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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The MMA debut of Dave Bautista, known simply as Batista during his time in the WWE, is moving closer to a reality.
With Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker already interested in the 41 year old former professional wrestler, he has now begun training at Cesar Gracie's camp in southern California, according to a story at Sherdog.com.
Gracie, who also brought in former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco to train when he was hoping to get a fight with Strikeforce, believes that Batista is a "natural athlete."
"He’s got a lot to learn but his strength alone is impressive,” Gracie said. “Obviously he’s a beginner at jiu-jitsu but we can take a guy like that that’s already a strong athlete like that and teach him what to not get caught in."
Despite Batista's complete lack of MMA experience, Gracie believes their camp can make him into something.
"You’re talking about a guy who is very powerful, very strong and an extremely hard worker, and if he can put it all together he could be a very formidable force,” he said. “And he’s at the right camp for that… Our camp is known for bringing people with nothing and making them into something. We like to make champs."
Penick's Analysis: I've seen a lot of acceptance of this "Batista to Strikeforce" idea from people with no problems with "freak show" fights. In general, sure, a freak show fight here and there throughout Pride's time on top made for entertaining spectacle, but for Strikeforce all this does is take a spot away from more deserving fighters on their televised cards for a pop in the ratings.
The problem with working that way is, even if they get more people to tune in and have some better fighters on the card, they haven't shown an ability to keep interest up in cards without these names on it. They're not building any momentum or real interest in their organization out of these types of fights, they're simply getting curious viewers to tune to see what happens. If they put him against Bobby Lashley, I'll watch, but it's a completely pointless exercise on their part.
RELATED STORY: STRIKEFORCE QUOTABLES: Scott Coker - "Brock Lesnar made the crossover to MMA. Why not Batista?": [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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