(Now Mo, you’re going to have to be more original than that if you expect to get paid on the streets.)
Quinton Jackson must be seething with rage right now. As you may recall, following his January 7th second round TKO victory over Lorenz Larkin at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal tested positive for Drostanolone. Shortly thereafter, Mo acquired a particularly brutal case of staph infection that nearly took his life, but the bad news wasn’t over yet.
King Mo appeared before the Nevada State Athletic Commission yesterday to receive his punishment, which was rather standard — a 9 month suspension, a 30% fine of his $80,000 purse, the surrendering of his win bonus, and his bout with Larkin being overturned to a no-contest. However, things took a weird turn after chairperson Pat Lundvall, when referring to the information Lawal knowingly falsified on his pre-fight medical documents, called into question that of Lawal’s ability to read and understand English. Needless to say, Mo was rather insulted by such an accusation, and took to Twitter, where he promptly screwed himself royally.
But first, let’s take a step back for a moment. Here is what King Mo had to say moments after receiving his sentence from the NSAC.
Sounds pretty level headed right? Mo clearly understood that he broke the rules, before promising to make it up to his fans. Sure, he also stated that he didn’t feel he was a cheater for using steroids, but for the sake of argument, we’re going to let that one slide for the time being.
But leave it to the Internet, a place so filled with hate and conflict that it would make Israel blush with envy, to bring out the worst in people. Mere hours later, Mo tweeted:
I shoulda stayed home! Lol. NSAC had they mind made up b4 we got there! Lol. All the research we did and disclosed to em! They ignored! LOL. I honestly feel like Lundvall was a racist bitch asking me if I can read or speak english. Go on somewhere with that bullshit bitch!!! That one commissioner was bogus. The rest were coo and they were white and latino.
Now, where one would be understandably upset when their literacy is made a mockery of, it was perhaps not the best move to respond by calling a member of an overseeing body a “bitch” on a public forum. Then again, King Mo has never been one to think things out before acting upon them. Though Lawal deleted the tweet moments later, it was already too late to mend the wounds, as he was released from his Strikeforce contract earlier this morning.
A bit of a double standard considering Rampage Jackson’s recent remarks made via the same social networking outlet? Maybe, but when interviewed by BloodyElbow following the announcement, Lawal was surprisingly calm, stating:
It is what it is. Of course, I want to fight for Strikeforce and fight for Zuffa, but if they want to cut me for what I said, then I can’t take it back because it already happened. I have never been asked in such a condescending way if I could read or speak English like that. I did something wrong, so I can’t really say I’m being treated unfairly. I don’t know if it was excessive to cut me.
Right now, I just want people to understand that I went in there respectfully and that I’m not playing the race card. I’m too old to play the race card. I’m established on the West Coast now and since I’ve been out here, I haven’t experienced much racism. I’ve experienced some stereotypes and small prejudices here and there, but other than that, no, I haven’t experienced too much, compared to when I was in the South. The woman’s comments reminded me of times when I experienced racial insensitivity from other people.
Zuffa made a decision just off what was said on Twitter. I don’t know if they care about what happened. I’m pretty sure they didn’t hear any of the audio. They just made a decision off what went down on Twitter. I’m pretty sure Keith Kizer and certain people at the commission are mad and I didn’t mean any disrespect to Keith or the rest of the people in the commission. I just felt disrespected by that one person that asked if I could speak or read English.
You can listen to Mo’s hearing with the NSAC here, with the “racist” remark coming somewhere around the 6:45 mark.
So what say you, Potato Nation? Was Mo’s Twitter tirade the final straw, or was his firing a rather hypocritical move by the Zuffa brass? Then again, if Lawal makes a couple donations and sincerely apologizes, we imagine we’ll be seeing him under the Strikeforce banner in the near future.
-J. Jones