Herschel Walker is a Fan of Fellow Crossover Athlete Dave Bautista, Predicts "Beastly" Debut

If anyone understands the precarious position former World Wrestling Entertainment star Dave Bautista finds himself in, it’s current Strikeforce star and former football great Herschel Walker. Walker is set to compete in his second professional Mixed Martial Arts bout after debuting in January of this year amidst quite a lot of media coverage and a not-insubstantial amount of hardcore MMA fan backlash. Walker recently took the time to address Bautista, who is looking to make the transition to MMA yet still remains unsigned to any MMA promotion, and had nothing but good things to say. Here are all the details.

In a recent interview with Chad Dukes, Walker said the following (text transcription courtesy of MMA Mania): “I know Dave and one thing that’s great about him (is) he’s doing what I did. He went into a camp, people are talking about him fighting but they’re not talking about (how) he went into a camp… He’s out there training. So he’s going to be a beast. He was a beast as a professional wrestler, so he’s going to be a beast here. The guy is going to be pushing what, 265 pounds? He’s strong as an ox, so yeah, he’s going to be a beast.”

You can’t disagree with Walker, Dave was and perhaps always will be a physical specimen. That’s one of the main reasons he was given his initial “push” in World Wrestling Entertainment. The WWE loves the big brutes, and Bautista certainly looked like he was molded out of granite. If/when Strikeforce and Bautista ever come to an agreement, I have no doubt that Bautista will come into his debut in incredible shape and tipping the scales at 265 pounds.

But, here’s the thing. Bautista has a high probability of being subjected to the “big man’s curse”. Generally speaking, the “big man’s curse” is when you have a huge athlete with a killer body… but he’s only really good at one aspect of the game, and when you take him out of that aspect he can be beaten and beaten decisively. Plus, his cardio is usually quite bad. Modern-day examples include Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, and Todd Duffee.

If Bautista is given the kind of opponent that he can just bully around the cage, of course he’s going to look like a dominant force. We aren’t too far removed from a period of time where it looked like Bobby Lashley would be the next breakout star, after all. But we all know how that worked out. And let’s be perfectly honest: there’s a lot holding back Bautista from being a great Mixed Martial Artist. Whether it’s his age, his inexperience, his cardio, or any other number of reasons, there’s a high probability that Bautista’s career in MMA won’t be a long one.

Yet, despite all that, I remain adamant that Strikeforce should sign Bautista. As I’ve said in the past, the man is only good for a couple of fights, but those few fights stand to make everyone a whole lot of money. The obvious fight to make is Bobby Lashley vs. Dave Bautista, a match that would almost certainly attract a huge amount of crossover pro wrestling fans. So while I won’t be holding out hope that Dave Bautista will be the next Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, I also think we should all realize that the man has a few good and potentially high-drawing fights in him before all is said and done.

And what about you, fans and friends? What do you think of Bautista’s chances inside Strikeforce, and do you agree or disagree with Herschel Walker?