There is no curse in this world quite like Talent. For most of the population, our lot in life is to find a job, work for 70 years and then pass away, hoping our impact on the world and the people we loved was positive, but for the few gifted people special enough to be gifted with a prodigious talent in a field, it couldn’t be more different. For the talented, they have exceptional opportunities afforded to them, the world fosters their gifts and thrusts upon them the burden of expectations - you and I aren’t expected to do anything but live, but for the talented, their baseline is exceptional. History is often shaped by the chosen ones who delivered, but far more prevalent are the stories of the gifted and the special that lay broken at the bottom of the mountain; maybe they didn’t ever start their climb or maybe they fell on their way up, their remains are at the bottom all the same, laid bare as a cautionary tale. There are a few, however, who struggle with this gift of talent and their burning desire to be themselves - they don’t live for others or their expectations, but the gifts they wield demand greatness… no such story is as clear of this dynamic as Muhammad Lawal. Through the 2000’s, Lawal plied his craft as one of America’s best wrestlers, and in hte 2010’s, as one of the world’s best fighters, but history looks upon Lawal’s bones at the bottom of the mountain the same as it does anyone else… but the one who doesn’t is Lawal. Passivity, Upsets, Japan and a crown fit for a king set the scene - this is the story of King Mo Lawal.
The story of Muhammad Lawal as one of America’s best wrestlers starts in College, where Lawal would adopt his now ubiquitous moniker of King Mo. For Lawal, the son of Nigerian Immigrants who grew up in small towns in the south, adopting the persona of “King” was a way to remind himself that he was special. As a high school wrestler in Plano, Texas, Lawal’s biggest achievements were in his Junior and Senior years, where he would place 2nd and 1st in the State, but there are few people looking to find talent who excel in the competitive field of Plano. While Lawal went undefeated his senior year on the mat while also excelling at Football and Track, Lawal’s collegiate prospects were more reminiscent of one of his peers as a black wrestling prospect; future olympian Daniel Cormier. While both excelled at the high school level, neither were granted scholarships at Division 1 schools, leading to Cormier going to a Community College in Kansas while Lawal would wrestle for Division 2’s Central Oklahoma. Both of them were exceptional in the smaller field of competition, but the two of them had opposite approaches to the sport and their perceptions. For the part of Cormier, he was an eternal grinder, a naturally strong but not athletically gifted performer who embraced the hardships and the struggles that rising throught he ranks of smaller talent pools granted him; Lawal was a gifted athlete who yearned for a spotlight bigger than Division 2 Wrestling. Don’t be mistaken - Division 2 wrestling is still impressive, especially for Lawal, who got silver and gold at the national championships his sophomore and junior year, but for Lawal, who’s athletic ability came naturally, being in a place where people could deem him as anything other than exceptional would be a humbling experience that levelled hm out… so Lawal adopted this persona to remind people that he could not be humbled and he would not be denied - he would go by King Mo. In his Senior Year, Mo would transfer to Oklahoma State, the same Division 1 School that Cormier had moved to in the latter half of his collegiate career, and proved he was on the level, getting 3rd at his lone National Championships in 2003. Mo’s college career was less notable than someone of his pedigree would lead you believe, only spending one year in Division 1 competition but having a dominant run in Division 2 that transferred into Division 1, but what’s remarkable is that Mo’s aptitude came with such a short time in the sport, only picking up wrestling at 16 and going on to medal in his 3 national championships - With mo’s athletic gifts and clear aptitude for the sport, his upside at the world level was nearly limitless. While he would miss the Olympics in 2004, losing in trials to eventual Gold Medalist and one of America’s greatest wrestlers ever in Cael Sanderson, Mo would actually be the man to succeed Sanderson at 197 at the world level in 05, Placing 7th at the World Championships after a controversial loss to Russia’s Sazhid Sazhidov. Reportedly, Lawal and Sazhidov had a competitive bout with Lawal ahead for much of it, but in the last second, Lawal was deducted a point for stalling, granting the win for Sazhidov, notably being controversial for being a loss to a European representative on European soil. What’s even more frustrating for Mo is that the eventual 2005 gold medalist, Georgia’s Revas Mindorashvili, was someone who had already lost to Mo previously. Regardless, King Mo’s career in World Freestyle had started perhaps more impressively than anybody could have dreamed - after picking up wrestling in high school and a successful college career, Mo would only miss the olympics by losing to perhaps the greatest American wrestler of all time, and have to be robbed at the World Championships to prevent him from potentially taking a Gold in his first outing. The promise of Muhammad Lawal dominating Freestyle Wrestling at 84 Kilos seemed a foregone conclusion - he was only going to improve, and the Olympics were just a few years away; it wasn’t just believed King Mo would qualify for the Olympics, he was expected to cruise through and bring home a gold medal… and then, he didn’t.
