TNA.
She must be somewhat aware of the Strikeforce situation, because while I was doing some work at my desk, my partner was watching this TNA on the TV, and Lashley was there doing some sort of “interview” in his squeaky little kid voice, and wearing a bright red ATT shirt.
And the commentator actually made reference to Lashley being an MMA fighter on the air.
I would be much obliged if anyone [fr702, this means you] has anything concrete on how Lashley would put these seemingly mismatched ducks of pro wrestling and pro MMA in a row, contractually.
I am surprised Lashley didnt make it onto TUF 10. Must be because of his obligations with wrestling. Seems like he would have been a perfect fit for this season.
Good points jcohl. That’s something to think a/b. It’s always business first & most of the time that unfortunately spoils the pot. I’m very interested Lashley cause I see the potential in him. It was a little sloppy with Sapp but he was still impressive just b/c of the weight advantage Sapp had. The dude got heart & after Brock got the belt I read in sevral interviews Lashley showing respect & giving Lesnar nothing but praise..he would’ve pressed Nelson off of him…LOL
It is interesting how people hate on Nelson so much. For that reason alone it is a near guarantee he will appear in the UFC in the future. People hate him, that’s an immediate draw.
Also he has a lot of skills and is the only fighter in the UFC that can pull off a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Cheeseburger submission.
This page isn’t about Nelson. I’ll assume you commented the wrong page by accident.
We here at MMAFrenzy don’t allow commentators to make unsubstantiated claims about fighters, particularly when it comes to accusing them of steroid abuse, and even more so the way it was done in this comment. Keep that in mind the next time you post. -Justin
Out of the 4 comments you have made under this username, you have accused Lashley of “juicing” as you put it in 3 of them That IS fighter bashing so please take this as a WARNING, I understand that you might not like Lashley but quit bashing him, or attempting to troll or whatever you’re attempting to do, either way stop it
FR702