WWE champion Bobby Lashley recently spoke with Ariel Helwani about his decision to step away from MMA, where the Almighty One held a professional record of 15-2. Lashley later adds that his involvement with American Top Team started getting in the way of his goals. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Why he decided to step away from MMA:
“I think because when I came into it, I came into it with the wrong mind frame. When I originally came into fighting, I came into it saying I want to do one fight. Then I won one fight, then another fight, and then another fight, and then all these things started getting thrown at me.”
On trying to balance his life in American Top Team, and how it was pulling it further away from his goals:
“I built an American Top Team in Denver and I was like, maybe I can bring people in.But now these are a lot of expenses that I was taking on and now I’m running a gym. Now I’m selling my cardio kickboxing class and trying to push my crossfit courses and I was like alright, this is pulling me further away from what I’m trying to accomplish.”
Says he also didn’t want to take that time away from his kids:
“I was like, if I want to do this thing full time, get in the UFC and make a run or stay with Bellator and run for that title, I’ve got to put it all together and it was challenging. I didn’t find a way that I could do it and I didn’t want to take any time away from my kids, so I was kind of in an awkward situation.”
(H/T and transcribed by Sescoops)