The epidemy of strength, speed, and entertainment–these two always delivered. However, Lashley’s foray into his new world, in mixed martial arts, has not gone quite as swimmingly.

Since his inception into MMA, which started on the regional circuit, garnering notable victories over the likes of journeyman Jason Guida (that’s right, the former “The Ultimate Fighter” season 8 hopeful and brother to lightweight fighter Clay Guida) and former K-1 star Bob Sapp.

A 4-fight unbeaten streak helped set him up in the big show of Strikeforce, where on his third fight in the promotion, he lost via TKO against the unheralded Chad Griggs.

Now in need of a gimmick to get Bobby back into the limelight, why wouldn’t this be the best time to bring in “The Animal” to lock horns with “The Dominator”–at least, that’s what Scott Coker thinks.

While a guest on “The MMA Hour” with journalist Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com, Coker discussed his desire to bring “Batista” into the show, and why he thinks a match up between him and Lashley would make sense.

“I know there’s ongoing dialogue between (Strikeforce matchmaker) Rich [Chou] and Bautista, and they are trying to come to an agreement of the minds, but right now Bautista has a couple of movie offers and it’s just tying up his time. Let’s see where it goes from there,” Coker said.

“I think that fight should happen. If we sign Bautista, why not make that fight?”

Don’t be confused or upset–Bautista is how his name is really pronounced. I know. I checked. On the internet. And yes, I was just as disappointed as you all must be.

While the former WWE star in “Batista” holds no professional mixed martial arts bouts under his belt, Coker feels like the time to make his inception into Strikeforce, let alone against Bobby Lashley, would be now, considering the set back that Lashley took against an opponent that was not of the “elite” level that Bobby had been hoping to make a push for, towards the top.

“The thing with Bobby is, he’s a great athlete, he wants to be an MMA fighter, I mean, he is an MMA fighter, don’t get me wrong, but he wants to be at that elite level where he can fight the top guys in the world. But after Chad, he’s going to probably have to take, not a step back, but I would recommend to him to go to Challengers, fight three or four fights, and work your way back up.”

So, MMA peeps, what do you think of this match up, should it come to fruition? Is this just a pipe dream, or somebody smoking a pipe and having a “dream”? Sound off in the comment section below.

 There is no denying that Lashley is an athlete. He is a two-time National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) wrestling champion. He wrestled in the Army and was training to compete in the Olympics in 2003 before being injured. After the injury Bobby went to professional wrestling where he would later become a “world champion” He has natural athletic ability but his wrestling credits are not on par with the likes of another pro wrestler turned MMA fighter, Fighters.com’s second ranked heavyweight and UFC champion Brock Lesnar (4-1). Brock’s success inside the Octagon have come from his massive size advantage accompanied by his elite wrestling abilities. It is tough to compare a NAIA champion to a NCAA National champion but most would agree that the better wrestler would be the NCAA champion. Brock is not someone we can compare Lashley to despite the parallels in their careers. Bobby is not Brock and will not see the success Brock has seen thus far in MMA.

I do like the fact that Bobby is taking things slow and not trying to rush into the largest fights right away. He wants to try and develop his skills the right way however his ability to grasp the finer points of the sport at 33 years of age with minimal training is something that will hamper his future. I have seen all four of his fights and have not seen the progression in his game that I expected to see training with a team like American Top Team.

His last fight against “The Beast” Bob Sapp (10-5-1) was evident of his lack of progression. He talked about showing off his hands in the fight but I think we all knew better. He went in for the shot right away and took Sapp to the spot he did not want to be, on his back. Once there Lashley worked some ground and pound but what stood at to me was that he stayed in Sapps’ half guard. I like half guard for some good ground and pound but passing and going to side control gives you so many more options to finish a fight. Bobby has the hips of a wrestler and can control people with them so I was shocked he never attempted a pass. It leads me to believe that his ground game is not evolving as quick as it needs. Most wrestlers seem to do well from the top and have very little trouble transitioning from dominant position to dominant position.

