
You'd think that would be obvious to anyone who has seen Lashley and Lesnar fight, but it's worth addressing again after recent comments from Strikeforce lightweight Josh Thomson, who in talking up his training partner and future Lesnar opponent, Cain Velasquez, made a rather bizarre comparison between Lashley and Lesnar.
"Bobby Lashley couldn't and can't take Cain down and he's leaps and bounds a better wrestler than Brock, as well as just as big, so don't count Cain out in the wrestling just yet," Thomson wrote on Facebook, as previously spotted by Bloody Elbow and Steve Rattlesnake.
Thomson makes two assertions here that are, frankly, ridiculous.
1. Lashley is "leaps and bounds a better wrestler" than Lesnar. Look, Lashley was a good wrestler at Missouri Valley College, and I don't want to demean anything he accomplished. But the idea that he's leaps and bounds better than Lesnar is crazy. Being an NAIA champion, as Lashley was, is nowhere near as impressive as being an NCAA champion, as Lesnar was. And Lesnar has used his wrestling in MMA far more impressively than Lashley has.
2. Lashley is "just as big" as Lesnar. No, he isn't. Lashley is a natural 177-pounder who wrestled in that weight class in college before beefing up like a bodybuilder for his pro wrestling career. And even after putting on those bodybuilder muscles, Lashley isn't exactly huge for a heavyweight: He most recently fought at 252 pounds. Lesnar is a natural heavyweight who wrestled as a heavyweight in college and always fights at the heavyweight limit of 265.
I've got no problem with Thomson claiming that Velasquez will beat Lesnar. Fighters talk up their training partners all the time, and maybe Thomson will be proven right. But let's put to rest this silly notion that stuffing a Bobby Lashley takedown is evidence of an ability to defeat Brock Lesnar