After 2005, King Mo’s career was a mixed bag. While he continued his momentum from 05 by winning the 2006 National Championships, he was upset by University of Michigan’s Andy Hrovat in the Qualifying Semi Finals for the World Championship team, which sent Mo into a bit of a tailspin. Hrovat was a solid collegiate wrestler, being honored 3 times as an All American, but he wasn’t expected to challenge King Mo, and when Hrovat pulled the upset, it left Mo in a limbo of how best to proceed. His solution seemed to be to try his hand at 96 Kilos, moving up a weight class for 2007, and while he had solid international success, winning Gold at the Pan Ams and Silver at the World Cup, he would run into a brick wall in the shape of Oklahoma teammate and #1 Ranked Daniel Cormier, who beat him in both the National Championships and the World Championship Qualifiers. Returning to 84 Kilos in 2008, Mo avenged his loss to Hrovat at the 2008 Nationals before going to the Olympic Trials and having a 3rd match with Andy Hrovat. Despite Hrovat beating Mo in 06, it was clear that Hrovat was not King Mo’s equal - Hrovat failed to come close to Mo’s placement from the year prior, going out at 18th to Mo’s 7th in 05, and while neither qualified for Worlds in 2007, King Mo’s absence in the weight class wouldn’t open it up for Hrovat, and the smaller Joe Williams qualified instead. King Mo was the favorite, he was the best wrestler in the country at 84 Kilograms, and he had beaten Andy Hrovat earlier int he year… but, despite all of this, Andy Hrovat upset King Mo in the Olympic Trials, winning their series 2-1 and stamping his ticket to Beijing, leaving King Mo in no man’s land. While Mo was still probably the most skilled wrestler at his weight, he had missed two olympics and only went to Worlds once - even Andy Hrovat was going to the world level for a second time at his expense… what was Mo supposed to do? He had struggled to decide which weight class he wanted to compete in and was brickwalled at both at the final hurdle, and now, going into his 5th year of International Freestyle, he had almost nothing to show for it besides a handful of potential. Mo was 27, he wasn’t getting any younger, and even though he could still be great, the cliff you approach in amateur wrestling comes extremely fast for an athletic marvel; even if Mo remained a top wrestler, there were no guarantees that he would make the olympics in 2012 as younger, potentially better talent continued to come into the sport… but this isn’t what Mo thought about. Mo didn’t lament over his placement in history or how he was going to remain competitive; King Mo was driven from an internal need to break out of poverty. Mo is a unique individual for Amateur Wrestling; someone who isn’t driven by a love of the sport or needing to pay his time back - as was stated, Mo didn’t owe all he had to wrestling, it was something he was good at. He joined wrestling in high school and thrived on his own, not because of what wrestling gave him - in the early 2000’s, King Mo was at the forefront of an initiative dubbed Real Pro Wrestling, an organization that attempted to gather wrestlers and present the sport professionally. King Mo was the champion of his weight class, even being joined by Daniel Cormier, and while it folded, the allure of money for his talents drove King Mo to his next avenue. If he couldn’t make his name in Wrestling and parlay that into fortune, he would take that fortune by force - King Mo would jump ship to Mixed Martial Arts.
