A mixed martial arts fight between the 45-year-old UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock and the former professional wrestling star Bobby Lashley has been added to the undercard of a show that will be headlined by a Roy Jones boxing match, Bloody Elbow is reporting.The card will take place on March 21 in Florida, meaning Shamrock is taking just six weeks off after his last fight, an easy submission win over a 380-pounder named Ross Clifton. That fight (and my reference to Clifton as a "fat slob") was a source of contention when I interviewed Shamrock last month.
Lashley isn't just a pro wrestler; he's a legitimate athlete who was a good college wrestler before signing with the WWE. He'll have about 50 pounds on Shamrock, and unlike Clifton, his excess weight is muscle, not fat. Lashley is 1-0 in his MMA career; he needed just 41 seconds to TKO a little-known opponent in his debut in December. Lashley would have to be considered the favorite over Shamrock, whose win over Clifton is his only victory since 2004.
The card is being promoted by Jones, who will box Omar Sheika in the main event, and it will be interesting to see how it sells on pay-per-view. Combined boxing/MMA cards have been tried before, but never with names as recognizable as Jones, Shamrock and Lashley. The MMA undercard is also scheduled to feature Seth Petruzelli vs. Doug Marshall and Roy Nelson vs. Jeff Monson.
So will all these fights translate to pay-per-view success? I'd wager that the card will do somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 pay-per-view buys. That's nowhere near the kind of pay-per-view success that Jones did in his boxing heyday, or that Shamrock did in his UFC heyday, or that Lashley did in his WWE heyday. But it's enough that, assuming none of the fighters are commanding exorbitant salaries, Jones will turn a profit by promoting this show. And that's what it's all about.
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