Speaking to USA Today, Lashley said:

“I have no idea. He was kind of a last minute deal anyway, so when they shot him down, it was no big deal to me. I’ve been training really hard, so the opponent’s kind of irrelevant now – I just wanted to have someone. He’s a big guy, he’s a professional boxer. Seemed like it was a good match up. I guess they expect a lot more out of me.”

“Last year we had talked with (Strikeforce CEO Scott) Coker a couple of times. Coker showed interest, and he wanted to start me off in some of their fights, build me up. So we were talking to them before the Prize Fighting deal, and then when the Prize Fighting deal was kind of going nowhere, they (Strikeforce) kind of came back into the picture. Dan Lambert, the owner of American Top Team, which manages me, he contacted them because he has good relations with Strikeforce. They put a deal together and they got me going again.”

“I wanted to make sure they had quality opponents. I wanted to make sure that as I build, I would be able to fight better and better competition. Strikeforce has that. They have Fedor at the top. They have Alistair Overeem. They have Fabricio Werdum. They have Bigfoot (Antonio Silva). There’s a lot of great heavyweights there, so that was definitely the reasoning for signing with them – so I would be able to get challenged and see where I’m at.”

When asked whether he’d be competing on the January 30th card, Lashley said:

“I believe so, as far as I know. It’s a stacked card, so I can’t really be mad if they don’t put my fight on the main card, But I hope to be on the main card so I can get some eyes on my fights, so people won’t have to ask any more questions of what I’m able to do. I can just show them.”

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