Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal returned to action Wednesday, June 19th, for the first time since his devastating loss to Emmanuel Newton back in February. It took him all of one minute and 35 seconds to return to the win column, as he knock…
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal returned to action Wednesday, June 19th, for the first time since his devastating loss to Emmanuel Newton back in February. It took him all of one minute and 35 seconds to return to the win column, as he knocked out Seth Petruzelli in the main event of Bellator 96 at Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
After Lawal collided heads with Petruzelli on his first takedown attempt, referee “Big” John McCarthy briefly called a halt to the action.
After the restart, Lawal landed a takedown—something he hadn’t done his last two fights—which led to him standing up in Petruzelli’s open guard. From there, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy threw both of his opponent’s legs to the side to pass before landing the vicious over-hand right that would end the fight:
Petruzelli had talked a lot of trash leading up to the fight, saying he would spoil Bellator’s plans for Lawal to become a champion. Lawal is no stranger to running his mouth, but he didn’t have much of a response to Petruzelli’s pre-fight talk, letting his hands do the talking instead.
The AKA (American Kickboxing Academy) fighter is now 2-1 inside the promotion; he needed a win to avoid further criticism after his embarrassing defeat to Newton back at Bellator 90. Many media members panned Lawal for being overconfident and cocky before getting caught with Newton’s spinning-back fist.
Viacom has invested quite a bit in Lawal, and it would’ve been even harder to promote him in Bellator as well as TNA had he lost back-to-back fights at this juncture of the newest chapter in his career.
“King Mo” will now advance to the finals of the summer series four-man tournament where he will take on Jacob Noe. Noe was also victorious at Bellator 96, by third-round TKO over Renato “Babalu” Sobral.
He may not have said much about Petruzelli, but Lawal had plenty of disdain for Noe during the post-fight press conference:
“I didn’t know when the fight was going to end, but I knew I was going to stop him, and I did,” Lawal said.
He went on to talk about the Noe fight:
But now it’s time for me to fight Jacob Noe. Noe, No, I don’t know, I don’t care. I don’t like him, admitted Lawal. I don’t like the gym he trains at. He’s fake. He talked a lot of trash behind my back. I hope he’s here listening, you all can tell him this because I’m going to beat the brakes off him. I’m going to whip his ass so bad, I’m going to retire him.
The two finalists will meet on July 31 at the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The summer series tournament champion will earn the right to face the winner of the light heavyweight championship bout between current champ Attila Vegh and season eight tournament-winner Newton.
Those two will likely square off at some point during season nine this fall.
Michael Stets is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.
Redemption was the theme of the night as Bellator kicked off its 2013 Summer Series in Thackerville, Okla.Highly touted light heavyweight contender Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal returned to action for the first time since his stunning knockout loss to Emanu…
Redemption was the theme of the night as Bellator kicked off its 2013 Summer Series in Thackerville, Okla.
Highly touted light heavyweight contender Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal returned to action for the first time since his stunning knockout loss to Emanuel Newton back in February. The former Strikeforce champion was a shoe-in to run the table in the 205-pound tournament. After his misstep in the second round, Lawal came into Bellator 96 looking to not only get back into the win column, but make a statement in the process against Seth Petruzelli.
And that is exactly what he did. While the king may have stumbled previously, on Wednesday night, he returned to the throne with a thundering knockout over the “Silverback.”
The other half of the redemption theme was carried by Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Unfortunately for the savvy veteran, he wasn’t able to stop the backslide, and Sobral came out on the business end of his tilt with Jacob Noe.
Plenty of action of all varieties were to be had at the Winstar World Casino, and let’s take a look at the good, bad and strange from the event.
The Good
No fighter under the Bellator banner needed a big win more than Muhammed Lawal. The organization has pumped a significant amount of time and money into promoting the former All-American wrestler, and the pressure was on “King Mo” to deliver.
When the cage door closed and the action got underway, Lawal once again proved why he is the fighter to watch on the Bellator roster. After putting Petruzelli on his back, the former Oklahoma State wrestling standout clipped his opponent’s power switch with a brutal left hand from top position.
Petruzelli received a stiff case of the “robot arms,” and Lawal got back into the win column.
While Bellator’s heavyweight division is typically the basis for chuckles around the MMA community, two bright spots were on display on Wednesday night.
Undefeated Russian Vitaly Minakov kept his record untarnished as he knocked the stuffing out of Ron Sparks on the televised portion of the card. The Kentucky native charged forward and paid the price as a blistering right hand from Minakov laid Sparks flat on the canvas. With the victory, Minakov will move on to face a fighter who has been a pleasant surprise inside the Bellator cage in Ryan Martinez.
