(video after the jump) Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal has seen his world spiral downwards this past week after a hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The NSAC slapped Lawal with a nine month suspension and a $39,000 fine for a positive steroid result following a fight last January. After […]
'King Mo' Lawal
(video after the jump)
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal has seen his world spiral downwards this past week after a hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
The NSAC slapped Lawal with a nine month suspension and a $39,000 fine for a positive steroid result following a fight last January.
After the hearing, in response to commissioner Pat Lundvall’s question about whether he could “read or write English”, Lawal posted a controversial Tweet calling the women a “bitch”.
That Tweet, which has since been removed, also cost Lawal his job as he was released by Strikeforce shortly aftwards.
“I was out of line for calling the woman the ‘b’ word and I was wrong for that,” Lawal told CSN California. “I was kind of mad about the comments, I was offended by the comments made towards me and I was out of line. I was too emotional. I apologize for that. With that being said, I still feel that I was offended, but I’m in the wrong for what I said.”
This is the first step in the right direction for Lawal, who may be able to work his way back into the good graces of Zuffa, if that is the direction he wants to go. There is talk though, that Bellator and the Indian based, Super Fight League, are both interested in the fighter.
Big brother is watching, well in this case, Bellator Fighting Championships is watching the Twitter accounts of their fighters. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney says the promotion is monitoring what their fighters have to say on media venues like Twitter, going so far as to call fighters out on questionable posts. The subject came up during […]
Big brother is watching, well in this case, Bellator Fighting Championships is watching the Twitter accounts of their fighters.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney says the promotion is monitoring what their fighters have to say on media venues like Twitter, going so far as to call fighters out on questionable posts.
The subject came up during Thursday’s podcast of “The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo” following in the wake of the recent dismissal of Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal from Strikeforce over his Twitter comments.
Rebney spent 40-minutes talking to Ranallo discussing everything from tonight’s event to the future of the promotion on Spike TV.
“We had a fighter very recently post something on Twitter and it utilized some terminology that was wildly out of place and totally inappropriate and we called him on it immediately. His answer was he said he didn’t mean to offend anyone by it, he was trying to show by comparison, blah blah blah. We said we understand what you’re saying but it doesn’t matter, you’ll offend a group of people if you post it that way. He said thanks for making me aware of that and he pulled it down immediately. We’re tracking it, we’re watching it, we’re paying attention to it.”
Middleweight fighter Brian Stann (11-4) is looking to take a personal tragedy in his life, the passing of his brother-in-law last December, by turning it into a positive. In Stann’s mind he wants to use his upcoming UFC on FUEL TV 2 bout with Alessio Sakara as a way of memorializing his brother-in-law by “showing […]
Brian Stann
Middleweight fighter Brian Stann (11-4) is looking to take a personal tragedy in his life, the passing of his brother-in-law last December, by turning it into a positive.
In Stann’s mind he wants to use his upcoming UFC on FUEL TV 2 bout with Alessio Sakara as a way of memorializing his brother-in-law by “showing once again that adversity can be overcome with a strong family and a positive outlook.”
Stann and Sakara meet next month in Stockholm, Sweden in the co-main event of the FUEL TV event on April 14, 2012. The former Marine enters the fight on a loss, having been submitted by Chael Sonnen at UFC 136 last October.
In a Blog for FOX Sports, Stann talked about losing his brother-in-law, Louie, the effects of the death on him and his family, as well as his preparations for the upcoming fight.
Unlike the Sonnen loss, the death of my brother-in-law was a genuinely trying situation. I remember the moment I heard the news like it was only yesterday. We were in baggage claim when I got the call. It was our first time home in Pennsylvania, where we planned to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our families. I had to tell my wife the news as we landed in Pennsylvania. There is nothing worse than watching the woman you love be completely devastated and heartbroken by a piece of news you’ve delivered to her. It was one of the lowest points of my life.
