Bobby Lashley Wins MMA Fight & Title

Bobby Lashley was victorious at Shark Fights 21 with a first-round submission on Karl Knothe in the main event, and Lashley told MMAJunkie.com about working with Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett and how he dealt with the various opponents backing out on him. Here are some highlights of their conversation…

Barnett on working with Lashley: “He’s a lot more efficient in the ring versus his earlier fights with a lot of wasted energy and effort. His strikes were conservative but hit the mark. His takedowns are always on point. He listens incredibly well, and he showed a lot of coach-ability. He went out there and executed exactly what we trained to do.”

Lashley on scoring the submission victory: “It was exactly what we working on, from the transition to getting into it. Step by step we went over that same series, like, maybe hundreds of times.”

Lashley on dealing with opponents constantly backing out: “I had to go through a couple of mental drains there to get back into training and figuring everything out. It’s time to keep training and keep going. When you go through a fight, you can have a game plan, and the game plan switches up while you’re in there. Same thing when people are pulling out because they get hurt. I just had to shake it off.”

An Absolute Shocker Backstage At Tonight’s UFC On Fox >>