Following his upset knockout victory over Travis Wiuff back in March, the heavy-handed 25-year-old stepped up on short notice to fight Rich Hale at Bellator 96. While the fight started with a brief feeling-out period, it didn’t take long for Martinez to complete his night of work as he pounded out Hale on the canvas.
The victory over Hale makes it three consecutive wins under the Bellator banner and eight out of the past nine for Martinez.
The final entry into the category comes courtesy of War Machine. The mercurial veteran finally made his long-awaited debut inside the Bellator cage on Wednesday night, and after shaking off the rust of a year-long layoff, the 31-year-old made good on his debut by scoring a stoppage victory over Blas Avena.
With everything he’s been through outside of the cage, the victory over Avena should lift the weight off War Machine’s shoulders for the time being.
The Bad
There was no hiding the fact Renato “Babalu” Sobral had a lot on the line going into his fight with Jacob Noe. The 37-year-old Brazilian was coming off a disappointing knockout loss to Mikhail Zayats back in January and needed to a victory at Bellator 96 to keep the pulse on his career.
While “Babalu” started out with solid footwork and landing clean shots, he was also taking bombs as well, and those punches began to take their toll early in the third round. Despite his opponent showing major signs of fatigue, Sobral continued to wade into heavy punches and eventually ate one too many midway through the round.
After catching a left hook from Noe, Sobral took his eyes off his opponent to look at the fight clock just as a right-hand bomb from Noe found its mark. The punch caused Sobral to stumble around the cage, and because of his condition, the referee stepped in and called off the fight.
The loss makes it two straight for Sobral and three of his past four. While it wasn’t shown on the broadcast, cageside commentator Randy Couture announced the former PRIDE and UFC veteran ceremoniously retired after the bout.
Although Seth Petruzelli wasn’t included in the night’s ongoing redemption theme, he was certainly in need of a big showing on Wednesday night.
The 33-year-old Florida native has competed in nearly every major MMA promotion to hit the states in the past decade and has failed to gain traction in any of them. Coming into his bout against Lawal at Bellator 96, Petruzelli had an opportunity to make his mark on Bellator in a major way.
Despite mocking Lawal’s king theme at the weigh-ins and putting forward strong words in the pre-fight build-up, Petruzelli had little to offer once the action began. Lawal was able to put him on the canvas with ease, and after one huge shot with Petruzelli’s back on the mat, the “Kimbo Killer’s” night ended violently.
The Strange
I’m all for hyping up different aspects of a fighter for promotional reasons, but touting Sobral as an “MMA legend” is a tough bit to swallow. Don’t get me wrong, Sobral has absolutely stepped into the cage with a collection of the best fighters to ever compete in mixed martial arts, but losing to great fighters doesn’t make you a legend—at least in my opinion.
Following his loss to Zayats, Bellator could have easily dropped said tagline from his promo and the world would’ve been right again. But that didn’t happen, and once again, Sobral failed to advance in the light heavyweight tournament, leaving Bellator’s promotion of him as an MMA legend to serve as fodder to be written about.
Also, it is never a good thing to shove a referee inside the cage, and Sobral’s post-fight antics and fight night showing were a bad look to end his MMA career.
One of the key missions for Bellator’s production on Wednesday was to promote its new fighter-based reality program Fight Masters. Throughout the broadcast, the show’s four coaches sat in as guest commentators and called the action alongside the regular team.
While the revolving cast did a solid job during the bouts, the camera shots in between fights left something to be desired. Showing coach Frank Shamrock with a cocktail in hand as he cut it up with his fellow coaches was certainly something that could have been avoided.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a good time, but when you’re on location to work—even intermittently—maybe you instruct the stars of your new series to wait to enjoy an adult beverage or two until after the live television broadcast is over.
With a career that spanned nearly 16 years competing in MMA, Renato “Babalu” Sobral said goodbye to the sport on Wednesday night after suffering his second straight defeat in the Bellator cage. As relayed by MMAjunkie.com, the former Strikeforce champion retired after a loss to Jacob Noe in the opening rounds of the latest light […]
With a career that spanned nearly 16 years competing in MMA, Renato “Babalu” Sobral said goodbye to the sport on Wednesday night after suffering his second straight defeat in the Bellator cage. As relayed by MMAjunkie.com, the former Strikeforce champion retired after a loss to Jacob Noe in the opening rounds of the latest light […]
Bellator’s Spike TV reality fight competition show, Fight Master, debuts tonight (10 PM / 9 PM Central). On the show, fighters compete for $100,000 and a Bellator contract as a part of a team led by one of four coaches. Looking towards tonight’s premiere, we sat down with one of those coaches — Greg Jackson — to discuss the unique challenges the show posed to him as a coach and more.
