You gotta be kidding me right? It was announced yesterday that former WWE “heavyweight champion,” if you can call them that, Dave Batista was close to a deal with StrikeForce. I really don’t know where to start on this one. For one, StrikeForce has not confirmed anything yet, but I wouldn’t put it past them to sign on this human muscle. The promotion has decided to hang onto Herschel Walker and attempt to bank off his name in order to generate more interest in the promotion. You can criticize Scott Coker all you want for the Walker thing but when you look at it, Walker is first and foremost a high caliber athlete despite his age. So why sign Dave Batista? Will he have success like his fellow former pro wrestlers Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley?
Lets start off as to why even fathom the idea of signing Dave Batista.
The damn freak show can put butts in seats. Plain and simple. Never mind if the guy can fight. Never mind if his body is even healthy enough to make it through a training camp. The guy has hordes of little fan boys that will follow his every move. He will put butts in seats and that is something that StrikeForce needs at a very crucial moment in their combative history. The deal between M-1 global and StrikeForce was a tricky one. The San Jose based promotion is forking out a good amount of cash to have Fedor in their stable, but what people also do not know is with Fedor came a crew of M-1 fighters that as part of the whole M-1 Global co-promotion, StrikeForce is obligated to feature them on fight cards. These M-1 guys have no fan base inside the US and as far as I am concerned is a cash waterfall for Coker and co. The return on investment on these guys is pretty much slim when you compare the money they have to pay them.
So why not think of a quick way to generate a little bit extra cash, get a shit load of publicity, get a big time WWE sponsor and fans boys to tune into CBS to watch Batista make his mma debut. It makes sense.
In a recent interview with Fight Hub TV, Scott Coker commented that StrkeForce was likely not to entertain the idea of singing Kimbo Slice. Signing Batista is pretty much the same thing in signing Kimbo Slice. You know Kimbo Slice can fight so what I don’t get is why pass up on Kimbo for a (0-0) Dave Batista with no amateur experience what so ever? Kimbo is proven to drawn in crowds and fans like the guy. You know for a fact he can stand and bang and he will give you a good show regardless if his glass chin gets in the way.
As far as Batista transitioning into mma proves to come to fruition is soon to be known. But my short but blunt answer on whether he will be successful is….”oh gimme a hell nooo!”
Let me tell you why (this is the long answer…sorta). Unlike Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley, Dave Batista has no prior NCAA collegiate wrestling experience. It has been said that wrestling perhaps it the best base to have for a career in mixed martial arts and Batista does not have the pedigree of two of his better known former colleagues. The guy before becoming a pro wrestler was a lifeguard and bodybuilder. The strength and size developed from years of body building will come in handy but will the knack for spotting a rip curl save him from being taken down. We think not.
Batista is a big dude, close to a very lean 300lbs. With that much muscle your body needs that much more oxygen to be able to sustain itself from fatigue. This guy is going to gas quicker than a Dodge Ram. Want to see a good example of this, look at Bob Sapp. Yea we know good ole Bob would rather make movies than fight but when you get to the size of about 300 plus pounds, it takes a lot of cardio and oxygen to not tire out. Pojanowski certainly comes to mind. You can argue that being a pro wrestler Batista has developed a well respected gas tank, but entering a cage is a whole different beast. When you look at the science of it all, the odds are against him in this area.
Let’s just say he surprises all of us. Say he gets a legit wrestling coach, develops a respectful ground game and puts in time working his boxing and Muay Thai. When you strip Dave Batista down to the bare minimum one thing remains, he is the equivalent of a 40 year old in a 80 year old body. Lets run down the list of injuries shall we: torn right triceps (twice), torn left triceps, torn hamstring and torn back muscle. I’m 100 hundred percent certain there is more than what is listed on his site. I have met plenty of pro wrestlers in my day and a big majority have almost no cartilage left in their knees. The accumulation of taking bumps and moving back and forth in the ring takes its toll on these ligaments and Batista can be the exception but he has to have some sort of knee problem. It is almost impossible to escape without knee injuries in that line of work. The amount of punishment done to the bodies of pro wrestlers is astounding and I’m not even mentioning the possibility of his joints being in horrible condition due to possible steroid use (though Batista vehemently denies ever using the juice his name did come up in a ESPN investigation).
In the small event Dave Batista proves me wrong, I will be the first to congratulate him for his hard work and effort. We are nobody to tell someone they can not do what they want to do. Either way this is already paying off for StrikeForce in the short term, but don’t expect a long term investment in Batista to pay off. They much rather should of gone with Kimbo Slice, but hey maybe we will see Dave Batista vs. Herschel Walker vs. Kimbo Slice in a no rules triple threat match. Now that’s something I would pay good money for.
