(“I don’t give a damn about some Bellator fighter that goes by the name of King Mo.” Well, that makes two of you. Video via TNAWrestling)
When Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal signed a dual-contract with Bellator and TNA Wrestling earlier this year, fans wondered how he’d be able to straddle the often-opposing worlds of real fighting and show fighting — a rare trick to pull off outside of Japan. But Lawal’s one-year suspension for steroids has allowed him to focus the majority of his energies on learning the pro wrestling game, and we’re starting to get the feeling that we might lose him altogether. Call it hunch, based on the fact that Mo thinks MMA is a fad, and can’t stand you people. Here’s what he told BleacherReport in an interview published yesterday:
“It starts with the way the fans don’t think for themselves,” Lawal stated. “They have to look to certain people for approval on how they think. They bash the fighters and think fighting is easier than it really is. A lot of people didn’t grow up fighting. They grew up playing football and basketball. So they can relate to missing a pass, a layup, free throws and dropping a pass, an interception or kicking a field goal.
“MMA fans never grew up fighting. They just put on their Affliction or Tapout shirts and say, ‘Hey I’m a fighter or hey I’m going to a fight.’ To me, its a joke. It is a certain demographic that’s involved and I’m not with that.”
Part of me wonders if Lawal is intentionally playing a sort of MMA-traitor heel here, dissing MMA fans so that they’ll tune in to TNA Wrestling on Spike and watch him compete out of…hostility, I guess? I don’t know. It’s kind of a stretch. Let’s just assume that this is really how Lawal feels, and that he’s under the impression that pro-wrestling fans are a well-informed, well-dressed, and respectful bunch, who have all spent time gaining hands-on training in the Dungeon. Let’s see how Mo feels in six months, after being mobbed by dudes like this after every show.
Lawal, who made his introductory TNA appearance on October 4th (see the video at the top of this post), has spent all month studying his new trade at Ohio Valley Wrestling in Louisville, Kentucky, under the guidance of Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore. And it’s kicking his ass, to hear him tell it:
“I thought it was going to be hard, but this (pro wrestling training) is harder than I expected,” Lawal stated. “I’m going to tell you this. Pro wrestling training is three times harder than MMA. It’s harder because of the psychology, the positioning, the bumps, hitting the ropes and cutting promos…That s**t is hard. People don’t understand this s**t. People think wrestling is all fake. If you think it is fake, come try it out and you will see how real it really is.”
On the other hand, you get to do as many steroids as you want and nobody bothers you about it. (Boom. Score another one for us asshole MMA fans.)