There are a couple other issues with his development that I have noticed. First would be his inability to take down an opponent like Jason Guida (18-22). Guida is a journeyman fighter that has fought in the WEC, EliteXC, World Victory Road and on The Ultimate Fighter. His submission game is good but I have never been impressed with is take down defense. When this fight started Lashley went for the take down and had it stuffed by Guida. He tried multiple take downs which were unsuccessful. If these were take downs against an accomplished wrestler then I could give him some leeway but I feel he should have been able to get Guida to the ground much quicker. If he continues to have issues taking fighters to the ground then he will need to bring his stand up game along much faster than what we have seen thus far.

Next would be the striking game we have seen from Lashley. His stand up is quite wild and he throws very wide, looping punches. He has only had four fights but I thought we would see little bits of improvement from him from his first fight to his last against Sapp. This however was not the case and this is a major problem considering the aforementioned issue with getting take downs. I will give him credit for some head movement even though it waqs minimal and seemed to fade as his fight went into the second and third rounds. It is tough to get a true indication of his striking game since the fight with Sapp went to the mat right away so his next fight I will be watching closely to see if he is picking up this aspect of the sport. Striking has been a tough aspect for wrestlers to incorporate into their arsenal but as of late we have seen wrestlers make huge strides in that department.

Can Lashley improve fast enough to be a viable star for Strikeforce is the big question. I don’t feel his athleticism is enough to carry him forward and I feel his game must evolve faster than we have seen in order for Strikeforce to be able to market him as a star in the making. Sadly, due to the fact that we have seen very little in the way of improvement from him against sub par fighters, there is nothing that leads me to believe Bobby Lashley will be able to reach the upper echelons of the heavyweight division in Strikeforce.

I could be wrong and if you feel that I am then feel free to join me and New York Gary Freidman on MMA Gospel Radio every Wednesday from 8-10 PM EST at www.blogtalkradio.com/mmagospel. You can register with Blog Talk and join us in the Cageside Chatroom to discuss this and all the other topics we discuss on air. You can also call in to the show and talk to us directly by dialing 347-857-1337.

The “W” was Herman’s third under the ProElite umbrella, a promotion whose heavyweight division has been stung recently with champion “Big Foot” Antonio Silva‘s (11-1) positive test for banned substances and poster boy “Kimbo Slice” Kevin Ferguson‘s (3-1) 14-second KO loss.

The victory came by a combination of knees with Schall in Herman’s Thai clinch and punches once Schall dropped.

After his brief TUF 8 appearance, light heavyweight Jason Guida (17-18) was overwhelmed by “Cannibal” Mamed Khalidov (15-3-1) by second-round TKO at 4:53.

King of the Cage Welterweight Champion Anthony Lapsley (14-3) won a majority decision over Mike Stumpf (10-2) by judges’ scores of 30-27 twice and 29-29.

Middleweight Alexander Shlemenko (22-3) TKO’d “Bubba” Robert McDaniel (11-5) with a knee to McDaniel’s chest the rendered McDaniel unable to answer the second-round bell.

Lightweight Lyle Beerbohm (8-0) opened up a blood-gushing split in Rafaello Oliveira’s (5-1) head with an elbow from the top position, causing the doctor to stop the fight between the first and second round.

Matt Jaggers (8-4) won a UD over Orville Smith (8-1) by judges’ scores of 30-27 twice and 30-26.

“Spider” Jared McMahon (9-0-1) tapped Jacob Hey (4-2) in a rear naked choke at 3:11 of round one.

Jeff Cox (1-2) tapped Jay Ellis (9-25) in a guillotine choke at 0:28 of round one.

Tiawon Howard (6-2) tapped Johnny Hughes (2-5) in a rear naked choke at 3:42 of round one.