In 2008, MMA was in the middle of a boom period that seemingly had no end in sight. Lead by the UFC in the United States since 2005, Mixed Martial Arts wasn’t just getting a foothold in pop culture, it was beginning to become synonymous with it - Tapout was everywhere, Kimbo Slice videos were going viral online, pay per view records were being set, smaller organizations were getting major tv deals; the trend for prominence in Mixed Martial ARts wasn’t just upward, it was a vertical arrow. There was no better time to cross into MMA as a 27 year old still prime, still elite wrestler, but King Mo’s debut didn’t follow the conventional path you might recognize today. In the late 2000’s, even amazing wrestlers had to start from the bottom; collegiate superstars like Johny Hendricks had to fight for a year on no name regionals before he debuted in a company that had any sort of prominence, but for King Mo, his goals didn’t lie in “the right way”, but in the pay day, which lead him to the alternate path - Japan. While the sport was booming in the united states, the status of Japanese MMA was extremely tenuous; In 2006, the country’s major promotion PRIDE lost their tv deal because of allegations that they were tied with the Yakuza, eventually leading to their purchase and dissolution in 2007. Meanwhile, Kickboxing organization K-1 had been plugging along with their MMA promotion Hero’s to solid success, and when PRIDE’s executives were free to seek other work, they would spread across Japan and lead to a potential second wave of major promotions in the country. Thus spawned two promotions - DREAM and Sengoku, both of which sought to present a different vision of Mixed MArtial Arts in the wake of PRIDE’s departure. DREAM sought to capture the spirit of PRIDE - blue gloves, major events held in Saitama Super Arena, same round structure harkened back to the glory days of PRIDE, but Sengoku sought to capture the global appeal. DREAM had inherited the roster from K-1’s Hero’s organizatino, which was legendary for it’s featuring the best of the lighter weight classes, but Sengoku sought stars - Josh Barnett, Takanori Gomi, Kazuo Misaki and KEvin Randleman were all highlight names on their first shows. Beyond that, Sengoku broke out with the major broadcast deal, signing with Fuji TV to replace PRIDE in the same timeslot, and even offered rules more similar to the West’s unified rules, with 5 minute rounds and a banning of soccer kicks. Because of their major broadcast deal, Sengoku had a bit of money to play around with, which captured the attention of one King Mo Lawal, but even King Mo couldn’t have expected how much Japan would boost him in his MMA Aspirations.
King Mo’s debut in Sengoku on September 28th was a lot of things. In the West, Amateur Wrestlers debut in MMA on random regionals like anyone else - their paths to the big time might be shorter, but they are rubbing elbows with go nowheres for the immediate future, but in Japan, crossover sports stars have the red carpet rolled out for them. Two of the greatest examples actually met in 2004 when Judo Gold Medalist Hidehiko Yoshida fought Greco Roman Gold Medalist Rulon Gardner at PRIDE Shockwave - in Gardner’s lone MMA Fight, he met one of Japan’s most famous crossover stars on one of the biggest cards in history. Japanese MMA is rich with stories of crossover stars headlining major shows for massive money before and after 2008 - Aleksander Karelin, Satoshi Ishii, Jose Canseco! Japanese Mixed MArtial Arts drew King Mo in because not only did they throw money at people who captivate attention, but they presented them like gods. There is, however, one major drawback to this approach for a would be MMA Star - if you want to be paid that money, you’re going to have to earn it. None of these crossover stars received easy fights - in fact, they were often set up in fights with veterans who, while not at the top of the sport, still had the ring time to run out a would be pretender who was there for the pay day. King Mo’s debut in Sengoku would come against Travis Wiuff, one of MMA’s many regional kings who rack up huge numbers of fights on any card that will give them money but will often to lose to anybody who is any kind of notable. In the grand scheme of MMA, Wiuff is an average fighter only notable for his volume of fights… but for a fighter debuting in MMA? Travis Wiuff is about the worst person to draw. Wiuff had gone on a 9 fight undefeated streak, beating solid competition in Sean Salmon, Travis Fulton and Chris Tuchsherer, but his biggest win potentially ever came against Japanese MMA Icon Kazuyuki Fujita at Sengoku 3. Fujita had come into MMA in 2000 with a background in amateur wrestling, but what made him so iconic was his durability - Fujita was known for fighting the hardest hitters in the sport and persevering, earning him the affectionate nickname Ol Ironhead - Travis Wiuff knocked him out in a minute and a half. Wiuff was seasoned, he was active, he was winning fights against MMA Veterans, and beyond all of this, he was a big, physical heavyweight going up against King Mo, who’s highest weight in wrestling was 211. In the ring, Mo would be outweighed by 25 pounds and come in at an experience gap of 65 fights… and King Mo’s MMA Debut would end in victory as he knocked Travis Wiuff out in 2 minutes. One clean shot and Travis Wiuff was out on his feet and pounded out to mark King Mo’s MMA Debut as a success. It is, truly, one of the strangest scenes in MMA - King Mo knocks out Travius Wiuff in an awkward fight where the two miss punches for 2 minutes, but then the knockout happens, not necessarily confirming King Mo’s aptitude for MMA, but still settling any fears of him not adapting to striking or being afraid of punches or buckling when more experienced, veteran opponents stood across from him. Mo had arrived, and his persona of a King left a striking image each time he came out that left a lasting impression on fans who saw him, especially in the west. Over the next year, King Mo would continue to rack up win after win, making it clear that his opposition were woefully outmatched before signing a deal with United States organization, Strikeforce.