CagePotato:Why did you decide to take part in Fight Master?
Greg Jackson: I think it’s because I do MMA all the time. It was just something different. There are different rules. Not so much the rules in the cage but in terms of the whole structure of the tournament and this amount of time to prepare fighters. I look at it as a challenge — can I still do well with all these new parameters and this new structure? You give me a new challenge and I’m the type of guy who likes to figure it out, like a puzzle.
CP:There are four of you main coaches on Fight Master (Jackson, Joe Warren, Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock) but each of you brought assistants along. Who did you bring with you as assistant coaches for the show?
GJ: I brought two coaches — Joey Villasenor and Damacio Page. They are two guys with lots of experience. Not only are they excellent coaches but they come from Albuquerque like I do. They come from the same neighborhoods and they can help give it an Albuquerque feel.
(Greg poses with two of his bitter rivals, who he definitely did *not* split a basket of hot wings with later that evening. / Photo via Getty)
Bellator’s Spike TV reality fight competition show, Fight Master, debuts tonight (10 PM / 9 PM Central). On the show, fighters compete for $100,000 and a Bellator contract as a part of a team led by one of four coaches. Looking towards tonight’s premiere, we sat down with one of those coaches — Greg Jackson — to discuss the unique challenges the show posed to him as a coach and more.
CagePotato:Why did you decide to take part in Fight Master?
Greg Jackson: I think it’s because I do MMA all the time. It was just something different. There are different rules. Not so much the rules in the cage but in terms of the whole structure of the tournament and this amount of time to prepare fighters. I look at it as a challenge — can I still do well with all these new parameters and this new structure? You give me a new challenge and I’m the type of guy who likes to figure it out, like a puzzle.
CP:There are four of you main coaches on Fight Master (Jackson, Joe Warren, Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock) but each of you brought assistants along. Who did you bring with you as assistant coaches for the show?
GJ: I brought two coaches — Joey Villasenor and Damacio Page. They are two guys with lots of experience. Not only are they excellent coaches but they come from Albuquerque like I do. They come from the same neighborhoods and they can help give it an Albuquerque feel.
CP:By virtue of doing Fight Master, you are becoming a major figure for Bellator and Spike — competitors of the UFC and Fox. Obviously, you still have lots of guys fighting in the UFC. Do you worry that your involvement in Fight Master will hurt your guys under contract with the UFC or hurt prospects in your gym in terms of their chances of getting into the UFC?
GJ: No. I don’t think that just because I do Fight Master that suddenly the UFC is going to go bankrupt. I don’t work for anybody except for the fighters. That’s limiting in some ways but freeing in others. I like to do things the way I like to do them. I’ve never been under contract with the UFC and never worked for them.
I even like Dana a lot. Dana has been very vocal about things I’ve done but I consider Dana a friend. I’m not enemies with anybody, I’m just doing what I do which is train fighters. I was training in MMA long before I got to the UFC. For me, I’m just a coach. Maybe if I was a bigger deal it would be a problem, but I’m not.
CP:Was it at all intimidating coaching against all these other guys — Couture, Warren, Shamrock — who have all actually fought and won titles, or did you still feel confident?
GJ: I don’t get intimidated. And, they are my friends. I’m not really intimidated by people. It’s not that I’m a big tough guy. I’m not toughest guy I know. It just isn’t in my nature to get intimidated. I train with elite world champions every day.
CP:What was the most fun part about the process of taping Fight Master?
GJ: For me it was making new friends. I really enjoy meeting different people from different cultures. Getting to know them was an enriching experience. That was the funnest part. Watching the guys develop and get new skills, as well. And unexpected friendships forming as well as seeing people you hadn’t in a long time.
CP:What was the most surprising part of coaching on the show, and what was the most challenging part?
GJ: I’m always surprised by the potential of fighters. A lot of them have some good potential. If they continue to improve and keep their heads, some of these guys could potentially be good fighters.
I think the most challenging part was the rules. These guys have to fight every week so the way you normally peak a fighter and dispense information changes completely.
It’s been six months since former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion “King” Mo Lawal made his debut with Bellator, and while not everything has gone right inside the cage, life is good on the outside. Lawal inked his deal with the promotion after h…
It’s been six months since former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion “King” Mo Lawal made his debut with Bellator, and while not everything has gone right inside the cage, life is good on the outside.