Josh Barnes (2-0) TKO’d Jeremy Norton (7-3) at 2:22 of round one.

Deray Davis (3-0-1) tapped John Kuner (0-1) in an armbar at 3:53 of round two.

Joe Duarte (3-0), who was submitted via rear naked choke by Phillipe Nover (5-0-1) in round two, told Fighters.com, “I just cut much weight too rapidly. I thought I could make it easy but it didn’t turn out that way.  I was real slow and sluggish during the fight.  I will come back stronger next time….”

“Next time” will be 26 September at the Alberta-based Colloseo Championship Fighting in Edmonton, against MFC veteran Ryan Heck (5-2).

Heck was TKO’d in the first round at his last fight by Ryan Machan (5-2) in July.

“Big Deal” Ryan Jimmo (6-1), who was eliminated when he lost a majority decision to Antwain Britt (4-1), will headline XFights: Ontario vs Maritimes 4 October in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Jimmo, a Saint John, NB, native who now trains in Halifax, will face Toronto’s “Lethal” Jason Cecil (3-5).

Cecil is coming off two losses, most recently being TKO’d at 1:55 of round one by Martin Desilets (8-2) earlier this month at Xtreme MMA 5.

Jason Guida (17-17), who was eliminated from competition after missing weight by one pound, has signed with EliteXC and will fight at the promotion’s ShoXC event 10 October in Hammond, IN, not far from Chicago.

Guida will face “Cannibal” Mamed Khalidov of Poland, who will be making his U.S. debut.

Khalidov ended an eleven-fight win streak earlier in September with a draw versus Daniel Tabera (11-1-3).

Brandon Garner (4-1), whose lightweight bout versus Brian McLaughlin (0-0) was ruled a No Contest after he landed an illegal knee, was nevertheless booted from the competition.

Garner confirmed to Fighters.com that he will fight on 11 October at the Carolina Fight Promotion’s Carolina Crown event, against Wisconsin’s Seth Marquez (1-2) at a catch weight of 140 pounds.

Marquez won his first professional fight in July, submitting Eugene Crisler (7-8) via third-round rear naked choke.

The final sixteen of the original 32 contestants will compete for the remaining eight spots in the house in the episode airing tonight.

UFC President Dana White proclaimed the same thing to this season’s 32 contestants to be coached by Nog’ and Mir for the TUF 8 championship at lightweight and light heavyweight; but, before he could finish his sentence, Phillipe Nover (5-0-1) hit the deck in a fainting spell.

“Fainting Phillipe” White called him; and, Nover had a tough opening challenge versus Joe Duarte (3-0).

“I’m going to have to make him faint again,” Duarte said before the fight.

But, it was Duarte who had to tap in a Nover rear naked choke in the second round to keep from fainting.

Nover opened the first round with a head kick, followed by a body kick.

“He hits like a heavyweight,” Nog’ said.

But, Duarte countered a Nover leg kick with a straight left that dropped Nover. Duarte pounced; and, Nover gave up his back and ate an elbow.  But, Nover actually pounded Duarte while Duarte had his back and attempted a rear naked choke.

In the second round, Nover tripped Duarte into half mount.  Duarte gave up his back; and, Nover slipped in the rear naked choke.

Mike Stewart (1-1) made the field of 32 when Jason Guida (17-17), brother of lightweight “Carpenter” Clay Guida (24-9), couldn’t make the 205-pound weight limit.

As quickly as he stepped-in, he stepped out after a straight left from Krzysztof Soszynski (15-8-1).

“Machete” Fernando Bernstein (0-0) “was more like the butter knife,” said White after Bernstein was quickly tapped out in a rear naked choke by Dave Kaplan (0-0).

“Sugar” Rashad Evans‘s (12-0-1) brother, Lance Evans (2-2), quit with a rib injury after one round versus “Pezao” Vinicius Magalhaes (0-1).

