Tag: Mo Lawal

Titles on the Line, But No Hard Feelings at Strikeforce: Houston Press Conference

Filed under: StrikeforceHOUSTON – If today’s Strikeforce: Houston pre-fight press conference had a theme, that theme was ‘respect.’ It made for a calm, congenial, and somewhat boring atmosphere, but perhaps that’s just what happens when all eight fight…

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HOUSTON – If today’s Strikeforce: Houston pre-fight press conference had a theme, that theme was ‘respect.’ It made for a calm, congenial, and somewhat boring atmosphere, but perhaps that’s just what happens when all eight fighters on the televised portion of the card like one another too much.

Even defending Strikeforce light heavyweight champion “King” Mo Lawal, who usually likes some trash talk to go along with his pre-fight press obligations, explained that he just couldn’t work up the same animosity toward new challenger Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante that he had for Gegard Mousasi in his last fight.

“I respect Feijao,” said Lawal. “We’ve trained with some of the same people. He’s never questioned my character like Mousasi did. Mousasi was quick to go on record saying that I’m full of myself and I’m this and I’m that. Me and Feijao, we don’t need to do that. We’ll do that Saturday. We’ll fight Saturday and have fun.”

Randy Couture Isn’t Buying James Toney’s Tales of Gym Submissions

Filed under: UFCOAKLAND – On a clear Saturday afternoon in August Randy Couture slipped on an Oakland A’s jersey, a UFC baseball cap, and a comfortable pair of jeans and headed out to the ballpark to partake in that most easily embarrassing of all publ…

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OAKLAND – On a clear Saturday afternoon in August Randy Couture slipped on an Oakland A’s jersey, a UFC baseball cap, and a comfortable pair of jeans and headed out to the ballpark to partake in that most easily embarrassing of all public sports outings: the ceremonial first pitch.

Not that Couture was worried. He’d done this only a few weeks before in Chicago, and after fighting in a cage for most of his professional life, playing an abbreviated game of catch in front of a crowd that’s still mostly trickling into the stadium is a relatively low-stress activity.

It was just another appearance. Another thing he had to do to satisfy the PR gods.

But with his big fight against boxing legend James Toney at UFC 118 just a few weeks away, and with the summer action movie “The Expendables” to promote along with these occasional UFC-related obligations, it begs the question: when does Couture even find time to hit the gym these days? Is it possible he’s not completely convinced that Toney is a challenge worth getting too worked up over?