WWE Bobby Lashley trains for MMA
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
The exodus of professional wrestlers to mixed martial arts arena continues. Bobby Lashley is the recent traveler to the well-trodden path, and he is ready to make the transition.
“I’m putting it all together,” Lashley said. “I’m going into this thing not with just overpowering my own style with [wrestling]. I’m actually learning everything else. I’m learning the jiu-jitsu; I’m taking it from the basics. I’m learning my kickboxing, my boxing. I’m getting the whole game tied together. So when I debut, it’s not going to be a wrestler trying to do MMA. It’s going to be a fighter.”
The American Fight League recent signee’s debut fight is not to take place until later this year, and the time will give Lashley ample time to train for another kind of fighting. And the former pro-wrestler is quite enthusiastic when he discloses his training.
“I worked out with AKA (American Kickboxing Academy) for a little while,” he said. “They’ve got a couple of really tough guys out there. More than a couple, they’ve got a handful of really tough guys. … Also Nate Marquardt has a gym up in Denver. I got in there a couple times and worked out with them. There’s a Fight Factory in Colorado Springs. I’m heading over to Greg Jackson’s in Albuquerque. H.I.T. Squad — Matt Hughes is a good friend of mine. I’m going to be heading out there and training with those guys. Big Ron Sparks out here in Louisville. I’m going to be hitting everything, you know? The past year, I’ve been training pretty hard.”
The 31-year-old Lashley full acknowledges the difficulty of making the transition and he plans to make it slowly but steadily at MMA’s upper ranks. Lashley is learning form the experience of another WWE export Brock Lesnar. Lesnar suffered a defeat on his UFC debut bout.
“Not that anybody did anything wrong, but how I look at it — and I don’t want to use the WWE, but WWE does it real well — you don’t just get in the WWE and you go against Cena or Triple H for the championship,” Lashley explained. “Same thing in the UFC. Like Cain Velasquez, he’s not going out there fighting (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira right away. You work your way up.”
Lashley also hopes that the MMA community will not dismiss his abilities.
“Everybody just says ‘Oh, WWE wrestler,’” Lashley said. “Don’t take that fact as everything I did in the past. I have 17 years of wrestling experience — national championships, world titles and everything like that. I’m coming into MMA as a student of the game, and I’m working my way up. Don’t look at it as, ‘OK, this is a WWE guy.’ Scratch all that. Say this is a guy that wants to work his way up in the business.
I’m going to prove myself to everybody, so give me an opportunity. That’s all I hope for, an opportunity.”
It kooks like the American Fight League plans to advocate a different kind of women’s power as it signs in top female talents. The Kentucky-based AFL has recently awarded a contract to Tara LaRosa, and the move is considered to be the harbinger of good news for MMA female fighters.