SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
January - 2016
7
It’s Time For Bellator To
Utilize Bobby Lashley
Article By: Jay Anderson
Bobby Lashley has been built
up slowly in Bellator MMA.
And fair enough: in previ-
ous steps up in competition,
such as against Chad Griggs
in Strikeforce, the pro wrestler
certainly had his struggles.
However Lashley got his re-
venge at Bellator 145: Ven-
geance against one of only two
fighters to hold victories over
him, by defeating the last man
to earn a win over him in the
cage, James Thompson. This
bout was a rematch of their
SFL fight from 2012. In the
process he cemented his sta-
tus as one of Bellator’s biggest
stars, earning the best ratings
of the night.
That last statement is crucial:
on a supposedly stacked card,
Bobby Lashley was the biggest
draw — and his was just the
second televised fight of the
night.
Meanwhile, Bellator’s heavy-
weight champion, Vitaly Mina-
kov, is nowhere to be found,
having not defended his title
since April 2014. Or, more ac-
curately, he’s only to be found
in Europe, where he has taken
and won several fights of late,
leading to many, Lashley in-
cluded, to call for him to be
stripped of his title.
You can see where this is go-
ing. Does anyone else smell op-
portunity here?
What happens with Mina-
kov will likely determine who
Lashley meets in the cage
next. Cheick Kongo was just
announced for a fight at Bel-
lator 150 against undefeated
prospect Augusto Sakai, and
should he win, a case could be
made for a Lashley vs. Kongo
showdown for either an inter-
im title, or the real deal should
Bellator opt to strip the Russian
fighter of his championship.
Why Kongo? Lets face it, in
a shallow division, he’s really
the only option. Kongo lost to
Minakov in 2014, and is 5-2
in Bellator overall, but is com-
ing off a win over ex-champi-
on Alexander Volkov, and has
enough name value that him
vs. Lashley should bring in well
over a million viewers. The
other option, name value wise,
would be Kimbo Slice, but he’s
busy settling an old beef with a
guy no one has ever heard of.
If Bellator opts not to go this
route, then someone like
Chase Gormley, or better yet
Justin Wren, the feelgood sto-
ry of 2015, would suffice as a
placeholder fight for Lashley.
However, pushing forty, it feels
like the time is now to give the
two-profession star one last,
big push. Bellator could do far
worse, and frankly has.