In Strikeforce, Mo would enter into a company enjoying the MMA boom perhaps even more than the UFC. Prior to 2009, Strikeforce was a respectable regional promotion in California who offered a solid mixture of legends and talent local to California who promoter Scott Coker loved to put on the cards, but Strikeforce broke huge in 2009, signing a number of star fighters from the now defunct Elite XC, inheriting the national broadcast deals from Elite XC in Showtime and CBS, and working with Japanese promotion DREAM to showcase fighters statesidei. Across 2009, Strikeforce transformed from regional standout to legitimate powerhouse, and by adding King Mo to their ranks in 2009, it made their light heavyweight division more than just the one man show that it had the potential of becoming. For Strikeforce, their star Light Heavyweight was Gegard Mousasi, a fighter who had terrorized Japan between the Middleweight and Heavyweight divisions, recording wins over Hector Lombard, Cyborg Santos, Denis Kang, Melvin Manhoef, Jacare Souza, Mark Hunt, Gary Goodridge, Babalu Sobral and Sokoudjou in his 4 year 15 fight unbeaten streak, during which he would win the DREAM Middlewieght Grand Prix and the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship. Prior to Mousasi, the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship was held by mid tier veteran Bobby Southworth and respected veteran Babalu, but when Mousasi fought Babalu in 2009, he knocked him out in 1 minute flat. Gegard Mousasi had become one of the few Prestige fighters in the sport, achieving a level of praise reserved for all time greats like Fedor Emelianenko - in fact, if there is one fighter who has the unmistakable aura of Fedor, it would have been Gegard Mousasi. The stoic and respectful attitude before and after the fight that stood in contrast to a violent finisher when the bell rang; if left to his own devices, Gegard Mousasi could have dominated the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight division for years, but now, he had to share the room with King Mo Lawal, and when a presence like Mo’s that demands attention and praise is in the same space as someone like Mousasi, a stoic and generationally strong champion, something has to give… and no sport can provide the platform to give quite like Mixed Martial ARts. With just 6 fights in his career, King Mo walked into Strikeforce Nashville to fight Gegard Mousasi for the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship. For maybe the first time since wrestling, King Mo was the underdog - betting odds for hte fight list Gegard Mousasi as a more than 2-1 favorite, and why wouldn’t they? Mousasi had fought heavyweights and handled them easily, his striking was among the best in MMA, his submissions were elite, his undefeated streak alone more than doubled Mo’s experience in fights and quadrupled his time training in MMA. Gegard Mousasi and King Mo’s paths crossed that night in 2010, and, had all gone to plan, perhaps things would have been different.
In a night of shocking results, King Mo would win against Gegard Mousasi at Strikeforce’s biggest event of all time, putting the crown on his head and hte belt on his waist live on CBS for the world to see. The fight was uneventful - King Mo was able to secure takedowns with ease, but wasn’t able to get anything done from top position as Gegard Mousasi threw punches from the bottom but was unable to get up. While it was hardly the most discussed fight of the night, definitely not the most discussed event to happen overall in Nashville, it left Mo in a strange place - he could no longer be considered a prospect, he had beaten one of the best fighters in the world and held the second biggest promotion’s championship, but he was still a relative rookie with 18 months and 7 fights of experience. To put this into perspective, when eventual UFC Light Heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones had his 7th fight, it was his UFC Debut, and when he made the walk after 18 months of his career starting, he had just beaten Jake O’Brien and was dubbed as “Someone with a high upside who could become special”. There is no real way to adjust expectations for someone as special as quickly as King Mo - you can’t baby him because he is too strong, but expecting him to act beyond his experience and give the aura of a veteran is impossible… the truth, of course, lay in our flaws as viewers. When we saw King Mo beating Gegard Mousasiwe didn’t see an underdog, we saw a transcendent talent live up to what he should be, but at the same time, seeing him put a crown on his head betrays an aura of arrogance - we can know you’re great, but if you think you’re great, then you’re conceited and someone needs to humble you. This culture is incredibly pervasive in American athletics, especially ones that empower predominantly black people. King Mo has always known this, and as a son of Nigerian immigrants with devout Muslim faith, he knew that putting a crown on his head and calling himself King Mo and being the explosive athlete he was brought out the worst forms of accepted bigotry. It’s natural to expect more things from talented people, but Muhammad Lawal has carried the weight of a system that wants to humble him and teach him respect from the day he put on a crown and dared to jump higher and run faster than his peers. When people saw Mo call himself a king on CBS, it didn’t matter about his experience level; all people wanted was to see him get the crown knocked off of his head and to bring him back down to earth.
