RI MMA: Bautista Makes His Debut

With Brock Lesnar creating the trend, more and more pro wrestling stars like “Batista” are trying their hand at MMA

I’m sure most of us have heard of Brock Lesnar….

If you haven’t, he is the big time WWE superstar who left pro wrestling to give MMA a shot, fighting in the most prestigious organization there is today, the UFC. Even though his career was short lived due to a long fought battle with diverticulitis, he was a very successful competitor and a force to be reckoned with in the octagon.

With that being said, another man from the WWE organization has recently decided to make the jump to mixed martial arts. His name is David Bautista, more popularly known as “Batista”.

CES Entertainment, a local organization that promotes and organizes boxing and mixed martial arts events put together the “Real Pain” event, featuring Bautista as one of their headliners. Like I said, this was Bautista’s MMA debut, so there was a lot of hype and a lot of speculation for this fight.

The fight card also featured some local favorites such as Todd “The Hulk” Chattelle, Mike “The Beast” Campbell, and our friend John “Doomsday” Howard. I have been to one of Johns’ seminars before and have written about him multiple times on this site, so I was definitely looking forward to the outcome of his fight. (you can check out more on John and the seminar here)

Bautista

Dave Bautista after his MMA debut win

If you watched the fight card, you will know that Bautista had a pretty successful MMA debut. He ended up winning the fight with a first round TKO.He had a very late replacement for his opponent, and he ended up fighting against the humongous Vince Lucero.

When the fight began, Lucero caught Bautista right off the bat with some nice punches, but Bautista hung in their and held his own against Vince.

He ended up hitting a takedown on Lucero and getting to a nice strong side control, and from there he proceeded to advance to the mount position. He began to rain down some seriously heavy punches on Lucero, and the ref had no choice but to stop the fight.

Bautista has shown that he can get in the cage and prove his skills, and I am definitely looking forward to his next fight. The only negative thing I might have to say about his performance is that his stand up skills need a bit of work, but hey, unless you’re Anderson Silva, then you’re probably in the same boat.

Bautista commented after the fight and said that his nerves definitely played a factor in his performance, which is completely understandable for someone who is getting in the cage to fight someone for the first time.

Bautista and the Future

So considering that Bautista is off to a great start, and Lesnar has created a legacy of his own, will we see more and more pro wrestlers start making the transition to mixed martial arts?

I myself am not a fan of the WWE, but  for me it is exciting to see some of these man-beasts make the switch to MMA, because a lot of these guys are very athletic and bring a lot of power to the cage.

I think it is also great for the sport of MMA, because a lot of WWE fans may now be interested in watching MMA, adding growth and popularity to this exciting sport.

As I said earlier, I am curious to see how Dave Bautista does in his next bout, and curious to see how this trend of WWE to MMA unfolds and plays out in the future.