Last Friday’s Bellator 130 was the last Friday show for the year and featured a nice title defense finish by Emanuel Newton in his match against Linton Vassell but it also featured as the co-main event Bobby Lashley vs Karl Etherington in what Lashley feels is his last run at a title according his promo video for the fight on the broadcast that aired on Friday.
His promo video before the fight focused on his intentions of gaining a title shot in his weight class but the sentiment of this being his last round of fights in MMA was also there. Being 38 years old, that is usually the time most fighters feel the hands of time slowing their momentum but after his finish over the undefeated Etherington in the first round at Bellator 130, he was confident in saying he feels better and better after every fight. Age aside, he shows no signs of fatigue when he has fought and he has shown a willingness to stand and strike with both Etherington and Josh Burns at Bellator 123 whom he finished in the 2nd round via submission. He really does not show any signs of fatigue and someone with his level of athleticism probably should not let age be much of a concern especially since he trains with American Top Team in preparation for his fights.
Pro wrestlers turned MMA competitors are fairly common in the sport and they do exceptionally well. In Lashley’s company are, Kazushi Sakuraba, Josh Barnett and Ron Waterman of New Japan Pro Wrestling and Brock Lesnar of the WWE. Call it ring experience or just being comfortable in front of a crowd there is something to be said about those coming from sports entertainment wrestling that let them make solid runs in mixed martial arts with some notable wins. When the UFC still did tournaments Kazushi Sakuraba was able to win the Heavyweight title at Ultimate Japan in 1997 and Brock Lesnar was the UFC’s Heavyweight Champion not that long ago. Brock Lesnar was able to win the heavyweight title in the UFC because of his wrestling pedigree he imposed on many of his opponents and Lashley is no stranger to that either. Coming from Ohio Valley Wrestling and winning multiple medals in Freestyle Wrestling he is familiar with the ground game that is a big piece of MMA. Sakuraba and Barnett who now both compete in the Metamoris submission only events are masters of a submission style of wrestling best known as Catch Wrestling. All of them were able to become champions at some point or another by imposing their wrestling on their opponents and Lashley is very capable of doing the same.
With a respectable 12-2 record after his win over Etherington, he stands a good chance of achieving his goal and returning to bigger fanfare at Pro Wrestling events. Lashley has the right ingredients to achieve the same success with good wrestling and keeping an open mind may get him there. We will have to see when Bellator MMA returns next year if taking the Heavyweight title from Vitaly Minakov is in his future.
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