Batista To Go To Strikeforce? I Hope Not... There, I Said It.

06/21/10 — David Bautista Jr. — known by the Global Wrestling Community as WWE's Dave "The Animal" Batista — is the flavor of the day today with people left and right wondering if the former multi-time WWE Champion* really did sign with Strikeforce, as reported by TMZ.

Of course he did... if you believe everything TMZ says.

I trust folks that don't state facts until they're facts, like this guy .

MMA Fighting, MMA Junkie, and the MMA Community outside of Bleacher Report's own proud fellowship are all reporting the same, and so I will state the same here and now.

It ain't happening, cats and kittens, and I for one am glad it's not.

I've been a little bit harsh on Strikeforce in the past, and questioned their roster not once but twice .

I won't go for a third in the case of Batista, but there's a reason why I feel that it's good that Batista isn't.

Any hard-core fans of Strikeforce will be pleased to know that in my list of reasons for not liking the thought of Batista in Strikeforce, two reasons for disliking the idea didn't make the cut.

Those respective reasons are a hatred for Batista and a hatred for Strikeforce.

I don't have either one, because if I hated Batista, I would've stopped watching WWE when he and John Cena were on top of the heap, and if I hated Strikeforce, I wouldn't have even known what went down in Nashville or in St. Louis.

There are some factors, though that kill my desire to see "The Animal" in Strikeforce, though.

Age and "The Wrestling Business"

Batista is 41 — in MMA, that's an age where you'd think a fighter ought to hang it up.

Now, according to his autobiography, Batista does state that he did join the wrestling circuit in his thirties, so this wouldn't be out of the usual for him.

The thirties are generally the age in which some decide or contemplate hanging it up on the wrestling circuit.

Now, if Herschel Walker can do it at his age, there's not really too much I can say for age other than "it's a concern right now."

What I can say is that Batista may or may not want to aggravate too many of the injuries that he's previously suffered in the ring, and despite popular belief, the fakeness of wrestling doesn't eliminate the possibility of injury.

Batista's torn his left bicep, his right triceps, and one of his hamstrings in his career as a pro wrestler. If he wants to go forward with the plan to do MMA, he can, but the fighters don't pull punches in MMA.

When they hit, they hit .

The worst thing I can recal Lesnar suffering in WWE was a broken neck off an ill-thought Shooting Star Press (an inward back-flip body splash, that's the best way I can explain it) at Wrestlemania 19 against Kurt Angle.

Lashley's worst injury in WWE was an injured shoulder.

Batista's taken the most damage out of any former WWE wrestler, and a career in MMA could cause some re-injury or it could be the gateway to more injuries to this already-battle-worn athlete.

Experience(? )

This is the obvious factor in the equation. Batista has no MMA experience.

He isn't like Dan Severn or Ken Shamrock who had some UFC experience before breaking in to the WWE and had to adapt to the craft perfected by the likes of Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and Dwayne Johnson.

He really was just a a muscular dude who could perform a mean spine-buster and overpower his lighter competition.

Even pro wrestling fans will tell you: Batista has no prior experience in the sport of wrestling that NCAA fans and MMA diehards know of.

At least a little bit of it could help him out if he wanted to do the sport full-time.

Guys like Lashley, Walker, Shane Del Rosario, Alistair Overeem, and the like — those guys aren't going to run into Batista so he can give them a spine-buster and then follow up with a powerbomb.

They're going to land strikes and try to finish off Batista in the first thirty seconds of the first round, or they're going to sink in submissions like armbars and ankle holds for about a shorter time and with more crank than what Vince McMahon would have allowed.

Can he make the adjustment to this?

Absolutely, he could do it. Batista isn't what WWE fans remember him as being in his most recent run.

I'm just sketchy as to whether he should without expertise in the Mixed Martial Arts world.

Obviously, he's not going to be a black belt judoka or an advanced-level BJJ ace, but there's more to MMA than just the stuff on the feet.

If he's serious about this, he's first going to have to make sure he can get the injuries of his past checked out and then he's going to have to go full speed once he finds a gym to train at.

The Drive to be at the Top of the Food Chain

On screen, Batista always would show that even though Internet fans couldn't go a day without knocking his in-ring ability, he had the drive to endure hell in all havens of the sport- entertainment world if it meant that he'd get a shot to be the WWE Champion or the World Heavyweight Champion.

Compare that Batista to the Batista who is quoted as saying, "I want nothing to do with that dude" when talking about Fedor Emelianenko.

Okay, that's the right thing to say about a fight with Fedor... isn't it?

You've got the big three behind Lesnar — Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, and Junior Dos Santos, and even though they're giving up experience to Fedor, as is Lesnar, the aforementioned four names sometimes do get followed by the words "can beat Fedor" by some fans.

I believe only Cain has said out loud that he thinks he stands a chance against Fedor.

It's smart for Batista to say the opposite now, but if he really does get into MMA for real, and he does face some top guys along the line, will he think that he wants nothing to do with those guys as well?

Last I checked, Lesnar was facing a bout with diverticulitis, not claiming that he wants nothing to do with Carwin.

Bobby Lashley admitted on an episode of MMA Live that he wanted to work his way towards a contract with the UFC, not fight a few fights in Strikeforce and decide that he wants nothing to do with the UFC.

It's a smart plan to have no MMA background and think that right now isn't the best time to talk about a fight with Fedor or Lesnar, but if Batista does join Strikeforce, and he does get past the guys that are considered at the top of the heap, will he want nothing to do with Fedor then?

Most of today's best heavyweights are considered in conversations where Fedor's name pops up, and in most scenarios, Fedor wins.

At least with those top heavyweights, though, one could make an argument for those fighters beating Fedor, and the fighters themselves will have the drive to prepare themselves for the day that they do fight "The Russian Experiment", as MMA's Last Emperor has been called in the past.

Maybe Batista has that drive for MMA and maybe he doesn't, but should he join Strikeforce, that drive better make its way to the exterior of "The Animal" as quick as possible, because if not, Batista might fit the bill of a "freak show" fighter, a la Jose Conseco.

Should anyone bring forth any more issues or concerns regarding Batista and a dive into MMA for this former WWE superstar, please feel free to do so.

I welcome all comments, agreements, and disagreements with any or all of this piece.

Allow me to leave you with this final thought, though:

Dave Batista, former multi-time WWE Champion*, is possibly still in phenomenal shape, and he may be able to stand more a chance than I'm giving him at this moment.

It's the concerns presented in this article — the age, the results of his in-ring wars, his lack of experience in MMA and the question of his drive to be the best in MMA as he was considered by some to be one of today's best in pro wrestling — that causes me to wonder if Batista should be in the sport.

Of course, these questions surrounded Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley before they made their way into the UFC and Strikeforce respectively, and look where they are now.

You know what separates Batista from Lesnar and Lashley, though?

They only had one serious injury on their record before they left the WWE.

Batista has had three, and maybe more than what I've mentioned.

There's no "going easy" in MMA.

No one goes "half speed". No one pulls punches.

So if Batista is serious, he'd better put on a fight that makes wrestling fans forget all about those injuries.

If he doesn't, it's going to cost him more than just a few fans and a paycheck.