Dana White may be regretting not signing Bobby Lashley now, as he infamously passed on the idea of signing the fighter several years ago. Lashley's mixed martial arts career is in the brightest spot it has ever been following this past weekend's Bellator 145: Vengeance event. The "tentpole" event featured some of Bellator MMA's biggest stars, including Michael Chandler and Patricio Pitbull, and included not one but two title fights, in the featherweight and lightweight divisions - the most competitive the promotion has. Yet it was Bobby Lashley who wound up being the star of the show, and he has the numbers to prove it. Ratings are in for the Spike TV event, and they're interesting. For starters, Bellator 145 beat UFC Fight Night 77, which aired the following day, and had a main event of Vitor Belfort vs. Dan Henderson meeting for the third time. Bellator averaged 814,000 viewers (869,000 with DVR+3) to the UFC's 757,000 - a rare victory for the second place MMA outfit. More surprising, perhaps, is that Bellator 145's peak came during the Lashley bout, just the second of five bouts for the evening, with 1.147 million viewers (including DVR+3 numbers) tuning in to watch the former WWE and current TNA wrestling star in a rematch with James Thompson. Lashley won the fight by TKO in just under a minute, bringing him to 4-0 in Bellator MMA. Main events almost always outdraw the undercard, making this a rather unique result. Lashley is now poised for a big fight in the promotion, with a title shot a possibility. Bellator's heavyweight champion, Vitaly Minakov, has not fought in well over a year for the company, but has been taking fights in Europe, which has caused many including Lashley to call for him to be stripped of the title. A main event title match against someone like Cheick Kongo would make sense, now that Lashley is on such a tremendous roll (he hasn't tasted defeated since 2012, when Thompson beat him in their closely contested first meeting, and has won his last seven fights). Title shot or no, it's a huge victory for Lashley, who is proving to have ample star power for Spike TV and Bellator.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