King Mo’s Strikeforce career wouldn’t last much longer, through a convoluted string of events, one of the best fighters in the division found himself adrift. We can start at the easy; In august 2010, King Mo fought Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante, a solid if a little spotty Brazilian fighter who had fought his way to a title shot in one of Strikeforce’s weaker divisions. In the first two rounds, King Mo won them pretty handily, taking Feijao down a couple of times but mostly winning on the feet, but after 2 rounds of attempting takedowns and landing punches, Mo’s cardio faded and he was subsequently finished by the brazilian knockout artist. Many were thrilled with Mo’s loss because people love when supposedly arrogant athletes get knocked down a peg to remind htem that they are also falliable. King Mo rebounded after a year long layoff against undefeated Brazilian Jiu Jitsu God Roger Gracie, who, while he’s better at MMA than you would imagine a Gracie would be in 2011 and he’s probably the greatest sport grappler of all time, you’d be hard pressed to find an easier layup for King Mo’s return fight than a lanky jiu jitsu fighter who can’t secure a takedown and who can’t engage in the stand up. Finally, Mo fought talented prospect Lorenz Larkin. King Mo won fairly easily by knockout, but a post fight drug test failure saw it changed to a no constest, but this wasn’t what makes this part of the story notable. In March 2012, King Mo appealed his 1 year suspension with the Nevada State Athletic Commision, where he would be questioned by Pat Lundvall. Now, Pat Lundvall is an interesting figure in the story - she’s the first female chair of the Nevada State Athletic Commision, before that she was only the second commissioner the history of the orgniazation, and she is known for some pretty wild interactions with MMA. In 2014 and 2015, she suggested that Wanderlei Silva and Nick Diaz be banned for life for controversies with drug tests, sentences that were overturned by outside forces because they are completely insane. 2016, she sentenced Conor McGregor to do 50 hours of community service and fined him 150,000 dollars after a pre fight press conference fight with his opponent, justifying the decision by saying that Conor McGregor needed to be humbled. She has a lot of bad gas around her, and after 2016 she wouldn’t be reappointed to the commission, but in 2012, she didn’t have quite as much negativity around her image, so when she lead the questioning of King Mo at his hearing regarding his drug test failure, King Mo’s reaction to her was… less understandable than it might have been later. Mo alleged that over the counter supplements were tainted which lead to his drug test failure, and Lundvall asks if he had done research for his training. When Mo asked her to clarify, he describes the situation as her rolling her eyes and asking him if he spoke english and whether or not he can read. Now, it’s not on me to determine if Pat Lundvall was consciously being racist, nor is it on me to determine if King Mo’s reaction was justified - I will say that King Mo’s explanation after all of this makes sense; that if you are taking a Black man from the south, with all of his experiences with Racism that he has been very vocal about, and asked him if he was smart enough to speak english or read, that it seems extremely charged with pre conceived notions about his intelligence which are very hard to separate from race. On twitter after the hearing, King Mo lashed out and called her a racist bitch, which didn’t go particularly well; despite the quick apology and clarification, a fighter targeting athletic commissions that Strikeforce and UFC owner Zuffa work with very closely is incredibly bad for the relationship, which meant that King Mo, now just 30 years old and a 9-1 record, was released from Strikeforce, and was doomed to not be picked up by the UFC. Mo was understanding, saying that he did something wrong so he can’t say he’s being treated unfairly, but it still has to sting; for a man as proud as Mo is, being questioned whether or not he can speak english is not just a racist insult, but a personal one, and while he lashed out, it’s hard to say that any of us wouldn’t have done the same, or worse. King Mo wouldn’t look for work for long, surely someone out there would readily employ a talented, charismatic fighter at the top of his game… but before that could happen, life chose to test Mo one more time, and this time, it was going to take as much as it could from him as it could get.
