By Bryan Levick 
Bobby Lashely is a genetic freak, that is the term you would hear when he was still wrestling for the WWE.
He is 250lbs. of solid muscle and there aren’t many men in the sport of mixed martial arts who are able to handle his strength, speed and aggression.
Lashley has chosen to build his career his own way, by taking baby steps, one a little bit bigger than the one before it.
His bout with Wes Sims this past Saturday certainly didn’t go far in enhancing his value all that much or showing any progress he may have made.
He took an out of shape fighter down and pummeled him until the referee had seen enough.
Does Lashley have potential to be a good fighter? I certainly believe so, his wrestling background and by wrestling I mean collegiate, provides him with a solid foundation.
Training with American Top Team is also a great way to get your career on the right track. There is an abundance of strong fighters who are formidable in all aspects of mixed martial arts available to show him the ropes.
Lashley has said his goal all along was to get about nine fights under his belt and then become a legitimate contender.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker may be looking to speed that process up just a bit based on comments he made to Michael David Smith of MMA Fighting aka MMA Fanhouse.
Coker mentioned a possible fight between Lashely and the once defeated Brett Rogers.
He might want to re-think that for the time being. Rogers may only have 11 career fights but he has fought two of the top names in the heavyweight division, defeating one of them.
His 22 second destruction of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski earned “The Grim” a shot against Fedor Emelianenko.
While he did lose the bout, Rogers showed he can hang with anyone as he busted Emelianenko’s nose and assaulted the “Last Emperor” with some brutal ground and pound in the first round.
It’s obvious that Lashley holds the edge in the wrestling department but after that Rogers is clearly head and shoulders above him.
Rogers is a bit taller and holds around a 20lb. weight advantage over Lashely.
This is a fight that Lashley should turn down if Coker is crazy enough to offer it to him.
No one wants to see Lashley fighting cans anymore but if the organization truly sees him as a star in the making, maybe their own version of Brock Lesnar, then they need to bring him along slowly.
That is why his next fight should be with Mike Whitehead. Two big-bodied wrestlers, who are big-bodied in completely different ways, getting it on.
The fans would be satisfied in their calls for tougher competition and Lashley would get an opponent who could actually fight back.
Whitehead has a huge edge in experience but that didn’t matter when he fought Muhammed Lawal, but he is a big enough name who could help catapult Lashley into legitimacy.
The only other fighter available is Mike Kyle whose last bout with Strikeforce was against Fabricio Werdum back in August.
He is a veteran of 21 fights and has fought some decent competition including, Krzsztof Soszynski, James Irvin, Justin Eilers and Paul Buentello.
Those are two solid options for Lashley’s next opponent, there is no way he is anywhere near ready for Rogers.
Stephen Quadros mentioned Shane Del Rosario during his post fight interview with Lashley.
To me that makes no sense at this time. Two undefeated prospects should not be fighting one another this early in their careers.
The build up should be slow and it would hurt the organization to see one of them hand the other a loss.
Lashley isn’t young, he will be 34 in July, so they do need to get him up to speed.
We all know that you it would hurt Lashely immensely if he were to be rushed, but on the other hand he needs to fight more frequently.
By this time next year, it will be put up or shut up for Lashley. If he can’t hack it, we all need to know, but he should be given some time to work out the kinks in his armor.
