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"I think I can be something really positive for the MMA world," Bautista said in comments made to MMAJunkie.com. "My thing is I want to do a multi-fight deal. I want to have a guarantee of at least three fights. I want a tune-up fight, I want a big fight, and I want a pay-per-view fight."
Bautista has been training with Cesar Gracie's camp in California in preparation for a move to the sport, but his age and lack of fighting background outside of professional wrestling remains a concern.
"I've always been honest with myself," Bautista said. "I'm not getting any younger, so three fights is all I can commit to. I don't know how I'm going to feel after those three fights. If I'm 42 and I've had three fights, my window of opportunity is not very large."
"I've got all the tools. I'm 41 years old now, but I can go and train for one or two hours nonstop, and I don't have a problem. The reason I was successful in wrestling is because I stayed in shape nonstop. I have the durability. I just have to put it all together and get the skill.
"I think I'll be an exciting fighter. I'm either going to win big or lose big."
Link to Original Source Article
Penick's Analysis: Bautista's got a big hill to climb to accomplish what he'd like to in the sport. Age is not on his side, and with only a short time of actually training in MMA there's no telling if he can or will be effective in the sport. As for this multi-fight deal, Strikeforce needs to make sure it makes financial sense for them. Signing Bautista to a big money deal is not a smart move. There's no guarantees that he'll bring in numbers to Showtime, CBS or pay-per-view at this point. He's been off of WWE television for quite some time now, and by the time he makes his debut it will have been even longer. They can't overpay for him, but if they can use him to garner some slight interest they probably will.
[Dave Bautista art by Grant Gould courtesy PWTorch.com]
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