James Thompson recently spoke with fullmount.co.uk about facing Bobby Lashley at Super Fight League 3 in Inida. Here are the highlights…
On Facing Lashley: You’re right, Lashley is a bigger test, but that’s what I need. As for his wrestling, I think he matches up very well with me because I have good take down defense. How good? I guess we’ll see on May 6th.
On Lashley’s Issues With Cardio: I think he’s in a difficult situation because if he loses too much weight, he won’t have as much drive and explosiveness. But on the other hand, if he puts on too much weight, he is likely to gas more. So it’s a tricky situation for him.
On Lashley’s Skills: I’m sure he has improved. As you mentioned earlier, he has a strong wrestling base, which is always useful. Plus he’s training with some decent level MMA guys, so I’m sure he’s getting better.
During the post-UFC 145 press conference on Saturday night in Atlanta, UFC president Dana White said that he supports Brock Lesnar returning to WWE.
“When he did the deal with the WWE, all the rumblings started with you guys,” White told reporters. “He never called me. He never told me. He didn’t have to. It was always up front and said in his deal, he could do the WWE.” White added, “I’m happy for him. To do what he did in the WWE, came here and did what he did, now he’s back over there. Good for him; good for them.”
Former WWE star Bobby Lashley noted on Twitter that he met with Bellator MMA VP of Talent Relations Sam Caplan this week and teased that he may be joining the promotion.
During an interview with Steven Muehlhausen of The Fight Club Chicago, boxing analyst Percy Crawford said he spoke to Paul Heyman about Brock Lesnar working with famed boxing trainer Floyd Mayweather, Sr. before Lesnar fought Shane Carwin in July 2010. Crawford says Lesnar rejected the offer.
“I actually offered … his close friend Paul Heyman to hook him [Lesnar] up with Floyd Mayweather, Sr. [and] Heyman said, ‘You know, that’s not a bad idea. Let me talk to Brock and get back with ya’,” Crawford said. “And then it was like, ‘uh, Brock’s kinda comfortable in Minnesota. We’re gonna go with what we have’.”
0Posted by Jeff Peck on April 16, 2012 at 11:01 am
WWE’s website has a new storyline interview up with John Laurinaitis, looking at his decision to bring Brock Lesnar back. Laurinaitis said about his latest acquisition:
“Brock has achieved incredible success on every level. He’s the only athlete to ever win the WWE Championship, the UFC Heavyweight Championship and an NCAA Division I Heavyweight Championship. Quite frankly, I couldn’t imagine a better man than Brock more suited to be the face of WWE. No offense to John Cena, who’s an outstanding athlete in his own right, but he’s no Brock Lesnar.”
During UFC Fight Night live on Fuel TV in Stockholm, Sweden and during the second fight which was John Maguire vs. Damarques Johnson, Maguire wore pink trunks and the announcer said that he wears pink because his idol growing up was Bret “The Hitman” Hart. He won the fight as well by transitioning out of a kimura into an arm bar and locked it in quick. Looks like he might have loved the dungeon.
Last week’s episode of UFC’s Ultimate Fighter series on FX averaged approximately 950,000 viewers, the lowest number in the seven-year history of the show and more than 400,000 less than last month’s network debut. TNA Wrestling executive producer Eric Bischoff gloated over the program’s ratings struggles via Facebook, stating Impact Wrestling draws 500,000 more viewers with a much smaller budget.
“Think we came close to hitting these numbers with a couple episodes of ReAction at 11pm on Spike,” Bischoff said of the record-low Ultimate Fighter rating. “Tons of promotion on Fox and FX, a budget 3x bigger than Impact and 500,000 less viewers? Impact has a larger audience than ever, and is going to have a great season with new elements following Lockdown. Can’t wait!”
Bischoff responded to a critical remark on Twitter saying he shouldn’t knock Ultimate Fighter when he has only come up with “one good idea” in his entire career—the NWO.
“Not knocking friend. Love the show. It is what it is and says more about Impact than anything. Get a grip mark,” Bischoff wrote. “And by the way, our prod. company has produced 9 different series on 8 diff. networks since we have been at TNA. One good idea?”
MMAHeat.com’s Karyn Bryant spoke with UFC veteran Tito Ortiz over in Sweden this weekend. Tito talks about being interested in a WWE career once his current contract with UFC expires.
Years ago, there were often rumors about Ortiz being interested in working for WWE but it never happened.
In the video below, Ortiz talks to Karyn about a potential wWE career after Brock Lesnar recently returned. The WWE comments begin at the 6:00 mark. Tito has also made comments about joining WWE to other media outlets this week.
0Posted by Jeff Peck on April 11, 2012 at 12:21 pm
MMAHeat.com producer Karyn Bryant is in Sweden for the UFC event there this weekend. She interviewed MMA veteran Tito Ortiz earlier and said that during the interview, Ortiz hinted at a career with WWE once his UFC contract is up.
Word at last week’s RAW Supershow was that UFC was not to be mentioned on WWE TV or anywhere else. Something changed between last week and this week’s show as Michael Cole first mentioned UFC on the USA Network before RAW hit the air last night. Cole and Lesnar both mentioned UFC by name during last night’s broadcast.
WWE.com’s newly posted bio on Brock Lesnar acknowledges his career as a mixed martial artist. However, no mention is made of UFC.
The bio reads: “Possessing the type of staggering strength and scary intensity usually only seen in Superman villains, the 6-foot-3, 266-pound freak of nature from Minneapolis, Minn., has forced his way to the top of every major combat sport. He won the NCAA Division I collegiate wrestling championship as a senior at the University of Minnesota, the WWE Championship within six months of his debut and the heavyweight title in his fourth professional MMA fight. Plain and simple, the man was built to destroy.”
