More interesting than Bobby Lashley’s career in the ring is what goes on outside of it: on Friday’s episode of “Inside MMA,” Lashley chuffed at an audience poll result that wanted to see him fight Brett Rogers for his next bout in Strikeforce.

Disagreeing with a poll isn’t such a severe infraction. If the sport were left to match fighters by fan committee, we’d be seeing Tony Jaa fighting polar bears by now. But Lashley’s logic takes a different turn: He prefers to continue a slow “build” of a strategy -- which amounts to fighting lame athletes who have headlined shows with “Xtreme” on the marquee -- or be granted an immediate shot at the Strikeforce heavyweight title. Ascending through the ranks is apparently not worth the risk.

There is value in taking the most threatening fights possible. All fights carry risk. If you have a chance of losing, at least lose to someone respectable, an attitude applied by Forrest Griffin in what’s amounted to a very lucrative career. But Griffin never insisted on getting a shot at the light heavyweight title after wins over Elvis Sinosic and Bill Mahood -- a lesser crime than demanding a shot after wins over Jason Guida and Wes Sims. If Strikeforce indulges Lashley’s request to fight Alistair Overeem without any real labor invested, that title wouldn’t be worth the time it would take to melt it down.

This is the part where I tell you I don’t like professional wrestling, do not watch professional wrestling, and do not possess the neurological tools necessary to understand professional wrestling. It exists beyond my ability to appreciate it. In deference to pro wrestling fans that are consistently embittered by my reaction to grown men in role-play situations, it’s possible I’m simply not intellectual enough to spot the sport’s nuances. I’m sure this is it.

But even the most dyed-in-the-wool fan has to have a problem with wrestling’s latest gimmickry: aping a shoot-style MMA template in the service of a choreographed match. During Sunday’s “Bound for Glory” TNA attraction, hybrid fighter/actor Bobby Lashley engaged in something billed as a “submission” contest against the very dangerous Samoa Joe. The contest ended when Lashley applied a choke.

Strikeforce may not have considerable depth in any division, but they have enough personalities to make any given evening interesting: Fanhouse is reporting that former WWE attraction Bobby Lashley is in talks with the promotion to make their Nov. 7 date on CBS.

Lashley has been stirring interest primarily for looking like an off-season Mr. Olympia and possessing credible grappling skills: his pressure positioning against Roger Gracie’s stellar submission work would be something worthwhile. And there’s obvious appeal in seeing a pro wrestling attraction take on Fedor Emelianenko: in 30-plus career fights, the Russian hasn’t spent much time in the ring with a wrestler capable of keeping him down. Maybe Lashley can.

Full disclosure: With my local Time-Warner cable provider having found Saturday’s “Ultimate Chaos” card unfit for broadcast -- preferring to instead fill up their pay-per-view stations with an HBO boxing event and several specials featuring college girls in various stages of undress -- I was unable to soak up the televised atmosphere.

The disappointment is almost too much to bear. From all accounts, I didn’t miss much, including an underwhelming main event between rising Bobby Lashley/descending Bob Sapp and a sad display from an aging Pedro Rizzo

Ultimate Battleground. Ultimate Cage Combat. Ultimate Ring Fighting. Ultimate Conflict. Ultimate Throwdown.

There may be a decided lack of imagination on the part of mixed-fight promoters -- and there’s simply no competing with the UFC’s “Ultimate Ultimate” events of 1995 and ’96 in terms of caffeine-fed hyperbole -- but you may not much care about the marquee. If so, that’s good news for “Ultimate Chaos,” a debuting event courtesy of Prize Fight Promotions (the local ticket-pusher for numerous high-profile boxing events) and Ricky Derouen’s Fight Force International.