If you ask him, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal will tell you he’s reinvigorated, inspired and ready to “promote violence.”
The former Division I All-American wrestler entered Bellator MMA‘s light heavyweight division fresh off a successful stint in Strikeforce that saw him capture the light heavyweight title before losing it via TKO in his first defense.
Despite his inability to establish a lengthy reign at the top, King Mo was highly regarded ahead of his Bellator debut in January of 2013. With his wrestling talents and ever-evolving, powerful striking game, he looked to be the next big thing for the promotion—a lock to become a champion in short order.
While he did enter the promotion with a bang, scoring a knockout victory over Przemyslaw Mysiala in the Bellator Season 8 light heavyweight quarterfinals at Bellator 86, he was then knocked out by current 205-pound champion Emanuel Newton in a shocking upset at Bellator 90. From there, King Mo never truly found his groove inside the Bellator cage, going 3-2 since that time.
Now, however, King Mo has a stable camp in American Top Team in his corner, and he’s ready to go to work. Heading into his Bellator 123 scrap with Dustin Jacoby on Friday, Lawal feels violent and hungry, and he’s out for blood.
“(You can expect) the most violent King Mo,” Lawal told Bleacher Report. “That’s what I’m going to do—promote violence and get that fight done.”
Part of the reason for Lawal’s rediscovered enthusiasm is the recent shake-up atop the Bellator MMA management mountain. Founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney was fired this summer and quickly replaced by former Strikeforce founder and CEO Scott Coker, who has an amicable relationship with Lawal.
Now, Lawal says Coker is inspiring the same levels of positivity and happiness for Bellator that he did for Strikeforce.
“It’s not just me, it’s everybody. Everybody seems a little happier,” Lawal said. “There’s a nice buzz among the entire staff at Bellator. It’s just the energy and how you see people when they walk around. They kind of had their heads down before, and now you see them with their head up, and they kind of smile at you. They’re more cheerful.”
In addition to Lawal’s happier demeanor regarding Bellator management, his Bellator 123 scrap with Jacoby will mark the third time the former Strikeforce champ heads to the cage with a full camp at Florida’s esteemed American Top Team behind him. After moving to American Top Team after his decision loss to Newton at Bellator 106, Lawal said he’s found the stability and training he always needed.
“I have coaches now, and I have bodies,” Lawal said. “Before, I had no bodies. My boxing coach, Jeff Mayweather, went to the hospital, he had surgery for his gallbladder (before the fight with Newton)…So I didn’t have nobody for my whole camp.”
Now with a full camp and a solid game plan queued up, Lawal is ready to steamroll Jacoby at Bellator 123. While Jacoby is primarily a kickboxer who previously fought under the UFC banner as a middleweight, Lawal does not see the size and power advantage being so obvious. In his eyes, he’s a natural middleweight as well, and the fight will come down to technique, not power.
“Yeah, people like to say that (about Jacoby), but I’m a natural middleweight,” Lawal said. “Right now, I’m probably about, before practice, I was like 209. I could make 184, easily. I used to wrestle 184. At the Olympic trials, I fought at heavyweight, but I weighed in with my clothes on.
“I can make 184. That’s no problem. So I’m not a big 205’er either. So I’m not looking to size…I got guys at American Top Team who are 185’ers and walk around at 220. I never see 220. Luke Rockhold, he got bigger than me. He’s a 185-pounder. So, I’m small for the weight class, and really, I’m probably a bigger 185-pounder, but I just fight up.”
As Lawal’s MMA career gets back on track, his pro wrestling career hangs in limbo. As a wrestler for Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling, Lawal cultivated a respect for the sport, but recent reports from TMZ suggest the promotion will no longer air on Spike TV or perhaps anywhere.
“I wish I knew (what was happening with TNA),” Lawal said. “I hope they stay on Spike TV, but you never know. Yeah, man, I hope I do (continue to wrestle).”
In a somewhat surprising statement, Lawal recently took his love for pro wrestling to the extreme, proclaiming that work inside the ring is more difficult than fighting inside the cage. While that possesses a bit of a shock factor at first glance, Lawal clarified this sentiment, saying that pro wrestling requires more preparation and takes a harder toll on the human body.
“You get two bums, right? Two bums,” Lawal said. “Put them in a cage. You get a fight. You’ll get a fight. You’ll get a fight. It might not be the most technical fight, but you’ll get a fight. Everyone is born with that defense mechanism. You hit me, I hit you back. You kick me, I kick you back. I bite you, I scratch you, whatever.
“Now, in pro wrestling, you get two bums, put them in the square circle, you would get garbage, absolute garbage…Pro wrestling, you have to learn how to fall, you have to learn how to do moves, you have to learn how to take the moves, you have to learn how to hit the ropes, you have to learn how to jump over or through the ropes.
“You don’t practice the match. While you’re in there, you freestyle the match. People don’t realize that. There’s no rehearsing a match. So, if I would wrestle you, I grab you, and we just wrestle the match right there. You tell a story with the match. You can’t just go out there and throw out some bull, because people won’t buy it.”
Lawal continued, highlighting the brutal effect pro wrestling can take on the body by comparing MMA legend Randy Couture, 51, to wrestling legend Kurt Angle, 45.
“Part two, you get Randy Couture. How old is he? Then you get Kurt Angle, who is the same age as him. Look at their bodies,” Lawal said. “Who is more beat up? In MMA, the referee says, ‘Protect yourself at all times.’ You get tapped. You get tapped out. You can pull guard. You can look for a submission, you can throw a kick. You can push him into the cage.
“But in pro wrestling, guess what? For today’s crowd, you have to do things bigger. Suplexes, throwin’ people over the top ropes, chair shots, tag matches, hardcore matches.
“Guess what? In MMA, you might fight three or four times a year. In pro wrestling, people doing pro wrestling do three matches a week, maybe two matches a week for a whole year.”
In the end, though, King Mo’s next task takes him to the cage, where he’ll be forced to use his kicks, punches, knee, elbows and lifetime of grappling talents to topple Jacoby at Bellator 123.
With a new regime leading the way, Lawal advises everyone to tune in and check out what’s new with Bellator. The results, he suggests, might just surprise you.
“It’s a new regime,” Lawal said. “I can’t tell nobody what to do, but I can say this: Come see our new changes we have going on. We have Coker. Strikeforce was a great show. Look for Bellator to be an upgraded version of Strikeforce.”
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