TNA World Heavyweight Champion
Bobby Lashley is returning to the cage!
Bobby Lashley, one-time
WWE superstar and current TNA World Heavyweight Champion (where he wrestles under just his last name, Lashley), has signed on with
Bellator MMA, now headed by Lashley’s old Strikeforce boss Scott Coker, and will make his promotional debut this September 5th Connecticut.
Once linked to the WSOF, Lashley never appeared for that organization, and fought most recently in independent promotions XFN (winning their heavyweight title) and GWC. Lashley is also a Shark Fights champion. Since joining TNA Wrestling on Spike, speculation has been rampant that Lashley would also join Bellator and work under both promotions, just as fellow fighters
King Mo and Rampage Jackson have done (though neither have been used much at all by TNA).
Though his career in MMA has failed to reach the level of success that
Brock Lesnar had in being a cross-over star, Lashley has a respectable 10-2 professional record in MMA, including early career wins over
Wes Sims and
Bob Sapp. After losing to
James Thompson (also fighting in Bellator these days) at SFL 3, Lashley won all three of his subsequent fights, all of which went down in 2013.
While the focus then shifted back to pro wrestling, it seems that MMA was never far from the fighter's mind. In a relatively shallow Bellator MMA heavyweight division, Lashley has a chance to be a real crossover star.
