Bobby Lashley, an AEW professional wrestler, recently guested on the podcast “Insight with Chris Van Vliet”. The wrestler talked about his career in MMA and revealed why he never got the opportunity to compete in the UFC. The key highlights from their conversation include:
Discussing his decision to not to sign with UFC during his MMA career, Lashley said, “In the early days of my fighting career, there were murmurings about a possible opportunity with UFC. The catch was, I had to climb my way up first.” The wrestler continued with saying, “One option was fighting for organizations offering higher pay scales, but deep down, I felt WWE was my destination. I just needed a break due to certain situations. I saw an opportunity to have the flexibility to return to wrestling if the landscape changed and I didn’t want to restrict myself by signing a long-term deal with the UFC, which would have required me to quit wrestling.”
In another part of the interview, Lashley spoke about whether he had any further UFC discussions in the future. Confirming this, he shared, “Yes, discussions happened, but at that time I was with TNA and I wasn’t prepared to quit professional wrestling. That was the main obstacle. So, when Bellator approached me and assured me of continuing pro wrestling too, I immediately agreed to it.”
A video snippet from the conversation with Chris Van Vliet, featuring Lashley’s thoughts on Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, shaving Vince McMahon’s head, AEW and his group, Hurt Syndicate can be found in the link.
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