Florida Nixes Lashley vs. Banks

Well, this is kind of a bombshell:

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has learned from sources close to the event that heavyweight Yohan Banks (2-1 MMA, 2-0 SF) was not approved by the Florida State Boxing Commission as an opponent for Bobby Lashley (4-0 MMA, 0-0 SF), and the former WWE star is still without an opponent for the event.

An FSBC representative said the decision to decline Banks as an opponent for Lashley was made based on a review of the fighters' records, at which point the commission "determined that the bout was not competitive."

Wow.

Whether or not Yohan Banks was really a "can" the FSBC certainly thought he was. Yohan Banks only has one less fight than Lashley though he hasn't fought since September 2008. That is a seventeen month layoff.

Strikeforce will only have two weeks to find an opponent for Bobby and if they can't then we will probably see Lashley on the CBS card this April. 

Perhpas that would mean the Riggs-Hieron fight would be promoted to the televised card.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Miami

Rumored card after the jump.

Main Card

• Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis (for vacant welterweight title)
• Champ Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs. Marloes Coenen (for women's featherweight title)
• Robbie Lawler vs. Melvin Manhoef
• Bobby Lashley vs. TBA
• Greg Nagy vs. Herschel Walker

Preliminary Card

• Jay Hieron vs. Joe Riggs
• Pablo Alfonso vs. Marcos da Matta
• Michael Byrnes vs. David Zitnik
  
• Sabah Homasi vs. John Kelly
• David Gomez vs. Craig Oxley
• Hayder Hassan vs. Ryan Keenan