Bobby Lashley and Phil Baroni picked up wins last night at Titan Fighting Championship 17 in Kansas City, but neither did much to ease questions about their stamina issues.
Lashley pummeled 215-pound John Ott on the ground, but looked tired in the opening minutes of the second round. The former WWE star tried to put a positive spin on the lackluster decision win, 29-27, 30-27 and 29-27.
"No, no no ... I didn't punch myself out [in the first round]. I was looking for something that wasn't there. I felt good. I needed to spend some time out there," said Lashley.
The 6-foot-2, 252-pounder did get in his 15 minutes, but it was rough sledding at times. In the second and third, when it was standing, Lashley could barely hold his arms up and when he did throw punches, they lacked sting.
On the ground, Lashley (6-1) landed some good shots, but Ott wouldn't give in.
"Not as good as I wanted to, but it's a victory. We have stuff to work on, but I felt good out there. I felt like I was in control the whole time. That's what important," said Lashley.
HDNet MMA analyst Frank Trigg refused to put a positive spin on Lashley's effort.
"He showed he can't finish a fight unless it's a guy like Wes Sims, who stands there and let's himself get beat up," Trigg said. "Basically what he is, is a high caliber college wrestler, who spent some time in the WWE, that's crossed over into fighting without learning anything else."
Lashley, just six fights into his MMA career, was trying to get things back on track after a bad loss against Chad Griggs at a Strikeforce card last August.
Lashley, 34, was manhandling Griggs in the first round, but couldn't finish him. He tired badly and was blasted out in the second round. Following the fight, Lashley hit a Houston-area hospital complaining of abnormal fatigue during the match. He was eventually diagnosed with mononucleosis. He went four months with zero training, Five weeks ago when he signed with TFC, Lashley said he felt great.
Clearly, the bout with mono wasn't the only issue. The thickly-muscled Lashley appears to have only four or five good minutes in his gas tank.
Baroni is 27 fights into his career and is still battling a similar issue. "The New York Badass" beat a kid with five pro fights, but it wasn't easy. Baroni, who used to consider MMA wrestling kind of wimpy, was forced to scrap a striking gameplan. He scored takedowns against Nick Nolte (3-3) in each round and looked to grind down the clock. Baroni (14-13) limped across the finish line with a unanimous decision victory, 29-28, 30-27 and 29-28.
"I was really tired there. I was really tired in the second," Baroni said. "He got me with some good knees to the body. Give him credit, more than saying I was out of shape. I was in shape. I had to take the fight to the ground because [of the knees]."
The 30-27 score was baffling considering Baroni, leaning against the cage for much of the final round, basically allowed Nolte to beat the snot out of him with knees, kicks and punches.� Booing and screaming loudly, the Kansas City crowd didn't appreciate Baroni's efforts.
"I needed a win. I could've stood there and made it a shootout, but I needed the win. I'll give Nick Nolte another fight. Thank you very much. I appreciate all the applause. I'll do a little better next time," Baroni said sarcastically.
Abe Wagner, a former "Ultimate Fighter 10" alum, failed to build on the momentum from his upset win over Tim Sylvia in January. He lost via submission (rear-naked choke) against Aaron Rosa.
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