Coming off a lackluster performance against veteran stepping stone Jason Guida, it’s important for Lashley and his camp to analyze his disappointing performance and breakdown exactly what he needs to work on.

Step 1: Shave some muscle

While Bobby Lashley has an impressive collegiate wrestling career with national and amateur championships, one must remember those matches took place at 177lbs.  With over 70lbs of added muscle, Lashley is carrying far more mass than his frame requires for optimal athletic ability.  This will help in two ways: speed and cardio.  His takedowns and striking looked slow and got worse as the fight went on.  With a leaner muscle composition, his striking and takedowns should get faster and he should be able to stay fresh for a longer period of time.

Step 2: Set up those takedowns

Being successful from shooting from the outside with no set-up has been completely phased out by improved training.  With nothing to fear standing, a much smaller defender can get under-hooks and defend shots with ease.  By throwing a quick combination or at least establishing a striking game, your opponent will think twice about dropping his hands to defend.  The obvious example for this would be in Brock Lesnar’s fight with Heath Herring, when early on he faked a takedown and landed a thunderous right hand that catapulted Heath across the octagon.  The best heavyweight in the world, Fedor, has an awesome overhand right – takedown combination that is really hard to defend.  By integrating transitional strikes into takedown attempts, not only would Lashley’s opponents be spending more time on the canvas, but on the feet they would also be left questioning whether a strike or shot was coming at them.

Step 3: Control his emotions

Lashley admitted post fight that Guida took him out of his game with his trash talking.  This was clearly shown in the fight by Bobby being overanxious for takedowns and his inability to establish his pace.  A similar situation happened with Brock against Frank Mir in his first UFC fight.  Brock rushed the fight, did not follow his gameplan, and subsequently made a rookie mistake that cost him the fight.  Lashley needs to put his emotions aside and stick to the gameplan if he wants to be successful.

Final thoughts

Bobby Lashley is a green mixed martial artist with a lot of physical gifts.  Shaving some muscle, setting up his takedowns, and controlling emotions are what he needs to desperately work on this early in his career so that he can compete with higher level competition in this sport down the road.  However, much more than was listed needs to be improved upon over the coming months and years.  His striking technique looked bad and his lack of pummeling inside the clinch need to be worked on as well to round out his game.

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