A broken hand will keep Daniel Straus from competing for the Bellator featherweight title on April 4 against champion Pat Curran. Bellator officials confirmed to Bleacher Report on Tuesday that Straus was indeed out for his upcoming bout against C…
A broken hand will keep Daniel Straus from competing for the Bellator featherweight title on April 4 against champion Pat Curran.
Bellator officials confirmed to Bleacher Report on Tuesday that Straus was indeed out for his upcoming bout against Curran, scheduled for Bellator 95 in Atlantic City, NJ. The news of the change was first reported by MMAJunkie.com.
Daniel Straus had been waiting for a shot at Curran since winning the Bellator Season 6 featherweight tournament. His wait was delayed after Curran suffered a broken orbital bone in training that pushed back his fight with Patricio “Pitbull” Freire that finally took place in January at the initial Bellator card on Spike TV.
While waiting for Curran to get healthy, Straus stayed busy taking out former UFC fighter Alvin Robinson in his home state of Ohio last October at Bellator 78.
Unfortunately, now Straus will have to wait even longer to finally get his crack at Curran after suffering the broken hand.
As for the champion, Curran was expected to make his second title defense in 2013 against Straus in April as Bellator continues to run featherweight tournaments to line up more contenders.
Bellator officials also confirmed that they are currently working on a potential new opponent for Curran to face on April 4 at Bellator 95, but no decisions have been made at this time.
Curran won the belt in early 2012 with a blistering knockout over former champion Joe Warren before defeating Freire in January.
The Bellator featherweight title picture is becoming crowded because of injuries, however, first to Curran and now to Straus.
There is currently a featherweight tournament happening during this current Bellator season, not to mention the recent win by ShahbulatShamhalaev, who earned the next shot at the featherweight title when he knocked out Rad Martinez just last week at Bellator 90.
Damon Martin is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report
In the wake of massive UFC cuts, Jon Fitch’s future was up in the air.His release came as a complete shock to MMA fans and likely to the fighter himself. After all, a top-10 fighter isn’t likely worried about being handed his walking papers after a sin…
In the wake of massive UFC cuts, Jon Fitch‘s future was up in the air.
His release came as a complete shock to MMA fans and likely to the fighter himself. After all, a top-10 fighter isn’t likely worried about being handed his walking papers after a single loss.
The Bellator cage figured to be where Fitch would find a home, but Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney axed that idea prior to last night’s Bellator 90 event. The MMA Report has the details.
“I have a lot of respect for Jon [Fitch] and I have a lot of respect for anyone who has to courage to do what these guys do and the athletic ability to do what they do but we are not going to be signing Jon Fitch,” Rebney said.
Rebney is banking on developing fighters already under the Bellator banner. As we’ve seen in the past, Bellator has looked to make a big splash by signing ex-UFC/ex-Strikeforce fighters only to have the move be a flop.
Fitch’s name is certainly recognizable with the MMA crowds, but with a 1-2-1 record in his past four fights, Rebney would prefer to develop a fighter from within.
“We have a stacked welterweight division right now. We have a lot of guys that we are developing that we anticipate are going to be world class fighters and break the top ten,” Rebney said.
Perhaps some of Rebney‘s reasoning became evident after he explained that each free agent fighter is looked at on an individual basis.
“There is no hard and fast line in the sand with us. ‘King Mo’ Lawal came out of Strikeforce. He is one of my favorite fighters fighting in our organization. He is wildly exciting and awesomely talented. Ben ‘Killa B’ Saunders is another example and is fighting for us tonight. He came out and lost two straight in the UFC when we signed him. I just liking watching him fight. I love the knees and I love the clinch game and I thought he was exciting, so we signed him. There will be others like that. There will be other guys that get released from the UFC and it’s not a hard and fast rule.”
There’s some smarts in not signing Fitch, despite where he ranks in the welterweight division. If a former UFC fighter were to come in and run through Bellator‘s “stacked welterweight division,” it would make Rebney‘s product look bad.
And clearly Rebney wants exciting fighters, something Fitch isn’t known for.
