MUHAMMED "KING MO" LAWAL CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC ON POTENTIAL BOUT WITH GEGARD MOUSASI
by Steven Marrocco

MMAjunkie.com
Jan 26, 2010 at 5:35 pm ET

Fresh from a late night training session in Orange County, Calif.,
with Wanderlei Silva and Fabricio Werdum, Muhammed Lawal (6-0 MMA,
1-0 SF) heard the news about Gegard Mousasi’s (28-2-1 MMA, 2-0 SF)
desire to fight him next, but "King Mo" didn’t want to get too excited.

"I feel great," Lawal told MMAjunkie.com () when
contacted about the potential matchup. "I’ll feel better when it’s
confirmed, you know what I’m saying? Once it’s confirmed, game over."

Lawal said he expected to face the Strikeforce light heavyweight
champion after defeating Mike Whitehead at "Strikeforce: Evolution"
but added that he had not been formally offered the fight and nothing
was confirmed.

On Monday, Mousasi surfaced on multiple news outlets and said he
expected to face Lawal on the second installment of "Strikeforce
on CBS" in mid-April, though he, too, said the fight was in its
early stages.

The pair was supposed to meet two previous times, though the bout
never came to fruition.

This past August, a fight was scratched at "M-1 Global: Breakthrough"
when Lawal, nursing a newly repaired ACL, elected instead to fight
Mark Kerr. Mousasi went on to face sometime training partner and No.

1-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko in a grappling exhibition,
and he wound up injuring his elbow in the process.

A second meeting was scratched at "Dynamtite!! 2009" when Mousasi
turned down a fight with "King Mo" on the New Year’s Eve card for
unknown reasons, according to Lawal.

"I don’t know if he turned it down, or I guess his management –
maybe he didn’t have enough time to train for me on short notice,
but I was willing to step in and fight him at DREAM," Lawal said.

As always, the former Division I All-American and Division II champion
addressed his critics and said they were a primary motivator in his
fight path.

"My critics are my opponents as well," Lawal said. "Because everybody
has something to say. Who’s that dude, Mike Straka? I don’t know who
he is, but I guess he’s trying to tell people that I’m overrated and
this and that. This is coming from somebody who knows [expletive]
about MMA, who’s just a fan with his own TV show. If he thinks I’m
overrated, he can come and train with me. Come train with me – I’ll
show you overrated.

"I’ve only been in this sport for a year and a half. Now who else in
a year-and-a-half has been beating people with winning records like
I have?"

And truth be told, Lawal said would feel out of place if it were any
other way.

"If everyone was giving me compliments, like ‘you the man, you the
man,’ then what’s the point?" Lawal asked. "I like being an underdog.

I like people doubting me."

But when it came to making proclamations about how a potential fight
with Mousasi would go down, "King Mo" was surprisingly restrained.

In a recent interview with Sherdog.com, Mousasi said he was en route
to an extended training camp with UFC welterweight champion Georges
St-Pierre. On a potential fight with Lawal, the Armenian-born fighter
said he had the advantage in all areas of the game but one: wrestling.

"He can say this and that, but we’ll find out come fight time," Lawal
said. "Yeah, he has good stand-up. He might have a better clinch, but
I’m not worried about what he says at all. I hope he trains hard with
‘GSP,’ man. That’s cool. It’s whatever. He can do whatever he wants
and say whatever he wants, cause when it comes down to it – when the
fight happens – I’m going to be happy, because I get what I want.

"Anybody can make a [prediction] right now, but I’m just going to
keep my knowledge to myself until the fight comes – because then
everybody will see what I’m talking about, why I wanted this fight."

In the meantime, Lawal said he will continue to train for a general
opponent and hope for the best.

For the latest on the as-yet-unannounced Strikeforce on CBS show in
April, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

(Pictured: Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal)

Steven Marrocco is a staff reporter for MMAjunkie.com and an MMA
contributor for The Vancouver Sun.