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Sound off: Bobby Lashley signs with Strikeforce
By Zach Arnold | December 10, 2009
Press Release
NEW YORK (Dec. 10, 2009)– Former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) heavyweight champion and undefeated mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Bobby Lashley has signed a multi-year agreement with STRIKEFORCE and will make his debut for the world championship MMA promotion at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., on Saturday, January 30.
The 6-foot-3 inch, 250-pound Lashley, also a former collegiate wrestling star for Missouri Valley College and member of The United States Army, will face an opponent that has not yet been determined during the live SHOWTIME® telecast of STRIKEFORCE: Miami, the historic, first-ever STRIKEFORCE event in the state of Florida.
In his last MMA start on June 27, 2009, the 33-year-old pulverized and scored a first round (3:17) TKO over 6-foot-5 inch, 350-plus-pound goliath Bob “The Beast” Sapp with a barrage of punches in Biloxi, Miss. The win upped Lashley’s MMA record to 4-0.
“I’m looking forward to fighting for STRIKEFORCE and challenging myself by taking on some of the top heavyweights in MMA,” said Lashley, a native of Junction City, Kan., and resident of Denver, Colo.
After competing in several matches in both the WWE Raw and SmackDown! shows in 2005 and 2006, Lashley captured the WWE United States Championship by defeating rival “JBL.” During this stint with the league and another in 2007, Lashley wrestled several top superstars, including The Big Show and John Cena.
Lashley made his MMA debut on Dec. 13, 2008, earning a 41-second TKO over Joshua Franklin after Franklin sustained a cut and could not continue.
Earlier this year, Lashley joined Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling. In his first appearance with the league on July 30, he helped tag team partner Mick Foley defeat superstars Kurt Angle and Kevin Nash.
Tickets for STRIKEFORCE: Miami officially go on-sale tomorrow/Friday, Dec. 11, at the BankAtlantic Center ticket office as well as online at www.Ticketmaster.com or by phone at (800) 745-3000.
Doors at BankAtlantic Center open at 7 p.m. The first non-televised, preliminary card fight will begin at 8 p.m.
STRIKEFORCE in March 2009 signed a multi-year agreement to stage live MMA events on premium cable television network SHOWTIME. The promotion made its live, primetime debut on CBS with the “Fedor vs. Rogers” mega-fight that it co-promoted with M-1 Global on Saturday, November 7 and generated 5.46 million viewers for the main event between the world’s number one heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko, and superstar Brett “The Grim” Rogers.
About STRIKEFORCE
STRIKEFORCE (www.strikeforce.com) is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, STRIKEFORCE has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” In May 2008, West Coast
Productions, the parent company of STRIKEFORCE, partnered with Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (SVS&E), an entity created in 2000 to oversee all business operation aspects of the San Jose Sharks and HP Pavilion at San Jose.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Props to Strikeforce for the recent signings. I hope they manage their new acquisitions wisely.
First off if anyone here appreciates that Pro Wrestling is indeed a very athletic event, it’s me. But I literally laughed out loud at the paragraph about how he worked up to fighting JBL, Cena and Big Show. As I that is proof of anything aside from the bookers having a plan for him.
Please tell me Bobby won’t be doing both PW and MMA at once…
He likely will be. Lashley is rather transparent; He fights bad fighters to keep ballooning his undefeated record while he sits and waits for his “money fight”. In this case, his management must be thinking that Strikeforce wants to pair him up with Fedor sooner rather than later. After that, he’ll probably go back to wrestling full time and leave MMA behind or retire from both.
He’s definitely staying with TNA, as they had worked out a deal before this even was announced to promote Strikeforce on-air (which I’m sure will please their good buddies the UFC) so they’ll continue their reputation of promoting other people’s shows better than they promote their own.
Lashley wasn’t very good, but he does have the distinction of being in one of the main events of the biggest selling Wrestlemania of all-time (although that was due to Donald Trump’s involvement.) But he’s definitely not the name Brock Lesnar was, as his WWE stint was even shorter. He also is horrifically bad cutting promos so he’s not bringing that to the table either. I don’t expect much from him once he starts fighting real fighters.