Built like a brickhouse Antwain Britt (3-1) won a light heavyweight spot in the TUF house in a majority decision slugfest versus “Big Deal” Ryan Jimmo (6-1).

Light heavyweight Jules Bruchez (0-0) was very confident after Eric Magee (1-1) in a rear naked choke.

Lightweight Brian McLaughlin (0-0) took it to Brandon Garner (4-1) in the first round before Garner zapped McLaughlin with an illegal knee and the fight was declared a No Contest.

White decided McLaughlin had earned a bed before the fight was stopped without a winner.

This season’s Jeremy May (5-5), Jose Aguilar (0-0), talked a lot before one round with Junie Allen Browning (1-0).

Browning rolled out of two Aguilar ankle locks on the road to an otherwise dominating striking and G’n'P display.

Aguilar quit in his corner, saying “I’m pretty.  That’s all that matters, dog.”

Browning was clearly Mir’s favorite fighter.  He coached Browning through his domination of Aguilar and told Nog’, “Don’t pick him.  He told me he hates Brazilians.”

The difference in personalities between Mir and Nog’ were immediately noticeable.  Mir talked a lot while Nog’ watched and said little.  Nog’ also revealed little about the fighters he’s eyeing for his team while Mir let slip who his early favorites were.

Next week, the final sixteen fighters will fight their way into the remaining eight beds.

The 16 lightweights and 16 light heavyweights will be coached by Fighters.com’s top heavyweight contender and interim UFC Champion “Minotauro” Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1) and former UFC Heavyweight Champ Frank Mir (11-3).

Lightweights

Jose Aguilar (0-0)
Fernando Bernstein (0-0)
Junie Allen Browning (1-0)
Rolando Delgado (0-0)
Joseph Duarte (0-0)
Efrain Escudero (10-0)
Brandon Garner (4-1)
David Kaplan (0-0)
Eric Magee (1-1)
Brian McLaughlin (0-0)
Wesley Murch (3-2)
Shane Nelson (9-3)
Phillipe Nover (5-0-1)
Ido Pariente (8-3)
John Polakowski (2-1)
George Roop (8-3)

Light Heavyweights

Ryan Bader (7-0)
Antwain Britt (3-1)
Jules Bruchez (0-0)
Charles Diaz (3-0)
Lance Evans (2-2)
Karen Grigoryan (6-1)
Jason Guida (17-17)
“Big Deal” Ryan Jimmo (6-1)
Kyle Kingsbury (7-1)
Tom Lawlor (4-1)
Ryan Lopez (4-4)
“Pezao” Vinicius Magalhaes (0-1)
Eliot Marshall (5-1)
Sean O’Connell (0-0)
Shane Primm (1-0)
Krzysztof Soszynski (15-8-1)

Among the international line-up are a Russian - Grigoryan, an Israeli – Pariente, a pair of Canadians – Jimmo and Soszynski, and a Brit – Murch.  The light heavyweight crew is more frequently battle-tested than the lightweights, including two fighters stepping into the house with more than 20 professional fights – Guida and Soszynski.

The action culminates 13 December, when SpikeTV airs the live finale.

After a paced and cautious first round for both fighters, “Bartimus” began working kicks in the second, first a solid body shot, then snapping at Cox’s leg.

During the final flurried exchange, Palaszewski wheeled a wide left hook to Cox’s body, backing Cox into range for the right high kick finisher.

Palaszewski literally lept out of the cage upon the stoppage “W”.

In the main event, Michael Russow (10-1) manhandled late replacement for “Snowman” Jeff Monson (24-8),  Jason Guida (17-16), tapping Clay’s big brother in a standing neck crank against the fence at 2:13 of round one.

“I hope he’s OK,” Russow related after the stoppage.

Hometown hero Rory Markham (14-4) said, “Let’s get serious.  That guy just jumped over me!” after “Silent Assassin” Jay Ellis (5-19) launched a flying knee at the opening bell, indeed, flying right over Markham.  “So, I decided I was going to keep it on the ground.”