I’m sure Fitch will rejoin the UFC’s ranks soon if he continues fighting on a regular basis, as he’s simply too good not to be in the Octagon at this point in his career. The AKA fighter admitted in 2012 that he needed to be more exciting and hopefully he continues to add some flare to his grinding style.
As for Bellator, they seem content with growing their company from within, and judging off how exciting the past few cards have been, that doesn’t seem as ludicrous of a thought as it used to be.
The long-awaited finals of the Bellator Season 7 Featherweight Tournament have finally arrived. In a night defined by knockout after knockout, Rad Martinez and Shahbulat Shamhalaev came together in the main event to carry on that momentum. This, too, g…
The long-awaited finals of the Bellator Season 7 Featherweight Tournament have finally arrived. In a night defined by knockout after knockout, Rad Martinez and Shahbulat Shamhalaev came together in the main event to carry on that momentum. This, too, gave fans a thrilling finish, and gives Shamhalaev a highlight he can use for all of […]
West Valley City, Utah isn’t exactly the Vegas strip. But for a few hours on Thursday night it was the center of the MMA universe, when Bellator 90 beamed out from the Salt Lake City suburbs.You can get the actual fight results anywhere. But I mus…
West Valley City, Utah isn’t exactly the Vegas strip. But for a few hours on Thursday night it was the center of the MMA universe, when Bellator 90 beamed out from the Salt Lake City suburbs.
You can get the actual fight results anywhere. But I must warn you, sir or madam: Actual results and real results may differ. But you must venture through the looking glass to reach the truth.
Welcome to the other side. Don’t be afraid to take a little break if it gets too real for you.
Tonight’s Bellator event saw the two light heavyweight tournament semifinal bouts, including Jacob Noe vs. Mikhail Zayats and “King” Mo Lawal vs. Emanuel Newton. In the first bout of the main card, Mikhail Zayats landed a heavy hand to rock Jacob Noe early on, letting him slip into top position quickly. After some ground-and-pound, he […]
Tonight’s Bellator event saw the two light heavyweight tournament semifinal bouts, including Jacob Noe vs. Mikhail Zayats and “King” Mo Lawal vs. Emanuel Newton. In the first bout of the main card, Mikhail Zayats landed a heavy hand to rock Jacob Noe early on, letting him slip into top position quickly. After some ground-and-pound, he […]
Lawal is back in action tonight at Bellator 90, where he and Emanuel Newton will meet in the semi-finals of the promotion’s Season 8 light-heavyweight tournament. We caught up with Mo recently to discuss getting back in the ring and his training for the peculiar tournament structure. Check out our conversation below, and be sure to tune in to the Spike TV broadcast of Bellator 90 at 10 p.m. ET, which will also feature the Season 8 welterweight tournament finals, and the delayed featherweight tournament final between Shahbulat Shamhalaev and Rad Martinez.
CagePotato: What was it like getting back in the cage last month after such a long layoff?
Muhammed Lawal: The weird thing is. It didn’t feel any different. I had [agent] Mike Kogan, my brother Bull who is fighting in Legacy Fighting Championships in April and Jeff Mayweather with me like usual. I had all my friends and family and coaches around me, so it felt normal.
But I also felt relieved and I felt rejuvenated to see blood and sweat on you, to step into the cage. Seeing my opponent on the other side made me realize what I really missed. It’s like when you are dating a girl. When she’s gone you think, ‘damn, I really miss this or that about her.’
I wanted to get a feel for things in the cage when I got in there but the dude [Mysiala] came forward with haymakers and I knew this might happen, so luckily Jeff Mayweahter trained me well. He trained me to slip, slip, catch, block and roll, and that’s what I tried to do. I hit him with a check hook while he was trying to land a big shot.
CP: Your semi-final fight is just four weeks after the last one. Do you have any injuries left over that you’ll have to fight with?
