After Bobby Lashley whipped an overmatched Wes Sims at Strikeforce Miami, Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker said he wanted Lashley's next opponent to be Brett Rogers.
So when Lashley appeared on HDNet's Inside MMA and was shown a poll saying that the majority of fans want to see Lashley vs. Rogers next, that should make it a no-brainer, right? If Lashley's boss wants him to fight Rogers next, and Lashley's fans want him to fight Rogers next, he'll fight Rogers next, right? Right?
Wrong.
"I don't understand this," Lashley said. "Brett Rogers isn't the champ. You've got Fedor [Emelianenko] who is considered the best pound-for-pound fighter and you've got [Alistair] Overeem who's the champ. If they want me to go up to that level let's go all the way up to that level and fight the champ."
In other words, Lashley recognizes that Rogers is a step up in the quality of opposition, and in Lashley's view, it's the wrong-sized step. He either wants to take a baby step or a giant leap, and nothing in between. Lashley knows that Fedor is fighting Fabricio Werdum next, so he'd like to fight for the Strikeforce heavyweight title.
"I want Overeem," Lashley said. "Either let me fight the way I want to -- build up, get a few fights under my belt, work my way up -- or let me fight the champ. If it's fighting the champ I'll fight the champ."
I think Rogers would beat Lashley, most likely by first-round knockout, so I can't say I blame Lashley for not wanting to fight him. But for all of Lashley's talk that he's taking MMA seriously, he sure hasn't fought any serious challenges. Lashley seems to want to fight Overeem, and Overeem seems to want to fight nothing but inexperienced MMA fighters until he gets his own shot at Fedor, so maybe Strikeforce just needs to put those two in the cage with each other as soon as possible.
