Bobby Lashley has been noticeably absent from the MMA world of late, pursuing his other career in professional wrestling. That said, Lashley, who has amassed a respectable 15–2 career in MMA, and is on an eight fight win streak, isn’t done with the sport just yet.
Speaking to Fight Network’s John Pollock on The MMA Report this week, Lashley, currently under the Bellator MMA banner, addressed a potential return in December, as well as who he’d like to meet in the cage next.
On his return to the cage, Lashley told the show that “they [Bellator] called me up about possibly fighting in December which is great for me. December, if I fight in December, it’s either got to be someone that’s going to get me to the title, or it’s going to be that title shot.”
“The wrestling side, it’s starting to take off and looking better” he added. “I love wrestling. It’s not like I want to pull away from wrestling. So right now, either give me the title shot, and I can focus my time on getting ready for that title, or… [give me] a fight, and I’m going to continue to do both.”
When it comes to opponents, Lashley has a clear idea of who he wants, and who he doesn’t. And it’s not necessarily the “money fights” but the best fights. In the firm “no” column is Cheick Kongo, who Lashley sees as a boring fight.
“There were times when Kongo tried to pump his guns at me online, and it’s like ‘bro if you want to fight me, I’ll come to your gym, or you come to my gym, and we can just fight and put it on Youtube.'” he said. “But I’m not going to waste my time trying to put that on TV where people are like ‘aww that match-up seems kind of… ugh.’ Because what the match-up is going be is I’m going to take him down, it’s going to be ‘take him down, ground and pound, take him down, ground and pound.’ That entire time, that’s all it’s going to be. I’m not going to do anything stupid, and I don’t think he’s going to do anything stupid. It’s going to be that chess match. It’s boring.”
“I’m not going to start trying to talk trash on Kongo for no reason, just to build the fight” he concluded.
Who does Lashley want?
“I wanted Fedor before, I thought that I was going to get that Fedor fight” Lashley explained. “Everybody wants Fedor in the heavyweight division, you have to. He’s Fedor, ‘The Last Emperor’ and he’s got that mystique. But then after he lost that fight to Mitrione, I don’t know if that helped him or hurt him, I don’t think it helped him, but I don’t know how bad it hurt him.”
“It’s still a big fight and we were speaking yesterday, is this still a fight that I want to do? Absolutely, absolutely. And Fedor, since he lost that one, he’s probably really upset and wanting revenge someone or something. So I’m your guy. If not him then I don’t know. Rampage? That’s interesting. I don’t know who else is out there.”
The hardest thing for Lashley may be scheduling, as any training camp takes away from his pro wrestling career. However, a December return seems very possible, and hopefully, Lashley will finally get a big step up in competition.