Markham pounced on Ellis; but, Ellis swept to Markham’s guard, which Markham climbed into a triangle tapout at 57 seconds of round one.

H.I.T. Squad lightweight Clay French (16-2) pulled rank on “Sergeant” Jameel Massouh in a second round rear naked choke submission at 3:18.

French took Massouh to the mat at will and, when French began posturing out of the rubber guard Massouh originally used to neutralize French’s G’n'P, he bullied Massouh to his stomach and sank the choke.

Middleweight Terry Martin (17-4) took three kicks to the groin before the referee disqualified Daiju Takase (7-12-1).

“The last one hit me right in the cup,” Martin admitted after the fight, “but…damn!”

Takase slammed his mouthpiece to the mat at the second round disqualification.

“Meat Cleaver” Forrest Petz (14-5) survived a first round knockdown by “Mandingo” Brian Gassaway (28-18-2) to win a unanimous decision by 29-28 three times in his first post-UFC fight.

“Mandingo” floored Petz with left in the first, but was unable to finish before the end of the round.

Gassaway was gassed in the second and third rounds and Petz began landing more in the sporadic flurries and dominating the mat with G’n'P.

Team Curran welterweight Mike Stumpf (10-1) TKO’d Dom O’Grady (4-1) at 3:53 of round one.

O’Grady controlled round one with technical kickboxing, keeping Stumpf at distance with a jab and snapping leg kick.

Two minutes into the second round, Stumpf lunged forward in a flurry, dropping O’Grady with a left hook.

O’Grady turtled up beneath Stumpf; but, Stumpf took O’Grady’s back and rolled him over.  O’Grady slickly flipped and twisted into Stumpf’s guard, quickly closing to a leg triangle as O’Grady yanked free.

O’Grady dropped again amidst another flurry from Stumpf.  This time, Stumpf pounced and windmilled punches for the referee stoppage.

Light heavyweight Aaron Rosa (11-2) obliterated “Killing Fields” Ron Fields (24-26-1) with a big right at :34 of round two for a KO victory.

Rosa and Fields had wrestled most of round one; and, but for the cage stopping Fields’s momentum, Fields nearly locked in an armbar on Rosa.

Kentucky boy Joe Jordan (42-12-2) schooled the kid, lightweight Ryan Williams (5-3), for a unanimous decision.

Jordan set-up downstairs with heavy body shots, then climbed to Williams’s head, leaving a welt on the left side of Williams’s face and a cut on the right.

Whether due to the body shots or bright lights, Williams was lethargic and never really got off in the fight.

Featherweight Joe Pearson (26-10-1) dispensed with the stand-up toot sweet after getting tagged with a John Hosman (7-4-1) southpaw overhand right.

Pearson clinched up, tripped Hosman into his guard, and wriggled under Hosman’s G’n'P before catching the less experienced fighter in a leg triangle in the first round.

Light heavyweight Louis Taylor (3-0) was able to bookend a gassed out second round with a first round of counter punching and third round of G’n'P to win a unanimous decision over Adam Maciejewski (6-5) by scores of 29-28 twice and 30-27.

Maciejewski left the first round with cuts under both eyes from Taylor’s quick, if wild, hands.

Taylor wore himself out tagging Maciejewski and took round two off before tripping Maciejewski in round three and piecing together enough looping shots to win the decision.

Fighters.com scored the fight 29-28 for Taylor.

The most damaging strike landed to Hector Urbina(12-4) by David Kleczkowski (5-4) was a first round thumb to the eye.

That just pissed off Urbina, who tagged the herky-jerky Kleczkowski with a jab, left cross, well…you name it.

No one will question Kleczkowski’s granite chin though.

He survived to 1:19 of the second round before the referee ended the beating with Urbina pounding Kleczkowski against the mat.

