American mixed martial artist, former collegiate amateur wrestler, and professional wrestler, currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Booby Lashley has been fighting for a very long time.
He has received a couple of prestigious titles and is best known for his performance in WWE. He is a one-time United States Champion and two-time ECW World Champion. He is also the first African-American to hold the ECW World Heavyweight Title as well as the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
But Lashley has been out of the picture for more than four years yet his performance still lingers throughout the league.
According to Lashley "Bellator's heavyweight division is wide open. I think the heavyweight division across the board is wide open. There's a lot of room for people to step up and do something, and I think right now I could be one of those people that step up. That's what I'd like to happen, to really step up and take that position, whether it's holding a title or just beating the top guys."
Now, Lashley feels much more comfortable inside the octagon than before that he is willing to jump back into the fray less just seven weeks later against undefeated Englishman Karl Etherington.
He said "It was more (a feeling of) normalcy. I think my maturity has grown as a fighter. When I went out there I just felt totally relaxed. I wasn't breathing hard, I wasn't doing anything, I just felt relaxed. You don't really know how you're going to feel. It was just a happy surprise to know that I was feeling comfortable and I was ready for it. So I was excited, that's why I jumped right back into it."
While talks of the fight between Lashley and Etherington are scarse, Lasley is more familiar with the latter's sentiments.
He said "They always do. They always underestimate me too, because of my background. At the beginning (of my career), when guys would say stuff like that, it'd always upset me. But now I've just got to understand that, when they get asked a question, they can't just sit there and say, 'oh s**t, I'm scared because Bobby is going to go out there and crush me.' They've got to come with some kind of confidence and just say, 'hey, look, this guy has a lot of hype behind him, I'm going to stop him, I'm going to show people what's up.' I mean, that's just the answer to the question about Bobby 101."
He adds "[Etherington] doesn't believe any of that stuff. He doesn't believe that I'm hype. He knows that I have ability, and if not he wouldn't be training for it. I think he knows he has an opportunity, because the other bums who have a win against me, they rode that as far as they could go, they celebrated, they ran off. They had a win because of whatever circumstances happened, and this guy is the same way. He's thinking, 'if I can get this victory, then things are going to be moving up for me.' So he going to fight a little bit harder, he's going to want it a little bit more, but my job is to make that not happen."
