Slightly OT - Lashley, Shamrock Set to Meet on Jones-Sheika Undercard

This is not 100 percent boxing-related, but the BoxingWatchers do watch other things in our spare time, and one of us has been writing for this site for over a decade.

With that in mind, I saw that something my brother Uatu alerted me to a few days ago became official on Tuesday, with MMAjunkie.com reporting that former UFC and WWE star Ken Shamrock had agreed to face fellow former pro wrestler Bobby Lashley on the undercard of the Roy Jones-Omar Sheika boxing/MMA pay-per-view - officially sporting the humorous name "March Badness."

While Jones will no doubt sell a bunch of tickets fighting in Pensacola and some PPV buys off of his name recognition, I wondered a while back how he'd assemble the MMA portion of the card. Though Shamrock is viewed as spent (and ancient) by many fans, he's a big name in the sport, and the obvious "pro wrestler vs. pro wrestler" angle to his fight certainly won't hurt.

There are other recognizable names in the other fights, including Seth Petruzelli (a.k.a. the man who knocked out Kimbo Slice), former WEC light heavyweight champ Doug Marshall and heavyweights Jeff Monson and Roy "Big Country" Nelson. For an MMA card put together without the assistance of the UFC, Strikeforce or Affliction, you couldn't realistically ask for or expect much more.

Will that plus a well-known but past-his-prime boxer fighting on his home turf be enough to make "March Badness" a success? I think it just might be, but we'll know for sure in just a few weeks.

Posted by The Franchise