Heavyweight “Meat Truck” Kerry Schall (21-10) barrelled into center cage to begin his fight with “Herc” Antoine Hayes (7-5), tagging “Herc” with straight rights.

Then, the “Truck” down shifted to Hayes’s pace; and, “Herc” secured a standing North/South, kneeing Schall relentlessly in the second round.

By the third round, Schall was out of gas and Hayes ground’n'pounded to a UD by 29-28 three times.

Welterweight Tom Belt (4-1) mounted and pounded out Marcus Levesseur (5-2) at 4:10 of round one.

Late main event replacement for “Snowman” Jeff Monson (24-8), former middleweight Jason Guida (17-5) weighed-in at 241.5 pounds, and it didn’t look like he found heavyweight girth in the gym (unless “The Gym” is the name of a pizzeria in Little Italy.)

Guida’s opponent, Chicago police officer Michael Russow (9-1) looked svelte at 243.2 pounds.

Middleweights Terry Martin (16-4) and bleached blond Daiju Takase (7-11-1) made their weight class at 185.2 and 185.8 pounds repectively.

IFL veteran Rory Markham‘s (13-4) opponent, Jay Ellis (5-18), will give up nearly twenty pounds to Markham in their 180-pound catch weight match-up.  Markham weighed 180.1 pounds and Ellis weighed 161.6 pounds.

Fighters.com’s third-ranked heavyweight “Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia (24-4) attended with his girlfriend, who didn’t weigh-in but stood about 5’1″ next to 6’7″ Sylvia, and chided “Meat Truck” Kerry Schall (21-9), shouting, “Meat Trick!” as Schall weighed in.

Other weights from Friday:

“Meat Cleaver” Forrest Petz (13-5) 173.4 pounds versus Brian Gassaway (28-17-2) 174.1 pounds.

Tom Belt (3-1) 170.3 pounds versus Marcus Levesser (5-1), who did not weight in.
 
Jeffrey Cox (9-5) 154.4 pounds versus “Bartimus” Bart Palaszewski (28-11) 155.7 pounds.
 
“Sergeant” Jemeel Massouh (16-3) 155.4 pounds versus Clay French (15-2) 155.4 pounds.

“Herc” Antoine Hayes (6-5) 265 pounds vs. “Meat Truck” Kerry Schall (21-9) 258.6 pounds.

Aaron Rosa (10-2) 205.6 pounds versus “Killing Fields” Ron Fields (24-25-1) 204.8 pounds.
 
Hector Urbina (11-4) 185.6 pounds versus David Kleczkowski (5-3) 186.5 pounds.

Dom O’Grady (4-0) 169.8 pounds versus Mike Stumpf (9-1) 173.4 pounds.
 
Joe Jordan (41-12-2) 170.2 pounds versus Ryan Williams (5-2) 170 pounds.
 
Louis Taylor (2-0) 202.2 pounds versus Adam Maciejewski (6-4) 205.6 pounds.
 
Joe Pearson (25-10-1) 134.6 pounds versus John Hosman (7-3-1) 135 pounds.

Guida, older brother of UFC lightweight “Carpenter” Clay Guida (23-9), will fight Michael Russow (9-1) in Chicago.

“Say what you will about Guida, but when you need somebody to jump in on short notice and fight anybody…he’s the guy,” said Adrenaline CEO Monte Cox.

Fighters.com foreshadowed the eventuality of Monson’s injury in a May interview:

Fighters.com: Aren’t the odds pretty high that at least one of these [three] fights [in six weeks] will be canceled?  I mean, even assuming you win them all, the likelihood of sustaining a cut or other injury that doesn’t heal between fights is high, isn’t it?

Monson: If I fight to my potential, I should be alright.  To be honest, the training is harder than the fights; so, if I make it to the fight date OK, I like my chances.

Check Fighters.com Saturday night for live Adrenaline MMA updates from the Sears Center.