A lot of people would use an tragedy like this as a potential excuse if they were then unable to perform to their best come fight night. But I can assure everybody reading this, as well as my opponent, Alessio Sakara, that I will be more than ready come April 14. There will be nothing else in the world that I would rather do on that night than step into the octagon and fight.
In fact, after the tragedy I spoke to my family and all the guys at the gym, and everybody came to me with the same advice — they all said I needed to get back in there and compete as soon as possible. No good would come from contacting the UFC and asking for some time off. This is what I do, and this is what I do to provide for my family. Also, my brother-in-law was a big supporter of my career and would have hated for me to either just give up or put the whole thing on hold.
As we’ve moved closer to this April 14 date, my wife has made a conscious effort to use my fight as a necessary distraction for herself as well. She’s helping me prepare and has invested emotionally into this fight. She’s also turning the whole episode into a positive and is opening up a foundation in her brother’s name. That really shows the strength of my wife.
Adversity is always what truly defines people, and last Christmas was the most testing time for my family — for me, my wife, my kids and everybody else. It was as tough a situation as any of us have experienced. In my mind, this fight on April 14 will go some way to memorializing Louie and showing once again that adversity can be overcome with a strong family and positive outlook. In light of everything that’s happened, I’ve never in my life been more determined and motivated to win a fight. This is the absolute worst time to fight me right now.
This past Tuesday, former Strikeforce fighter Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal was fined $39,000 and saddled with a nine month suspension back dated to a Jan. 7, 2012 Strikeforce event. Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director, Keith Kizer spoke recently about the sentencing as well as Lawal’s Twitter rant which led to the fighter’s release from […]
This past Tuesday, former Strikeforce fighter Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal was fined $39,000 and saddled with a nine month suspension back dated to a Jan. 7, 2012 Strikeforce event.
Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director, Keith Kizer spoke recently about the sentencing as well as Lawal’s Twitter rant which led to the fighter’s release from Strikeforce.
Kizer, who was a guest on “The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo” on Wednesday, noted that many fighters in the past have tried to blame a “supplement” for their predicament but shouldn’t expect the commission to “roll out the red carpet for you” because you claim to be innocent. Also, that when it comes to steroids, the NSAC feels very strongly against their use and will always issue a stiff penalty to those who break the rules.
“If you’re going to go do steroids then fight in Nevada, don’t expect us to roll out the red carpet for you…”
“Obviously (Lawal’s) answers on his pre-fight medical questionnaire were not 100% accurate, and that’s putting it nicely. It’s foundational to say that if you read, speak, and understand English, then why did you check no in the box?
“There’s always going to be tough questions. This is a very serious disciplinary matter and it was handled as such.”
“…The last three steroids cases we had were nine-month suspensions and a 30% fine,” Kizer said. “(The punishment) depends on what the drug is. The steroids are the ones we give the biggest penalty for.”
“… It’s not uncommon for an athlete to come forward and say, ‘It must have been this supplement, please believe me,’” Kizer said. “Well, (the commission) considers all the factors when they make those crediblity decisions.”
Also featured on Wednesday’s podcast was Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal, Bellator welterweight Ben Saunders, and UFC middleweight Court McGee.
On Tuesday, former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal took to Twitter, after a hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, to express his anger over one of the commission member’s comments. Lawal, who received a nine month suspension and $39,000 fine for a positive steroid test from a Jan. 7 Strikeforce event, […]
On Tuesday, former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal took to Twitter, after a hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, to express his anger over one of the commission member’s comments.
Lawal, who received a nine month suspension and $39,000 fine for a positive steroid test from a Jan. 7 Strikeforce event, stated that the one commission member, Pat Lundvall, asked “Do you speak English? Can you read?”
‘King Mo’, who hales from the South, felt the comments were insensitive and hurtful, so he reacted that way on Twitter. Unfortunately for him, it also cost him his job as he was also released from contract by Zuffa Tuesday evening.
Speaking with BloodyElbow.com, Lawal was accepting of the situation, offering up his side of the story for others to judge themselves.
