It is no secret that Bobby Lashley is a dominant force whether it’s in pro-wrestling or MMA. ‘The All Mighty’ has an impressive MMA record at 15-2 and saw a run in MMA for eight long years. He has bagged huge victories in top-tier promotions such as Strikeforce (later bought by the UFC) and Bellator. In Bellator, he holds an impressive 5-0 record. But, many wondered why he did not move to UFC.
Bobby Lashley did not have proper training camp
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Lashley revealed that despite his success in MMA, he didn’t have a full-fledged training camp. He admitted to being jealous of his recent rival Brock Lesnar for building a gym next to his house and roping in people to train him.
While he did have a relationship with American Top Team and Dan Lambert, Lashley admitted that he originally came into MMA with the intention of fighting once:
“I think because when I came into it, I came into it with the wrong mind frame,’ Lashley said. ‘When I originally came into fighting, I came into it saying I want to do one fight. Then I won one fight, then another fight, and then another fight, and then all these things started getting thrown at me.”
Bobby Lashley outlines why he did not join UFC
The WWE Champion also said that while he had training partners like Josh Barnett, he had to fly in and out to see his children and he was a single father at the time. He further stated that when any fighter is moving up in levels in their MMA career, they need a decisive plan and a fixed training camp:
‘I was like, if I want to do this thing full time, get in the UFC and make a run or stay with Bellator and run for that title, I’ve got to put it all together and it was challenging. I didn’t find a way that I could do it and I didn’t want to take any time away from my kids, so I was kind of in an awkward situation,’ added Lashley.
Lashley recently won the WWE title at Royal Rumble pay-per-view after defeating Brock Lesnar.