Lawal inked his deal with the promotion after his release from Strikeforce last year, but his contract with Bellator was unlike anything else that had ever been done in the industry up to that point.The deal points including a long-term fight contract with Bellator, along with a deal to begin his pro-wrestling career at TNA Impact Wrestling.
Since he signed with the promotion, he’s seen his fair share of fighters bashing Bellator like it’s the fun thing to do right now.He’s watched former Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez’s contract situation unfold while fans and journalists alike have jumped on the bandwagon to slam the promotion for their perceived mistreatment of athletes.
The fact is, according to Lawal, there’s always going to be disgruntled employees—whether it’s in Bellator, the UFC or players making millions of dollars in the NFL.
“Not everybody can be happy,” Lawal told Bleacher Report recently.“There’s guys that are unhappy in the UFC, but just won’t speak out.”
Despite the fact that he no longer works with Zuffa (parent company of the UFC), who he fought for while competing under the Strikeforce brand, Lawal still cherishes the time he spent with the promotion.He’s now even happier to be competing for Bellator and pursuing his dream as a pro wrestler in TNA.
To hear Lawal explain it, some places are just a better fit for certain fighters.That’s why he was happy to welcome in former UFC fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who will join him on the Bellator and TNA rosters later this year.
“You can’t please everybody.With me, I had a great time at Strikeforce, I’m having a lovely time with TNA and Bellator,” Lawal said.“I’ll speak on me, I’m loving it.You can ask Joe Warren, he’s loving it.Ask Rampage, I told him you made the best move.I texted him and was like this is the best move you could have made, dog. Now you’ll be treated like a human being and you’re going to be respected.”
Respect is the key word for Lawal when talking about his promoters at Bellator.They treat him like a professional athlete, and he appreciates everything they’ve done for him thus far.
Lawal knows, however, the same can’t be said for some fans who are going to make up their opinions about him or Bellator, and there’s just no changing some people.
“You’re going to be respected by your co-workers and the people you work for—the fans f—k them,” Lawal stated emphatically.“Because some fans, the ones that are positive, show them love.I ain’t got time for negativity just like (Rampage) doesn’t have time for negativity.You just block the haters out.”
The “haters,” as Lawal puts it, came out in full force when he lost his last fight to Emanuel Newton back in February.The fight was supposed to be Lawal‘s path to the Bellator tournament finals, where he would then earn a shot at the light heavyweight title.
Instead, Lawal was a victim of a devastating spinning back fist knockout that landed him on the wrong end of a highlight reel that even made it to Joe Rogan’s podcast when he just so happened to be interviewing UFC President Dana White at the time.
The loss doesn’t necessarily haunt Lawal the way that some defeats always pop up for a fighter, but he’s not exactly letting it go either.
“After I lost that fluke match to (Emanuel) Newton, granted congratulations throwing the spinning back fist.You just threw it, you didn’t know, but whatever I got caught,” Lawal said about the loss.“The fact that he said he looked over his shoulder before throwing the spinning back first?Please.Get out of here with that.Come on.Like he’s Neo from The Matrix or something.”
One day soon, Lawal knows he will cross paths with Newton again, and he plans for a much different outcome in the rematch.
“I want it.The thing is my goal is to get that belt.So if I have to whoop his ass to get the belt, that would be even better,” Lawal said about Newton.“If he loses to Attila Vegh, and he has to fight his way to get to me, then he’ll get an ass whooping when he gets to me. Eventually, I will see him.”
Lawal will be starting back on his path to the title on Wednesday, and to borrow a page from his pro-wrestling personality, he quoted the infamous legend Ric Flair for his inspiration to get back to the Bellator gold.
“We’re in Bellator—you have to beat the man to be the man,” Lawal said.“I know it’s going to happen.”
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Following a disappointing loss at UFC 161, former Ultimate Fighter winner Roy Nelson will enter free agency with serious questions surrounding his next move in the sport. Heading into Saturday night, the world was well aware that Nelson was on the last fight of his current contract when he stepped into the Octagon against Stipe […]
Following a disappointing loss at UFC 161, former Ultimate Fighter winner Roy Nelson will enter free agency with serious questions surrounding his next move in the sport. Heading into Saturday night, the world was well aware that Nelson was on the last fight of his current contract when he stepped into the Octagon against Stipe […]
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal returned to action Wednesday, June 19th, for the first time since his devastating loss to Emmanuel Newton back in February. It took him all of one minute and 35 seconds to return to the win column, as he knocked out Seth Petruzelli in the main event of Bellator 96 at Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.