Bobby Lashley Wants Strikeforce Title Shot in Early-2011
Undefeated heavyweight Bobby Lashley hopes to earn at shot at the Strikeforce title currently held by Alistair Overeem early next year, but the 5-0 former professional wrestler first needs to get past Chad Griggs at “Strikeforce: Houston” on Aug. 21.
During a Monday conference call to promote the Showtime-televised event, Lashley said Griggs should offer a good test, but that his recent training with Cain Velasquez and Daniel Cormier has shown he’s ready for top competition.
“I feel better than I’ve ever felt coming into a fight,” Lashley said. “This is just another one of those tests. I’m coming in bigger, better and faster than I ever have. I’m pretty confident coming into this fight. I think he’s right in line as an opponent for me. I don’t think anyone is thinking I should be fighting Fedor who has 30 wins under his belt. If this fight goes the way I hope it goes I’m going all the way to the top. I know what my abilities are.”
Lashley said he won’t take any time off after the upcoming bout and hopes to return to action quickly with hopes of earning a title shot early next year.
“Hopefully at the first part of next year,” Lashley said. “I don’t know when my next fight will be. That’s up to Scott Coker to decide. I’m not going to take any time off. I like to train and I want to stay conditioned. After this fight I just hope to keep training and get that title shot next year.”
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said Lashley could eventually earn a shot at the title, but just needs to focus on winning for now.
“I always think, ‘What is Bobby going to look like 18 months from now. Or a year from now.’ With his abilities and his size and strength I really think the sky is the limit,” Coke said. “But he has to get through Chad first on the 21st. That has to be the first thing on the top of his mind. We have five of the top heavyweights in the world now. And Bobby fits right into that. The good thing about it is if you keep winning, you will get your shot at a title. Bobby needs to just keep winning.”
The Strikeforce: Houston fight card is headlined by light heavyweight champ Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal vs. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante and also features Tim Kennedy vs. Ronaldo “JAcare” Souza for the vacant middleweight title.
For the latest Strikeforce news and Strikeforce rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
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what ever happened to josh barnett? I know he had a fight in australia but didnt he sign with strikeforce like a year ago?
Here, a site that decries steroid usage, we tend to not much care about the actions of a thrice-caught, washed-up never-was in MMA.
I disagree – in particular – with the “never was” part of your disrespectful blanket judgement of Josh Barnett. I don’t support steroids either but the man was caught and is paying the price by not fighting with any major organization. It is not an excuse but you know some fighters love fighting so much that it is hard for them to accept a premature end to their career from a knee injury and so they are often tempted to speed recovery and rehabilitate themselves faster by taking steroids than give up fighting. They don’t want to give up the lifestyle or step down in competition. Again, not an acceptable excuse but an understandable one. Josh Barnett basically buried his own career but you need not kick a guy when he is down.
dont know if he could get pass Griggs.. evev if he does it would be better to challenge lesser name like Pitbull unless he get cut… hard to believe he survive next teir guys like B Rogers or Silvia.. he built like a freak but he needs more traning
gettin a little big for his old wrestlin boots if u ask me, guess he doesn’t realize that overeem actually has 1 more win than fedor in his career, and both have fought some of the top guys ever (although overeem fought bigger names as a mw/lhw in pride). taking out guys at the end of their less-than-illustrious careers like wes sims and bob sapp doesn’t throw u into the title mix after 5 wins. only a dominant performance against griggs might warrant a fight against someone like rogers or maybe bigfoot if coker wants to bring him along that quickly but he probably needs another win b4 he gets the opportunity to step in against either of those guys.
Bobby “Baby Steps” Lashley may want to work on a jump up in competition, like say maybe Antonio Silva, before he starts talking about facing Alistair Overeem…
maybe even arlovski if he’s still under contract w/strikeforce which i believe he is
yeah he hasnt really beat anyone who stands out, to me at least
Five of the top heavy weights in the world? Really? What is Coker smoking?
Not sure how Scott Coker is getting to the number five.
Most people will spot him 3 top MMA HWs, those being Fedor, Alistair Overeem, and Fabricio Werdum.
Not sure who he’s counting as numbers 4 & 5…
I’m thinking he’s talking about Bigfoot and Rogers, but neither of them are in my top 10.
he needs to win 3 more fights before he is title contention
i think ima rare bobby lashley fan and am actually rooting for him but he isnt going to deserve it by early 2011 he isnt facing top competion if he wants that title shot he is going to have to go after one the bigger names and unfortunatly for him they are tied up for a while
so it looks like its going to b a slow climb
he wants a title shot? put him in front of an actual tough opponent. strikeforce has arlovski, rogers, silva, werdum, fedor, and i believe they signed sylvia (not for sure). throw any of those guys in front of him and see how he does before giving him a shot at overeem. they need to quit giving him nobodies so that he keeps his undefeated record.