Who were you addressing in your Twitter posts, and why were you upset?
Mo Lawal: It was the woman at the hearing, but I can’t remember her name (ed note, it’s Pat Lundvall). She asked a question that I felt was worded kind of funny. She asked if I did research for my training. I didn’t get what she meant by the question, and she rolled her eyes and asked, ‘Do you speak English? Can you read?’ First she wanted to know if I had access to a laptop computer. I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ Then she asked about researching my training. I said, ‘What?’ That’s when she rolled her eyes and asked if I could read or write. I told her, ‘No, I have coaches and trainers that do that.’
The way she came at me was out of line. I was up front, and answered every question they asked.
Has anyone from ZUFFA contacted you or your management about the tweets you put out following the hearing?
ML: They contacted Mike (Kogan, Mo’s manager), saying that I should never have called her a bitch. I wasn’t calling her a bitch, the way you would say that to a female. To me, anybody can be a bitch. I meant it as saying she was cranky. I guess I should have said ‘the cranky female’, but the way she spoke to me, come on. That reminds me of stuff I used to hear in high school and college. If you don’t come from the South and been the minority, it’s hard to understand where I’m coming from. ‘Speak English.’ Nobody has every come to you and said that, but it’s happened to me plenty of times. It rubbed me the wrong way, and to be honest, it hurt me.
I feel like she pre-judged me by the way I was dressed too. Obviously, I couldn’t wear a suit. I mean, I have a fanny pack with a wound vac in it that has tubes running down to my knee. That has to run 24/7 for another week. I still have a PICC line in, and full wound dressings on my knee, so I’m limited on what I can wear with all that. I’m not saying she’s a racist, but I feel like she pre-judged me in a sense, and I didn’t like that.
Former UFC middleweight champion Patrick ‘The Predator’ Côté (16-7) feels that anyone who wants to get back into the Octagon needs to earn that right, not beg for it. Côté is a year-and-a-half, and three fights, removed from his last stint in the Octagon. The French-Canadian fighter saw his time in the UFC end after […]
Former UFC middleweight champion Patrick ‘The Predator’ Côté (16-7) feels that anyone who wants to get back into the Octagon needs to earn that right, not beg for it.
Côté is a year-and-a-half, and three fights, removed from his last stint in the Octagon. The French-Canadian fighter saw his time in the UFC end after three straight losses, which included a defeat to Anderson Silva for the UFC title at UFC 90 after suffering a knee injury in the third round.
Since then, Côté has gone on to win three straight fights under the banner of local promotions in his home Province of Quebec, as he attempts to regain a chance at fighting in the Octagon again.
In a recent podcast, Côté spoke to MMAWeekly Radio about losing respect for fighters who beg for a chance to return to the UFC, in specific former heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia recently took to Twitter to try and get the UFC’s attention, and get a call back to the big show. Cote’s anger at the tactic erupted via his own Twitter account, but he promises it wasn’t necessarily targeted at Sylvia.
Cote was targeting any former UFC fighter that was going the social networking route as opposed to fighting to get back to the Octagon.
“Maybe that was a little bit out of control because that wasn’t a personal attack to Tim Sylvia, but that was just begging to have a chance to go back to the UFC, for me, it’s just a shame. You can’t beg the big organizations like that,” said Cote.
“You’ve been a champion in this organization; you know how things work. You’re not going to go anywhere by begging like that. I was just annoyed about begging, a lot of the begging, and I said loud what a lot of people was thinking. I have nothing against Sylvia. He’s been a great champion. He did a lot in the sport. He did a lot in the UFC. I hope he’s going to be back in the UFC. That’s not the point. The point was just about the begging thing.”
“The only thing you have to do is shut your mouth, win fights, and prove you deserve to be back in the big show by winning fights and by your performance,” Cote stated.
Côté heads to Brazil this coming weekend searching for his fourth straight win as he faces Gustavo Machado (22-8-1) on the main card of the Amazon Forest Combat 2 show in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil on March 31.
