I recently had a conversation with Muhammed Lawal, wherein I asked him about everything from last year’s horrible staph infection that threatened his life to his most recent performance -- a dominant first-round knockout over Przemyslaw Mysiala in the light heavyweight tournament quarterfinals.
While keeping tabs on the Twitter-verse is arguably the lamest part of being a sportswriter, I nevertheless felt I had an obligation to inform “King Mo” that some folks on the Internet seemed to think he looked a little too cocksure in holding his hands so low against the overmatched Pole. I could tell Lawal was tired of answering questions about the ambiguous pressure to which every reporter under the sun continues to refer, so I decided to probe a little deeper, giving Lawal my approximation as to why that question kept flying at him from all angles.
Lawal is Bellator’s crown jewel -- a lone star thrown into a light heavyweight division totally devoid of them. Ask a selection of fans to name their favorite Bellator fighter, and I will guarantee you that not one of them names a light heavyweight other than Lawal. Put simply, we know he is supposed to win this thing. The Bellator and Viacom suits know it, and so do the fans and media.
Disdain, I think, would be a good word to describe what came next. Lawal launched into a well-articulated defense with a little attitude dropped on top like sprinkles on a sundae. He went on to describe the fight in detail, nearly breaking it down minute-by-minute while explaining exactly how, when and why he was attacking his opponent. He even addressed the issue of his low defense -- he was using the shoulder roll, which, of course, is a trademark of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Perhaps most impressively, Lawal told me how he had made the effort to scout Mysiala, claiming he was familiar with his whole career. This, about a man few Bellator fans had even seen before.
The point is, Lawal is confident dude, but he is also a student of the game, perhaps more so than anybody else in his profession. I do not believe the names in the tournament matter to him, and that probably makes him doubly dangerous. I, for one, am excited to see how he performs in the semifinals against former Maximum Fighting Championship titleholder Emanuel Newton.
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Bellator-90-What-to-Watch-For-50187
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