The sport of mixed martial arts, like many other professional sports, has a general concept of how novice fighters should move through the ranks, gain experience, and take on increasingly better competition on their way to bigger fights and promotions. A fighter’s appeal and entertainment value also come into play as well as their physical attributes and background, but we generally see fighters battle it out in smaller regional promotions against lesser competition in the start of their careers.
Former WWE wrestler turned professional mixed martial artist Bobby Lashley has had somewhat of an accelerated path to the big leagues. His physical size and strength, his background as a two-time NAIA wrestler in college, and his crossover appeal have vaulted him into a position to battle some of the bigger names in MMA’s heavyweight division.
While his last fight was heavily criticized as a “squash” match to allow Lashley to gain exposure as a top up-and-coming athlete in Strikeforce, Lashley is now setting his sights higher… much higher if fans want him to fight better competition. He made his stance known during last week’s edition of Inside MMA on HDNet in which MMAJunkie.com’s poll question revealed that 52% of those polled wanted Lashley to face Brett Rogers next (quotes from Michael David Smith at MMAFighting.com):
“I don’t understand this,” Lashley said. “Brett Rogers isn’t the champ. You’ve got Fedor [Emelianenko] who is considered the best pound-for-pound fighter and you’ve got [Alistair] Overeem who’s the champ. If they want me to go up to that level let’s go all the way up to that level and fight the champ.”
In other words, Lashley recognizes that Rogers is a step up in the quality of opposition, and in Lashley’s view, it’s the wrong-sized step. He either wants to take a baby step or a giant leap, and nothing in between. Lashley knows that Fedor is fighting Fabricio Werdum next, so he’d like to fight for the Strikeforce heavyweight title.
“I want Overeem,” Lashley said. “Either let me fight the way I want to — build up, get a few fights under my belt, work my way up — or let me fight the champ. If it’s fighting the champ I’ll fight the champ.”
The interesting questions revolve around why Lashley’s fans suddenly want hi to springboard his career into an area in which he’s likely not experienced enough to handle. Fedor Emelianenko is the top of the mountain for any heavyweight in the world, yet Lashley wants to take the leap despite his best win coming against Bob Sapp, Jason Guida, or Wes Sims.
I think the simplest answer is that Lashley is looking for a significant pay increase if he has to take on top competition, and battling one of those two is a big increase. Ideally, Lashley doesn’t want to have to do that right now. We’ve heard the stories about Lashley continuing to professional wrestle with TNA while also training for MMA, but he’s recently been released from the wrestling promotion. He’s stated that he’s now focusing solely on MMA, but I have my doubts as to whether that will continue.
Showtime and Strikeforce likely have different plans as well. It’s evident that Lashley is a guy that Strikeforce wants fans to focus on in the future, and they want to gain some viewers due to his crossover appeal — but does Strikeforce want to push him into a bout he isn’t ready for and risk hurting some of the promotional value he already has? Or put an end to any promotional value he’s gaining?
There’s a reason why Brett Rogers is the favorite among voters, and it’s a bit confusing as to why Lashley is against a fight with Rogers. Rogers was a contender to the crown who was surprisingly effective against Fedor, and a dominating win over Rogers could add more fuel to his own argument.
Rogers’ exposure on CBS could also bring Lashley a bit more money to take this fight, but Rogers is also one-dimensional enough to give Lashley an obvious means to an end to the fight. It isn’t a perceived squash match for either competitor, a nice change of pace when we talk about anyone fighting Lashley.
Personally, Rogers vs. Lashley is a decent step up in competition, but I do think it’s a significant increase for Lashley. There are probably some better options, but Rogers is by no means a bad stone to step on if Lashley wins. Lashley’s suggestion to allow him to work his way up is a much more friendly plan for both himself and Strikeforce, and I’m going to bank on the promotion doing exactly that.