Lawal is back in action tonight at Bellator 90, where he and Emanuel Newton will meet in the semi-finals of the promotion’s Season 8 light-heavyweight tournament. We caught up with Mo recently to discuss getting back in the ring and his training for the peculiar tournament structure. Check out our conversation below, and be sure to tune in to the Spike TV broadcast of Bellator 90 at 10 p.m. ET, which will also feature the Season 8 welterweight tournament finals, and the delayed featherweight tournament final between Shahbulat Shamhalaev and Rad Martinez.
CagePotato: What was it like getting back in the cage last month after such a long layoff?
Muhammed Lawal: The weird thing is. It didn’t feel any different. I had [agent] Mike Kogan, my brother Bull who is fighting in Legacy Fighting Championships in April and Jeff Mayweather with me like usual. I had all my friends and family and coaches around me, so it felt normal.
But I also felt relieved and I felt rejuvenated to see blood and sweat on you, to step into the cage. Seeing my opponent on the other side made me realize what I really missed. It’s like when you are dating a girl. When she’s gone you think, ‘damn, I really miss this or that about her.’
I wanted to get a feel for things in the cage when I got in there but the dude [Mysiala] came forward with haymakers and I knew this might happen, so luckily Jeff Mayweahter trained me well. He trained me to slip, slip, catch, block and roll, and that’s what I tried to do. I hit him with a check hook while he was trying to land a big shot.
CP: Your semi-final fight is just four weeks after the last one. Do you have any injuries left over that you’ll have to fight with?
Lawal: I’ve got a scratch on my cauliflower ear, that’s it. So I’ve had to keep that clean to prevent staph infection but other than that I’m fine.
CP: I’m always interested in asking fighters how they try to condition themselves. As a camp winds down, you’ve got to maintain your conditioning but also taper down a bit so as not to tire out your muscles. Being a part of this Bellator tournament, though, it seems you’ve got a much different task than most high-level fighters in other organization. How have you been approaching conditioning for this tournament? Do you take each three-to-four week period as its own camp or are you trying to build on things between fights?
Lawal: I don’t really do training camps. In college I learned how to do periodization training to try and find the right time to peak. We break training and fights into phases, with the idea of peaking for the finals. My first phase, for the first fight in the tournament didn’t have a lot of strength work in it. I did a lot of rounds and technique. Then, for the next phase, this fight, I worked with my strength coach on exploding and recovering. So, I’d do a circuit and then take a thirty-second break so that if I have to explode three times in a fight, for example, I will be able to. For the finals we will be going all-out with a full-out training camp that is power-focused. We’ve been slowly adding things.
CP: Is the Bellator tournament structure similar to what you experienced during your amateur wrestling career, because of all the meets and tournaments you have to do throughout a year?
Lawal: College was similar, yeah. In college you have to peak for two things — conference championships and nationals. You have to be in peak shape but not over-train. In international wrestling, you’ve got U.S. nationals, the trials and then the world tournament. I had great coaching from Kevin Jackson. Josh Smith was my college coach. Even in high school, I had great coaching on how to do this.
CP: You’ve fought all over during your MMA career, already. You’ve fought in Japan, in the states for Strikeforce, and now for Bellator. How was the specific experience fighting for this new organization?
Lawal: It is the same because they are all professional. Things start on time. There is a set schedule. The only thing that is different is the platform.
CP: Speaking of the platform, Bellator is now a part of Viacom and your fights are perhaps on a larger platform than they have been before; it’s certainly Bellator’s largest platform. The ratings have been promising for Bellator on Spike. Are you excited about being a centerpiece to Bellator’s strategy to grow larger and become a major MMA player?
Lawal: My goal is to help bring to it to the forefront. Right now, it won’t be what it will be. But if I can help it get there and the kids now are reaping the benefits of it later, I’ll be happy.
CP: Have you studied Emanuel Newton much? When you look at him, what do you see in an opponent?
Lawal: I’ve studied him. I know him. I like him. He’s a good guy. He’s got an awkward Tae Kwon Do style of kicking and he is able to pace himself real well. He fights. I know it’s going to be a fight in there.
In the wake of massive UFC cuts, 