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Lt. Al Giardello

Bobby Lashley makes MMA debut on December 13th...

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Former collegiate wrestling standout and WWE superstar Bobby Lashley (0-0) will make his professional MMA debut for the Mixed Fighting Alliance on Dec. 13 in Miami.

 

Officials from the Florida-based organization recently confirmed Lashley's bout with fellow first-time fighter Joshua Franklin (0-0) with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

 

Lashley will make the appearance while on loan from the American Fight League, who have elected to suspend operations until 2009.

 

Lashley, a two-time NAIA national wrestling champion while at Missouri Valley College, also won two armed-forces titles while serving in the U.S. Army. The 32-year-old signed with the WWE in 2003 and debuted with the organization in 2005. His character won titles in both the WWE and Extreme Championship Wrestling organizations.

 

Lashley signed with the American Fight League in May. The former WWE superstar told MMAjunkie.com then that he was taking his time in preparation for his MMA debut.

 

"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."

 

In addition to Lashley vs. Franklin, "Mixed Fighting Alliance: There Will Be Blood" will be headlined by Jeff Monson (26-8) vs Ricco Rodriguez (34-9). That bout will represent a rematch from "UFC 35: Throwdown." That 2002 fight saw Rodriguez, who was on a nine-fight win streak at the time, victorious with a third-round TKO.

 

I'm going to shed a bit of light on Lashley's jump into MMA for the pro wrestling fans that don't really know...

 

Lashley trains with one of the best training camps in MMA, American Top Team which is based out of Coconut Creek, Florida. From the reports I've heard from people who train there, Lashley is an absolute beast and should have no problem making the jump into MMA. People at ATT are amazed by his athleticism... AFL is bound to go under from what I hear so should Lashley have a few good showings, it will be a matter of time until the UFC signs him.

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I already quit watching wrestling by the time he started so I'm not familiar with him.

 

It will be interesting to see how he does. He certainly looks like he can be an athletic freak like Brock.

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255 sounds big - I saw a picture of him off the roids and he looked about 220, but maybe he's bulked right up again, only naturally this time...

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I already quit watching wrestling by the time he started so I'm not familiar with him.

 

It will be interesting to see how he does. He certainly looks like he can be an athletic freak like Brock.

 

Even in the WWE he was "Black Brock" basically, so the comparison is apropo, like it's been mentioned the ability to take a punch is the main question mark.

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it's been mentioned the ability to take a punch is the main question mark.

 

I just wanted to point out that for those who have been saying that, remember Lashley was a former military man. If he can't take a punch, I'd hate to think of who is still defending this country.

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From PWI:

 

BIG BOBBY LASHLEY-MMA UPDATE

by Matt Rosenthal @

 

Former WWE star and ECW champion Bobby Lashley has just signed and joined American Top Team(ATT), one of the top MMA gyms in the country, and world for that matter.

 

UFC stars such as Thiago Alves, Denis Kang, Thiago Silva and Marcus Aurelio(a locally-based guy - I think he's based out of Hamilton, NJ) are on the squad as well as WEC Featherweight Champion, Mike Brown,

and EliteXC Heavyweight Champion, Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva.

 

This would seem to indicate that Lashley is extremely serious about MMA, and if he dedicates himself, could turn into quite a force in a few years.

 

There are also rumors, related to this, that Lashley has cut down to roughly 205 pounds giving him the potential to fight at Light Heavyweight. Of course, that would ruin Dana White's attempt at 2 Million PPV buys with a 2011 Main Event of Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley (tongue firmly implanted in cheek)! The rumor actually comes from a running joke Lashley has been making in training that by the time he's done training at ATT, they'll have driven him down to 205 lbs. from the workout. He's currently around 250 lbs.

 

Lashley will face his first professional fight on 12/13 in Miami, Florida.

 

If Lashley really is serious about MMA, then he's picked a great place to learn. I hope he does well.

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He was a 177 lbs. collegiate wrestler, so 205 is a more realistic body size for the guy, though it reminds me how ridiculously juiced these guys get in pro-wrestling.

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Honestly, I'm not looking to villify Kang or anything. There's any number of fighters out there who have unreported stories about them that would either reflect negatively on said fighter and/or reinforce preconceived notions about them (IE- Bas). It just makes for funny inside jokes, though never intentionally to the detriment of a guy's career or anything.

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