Why Bobby Lashley's WWE-to-MMA path didn't follow Brock Lesnar's

You might not have known this, but Bobby Lashley is fighting this weekend.

He fought earlier this month, too, though you could be forgiven for not knowing that, either.

That’s because, especially for a guy who started off with all the buzz that comes from the pro wrestling-to-MMA transition, the heat of the spotlight has cooled considerably for Lashley in MMA. The man who once looked like he might become the next Brock Lesnar is now fighting on small shows like Saturday night’s Global Warrior Challenge event in Kansas City, Mo., where he’s not even the pay-per-view event’s headliner.

What’s more, he’s small-timing it on purpose. At least he says he is, and he says he has a good reason, even if other people don’t understand it.

“Before when I was fighting, I just felt like I had to go out there and win,” Lashley told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “That was my only focus. Now I’m trying to get the rhythm, get to where I feel comfortable in there. I’m getting that ring time, and that’s what’s really important to me now. Because in practice, I do really well. But in fights I get a lot of pressure on me, and I get nervous. I’m trying to get that out of my system.”

The thing is, Lashley will be 37 years old next month. He’s carrying around an 8-2 record that includes losses to fighters like Chad Griggs and James Thompson, and wins over no one who really matters in the heavyweight division. He spent the better part of the last year caring for his three children – aged 2, 4 and 8 – who he said became his full-time after a recent breakup.

Lashley also owns a gym, does a little pro wrestling when he can, and still tries to field fight offers when he’s not too busy chasing his kids around to get his own training in.

In other words, he chuckled, “I’ve got my hands full, man.”

So then why, when he got a call last week offering him this fight on the “GWC: British Invasion” card against an opponent to be named later, did he accept? Why go nearly a year without fighting, only to turn around and fight twice in one month?

“I just decided, it’s one of those things where I’m not getting any younger,” Lashley said. “If I’m going to fight, I need to fight. I need to stay active. I need to do something big now. If not, I need to hang it up and just do stuff with my gym. I’m fighting this fight, and I think I have two in August that were offered to me. Hopefully if I don’t get hurt, I can stay active and just keep going.”

But here’s where we get into the distinction between the fighters who are staying active just to claw out of a living with a series of paychecks from smaller shows with lesser competition, and the ones who are actually trying to get somewhere.

Lashley, it seems, has been relegated to the former category by many MMA fans. They watched him come up through Strikeforce, waited to see him fight the big names, then largely gave up on him after his hype bubble burst following the loss to Griggs in his sixth professional bout. To hear Lashley tell it now, that hype was part of the problem. It’s what made it impossible for him to find his comfort zone as a fighter, to grow and develop in the cage.

“My first fight was at the American Airlines Arena, headlining a card at 0-0,” Lashley said. “There wasn’t any chance to get comfortable in there. It was just go in there and finish that guy quick. You can’t learn that way.”

And believe it or not, Lashley insisted, learning this sport is actually as important to him as being successful in it. Lesnar might have jumped straight to the big leagues, looking to see how far he could go and how much money he could make with what skills he had, but Lashley has different goals.

“I own a gym, and I want to get to the point where I can actually teach these martial arts to other people,” he said. “I really enjoy learning. I wouldn’t say that what Brock did was bad because he made a lot of money, and that’s important. But I don’t wish I had gone that route. I’m enjoying the route that I’m taking now. It’s a little rockier, but I don’t mind it.”

The tough part is figuring out where this route is taking him. A win over Matt Larson, who sports a 2-2 record as a pro and wasn’t finalized as Lashley’s opponent until Wednesday of this week, obviously won’t propel him into title contention with a major MMA promotion. If anything, there’s far more to lose than gain, which has been the story for most of Lashley’s MMA career.

“Some of these guys will go out and lose a fight, and yeah, they take a little heat, but pretty soon they’re back in the scene,” Lashley said. “They shake it off and they go. For me, when I lost my first fight, it was terrible. I had mono. It was a bad idea for me to take that fight, but I felt obligated, and I went ahead and did it. Losing that fight, I took a huge blow in my career. It was a 180 [degree] turn after losing that fight.”

Then again, maybe that’s not such bad news in the long run. Before that first loss, Lashley said, promoters were eager to capitalize on his name, his unbeaten record, the hype that comes from signing a pro wrestling transplant with a physique like an action figure. And because of that hype, fans wanted to see Lashley fight the big names right away. Patience was in short supply.

“Some guy was saying, ‘You should have taken the fight with [Alistair] Overeem,’” Lashley said. “Well, I got offered a fight with Overeem after, like, my third fight. I got offered a fight with Fedor [Emelianenko] after, like, two fights. I don’t think that would have been a smart move to take those fights. … I have my thing going on, and I’m training and trying to get better, but fans don’t understand that. They just want you to fight. They just want to see this guy fight that guy.”

Losing a couple fights may have dimmed his short-term prospects, Lashley admitted, but that in turn took off a little of the pressure. Now he can take the time to learn and get comfortable in the cage. He’s been in talks with Bellator, he said, and a part of him would love to be a contender in the UFC’s heavyweight division some day. What he doesn’t want is to get there before he’s sure he has the skills and the confidence to stay.

“Hopefully I can show these guys that I can be in one of these major promotions and be a threat there,” Lashley said. “But until I feel that way I’m going to keep taking these fights outside those promotions and keep getting better. If I can do that, I can really rattle some off. If I can feel comfortable in these next few fights, I’d like to do something big.”