Shortly before his appearance in court, King Mo was diagnosed with a staph infection obtained from knee surgery following a torn ACL. By all accounts, it’s one of the most harrowing medical experiences in MMA History, with King Mo only divulging how bad it was years after the fact. Mo said he downplayed the whole thing, acting as if nothing was happening while he was on death’s door, undergoing surgery after surgery in an attempt to save his life, and after it was all said and done, Mo appeared in Nevada court with a recovering body ravaged by injury, and never once used it as an excuse for why he might have been short on patience; he simply took his punishment and tried to get back to 100%, something that, in 2014, King Mo claimed was still a work in progress. In truth, I don’t think it ever happened; King Mo’s explosiveness was his greatest gift, and while he will vocalize a history of knee problems, when Mo returned from his surgery and suspension in 2013, while he would record some highlight reel finishes, he never quite looked like the same King Mo; there were flashes, but the fire had dimmed, and understandably so. Still, Mo’s public perception was not the best, still calling himself king as he signed with Bellator, the suddenly second biggest MMA promotion in the United States but a far cry from where he had been before. Beyond that, Bellator knew that they had someone worth investing in with King Mo, so they ran promotional ads for him, promoted him as the king coming for the throne, Spike TV, the channel Bellator aired on that was also owned by Bellator’s owner Viacom, featured King Mo on professional wrestling promotion TNA - All of this for someone that a lot of people still resented created a need to see Mo struggle. Fight fans demanding catharsis for the sin of believing in yourself too much is a common occurrence, btu sadly, it cannot be satiated with personal struggles like losing your job or fighting for your life with debilitating injuries; these things are off limits in a strange way for people who cheer for the downfall - they need to see you struggle professionally. As King Mo debuted in Bellator, he wanted to make up for lost time, knocking out his debut opponent in under 4 minutes, he signed to fight less than a month later against hardcore darling Emanuel Newton. Newton was a solid fighter, formerly a champion in Canadian promotion MFC, but mostly, he was known for his awkward fighting style, which Newton credits to his love of Hardcore music and Slam Dancing; a veritable whirling dervish of punches and kicks, Newton entertained and captivated, but he was being set up to fail against King Mo. This was reflected in the betting odds, which saw King Mo as high as a 12-1 Favorite in the fight; nobody thought anything of Emanuel Newton - this was King Mo’s kingdom, and he would prove it by destroying this would be usurper.
The night Emanuel Newton beat King Mo is one that has stuck with me for a long time. When Mo lost to Feijao, I was still relatively new to MMA and didn’t fully understand why people were so excited for Mo to lose, but when he lost to Newton, I was left in a weird mood. I liked King Mo, even in my edgy youth, I still supported King Mo’s reaction to the Nevada Athletic Commission and was excited to see how he would perform in Bellator, but for a lot of MMA Fans, the man who would be King was a race baiting loud mouth who Bellator had sunk a lot of money into promoting, and people desperately wanted the hype train to crash, and man, if you believed that King Mo was a hype train and not a talented fighter, it’s hard to crash harder than he did against Emanuel Newton. It is perhaps the most surprising, sudden and impactful knockout in MMA History up to that point; it wasn’t for a world title or a million dollars or anything, but strangely, that kind of made it even more significant - King Mo was fighting Emanuel Newton for next to nothing, and got hit with a spinning backfist that left him stiff. Newton’s reward, beyond instant notoriety, was advancing in Bellator’s Light Heavyweight contendership tournament, which he would go on to win and claim Bellator’s Light Heavyweight Championship. Newton’s career would burn bright and then eventually flame out, but his place in history is as the man who killed King Mo - even though Mo would fight for years to come, it would always kind of be shaded by this fight with Newton. It’s like the first time you see your father lose a fight - you can still have respect for him, you might still fear him if that’s the kind of parent he is, but the image from before can never exist again; the belief that King Mo was able to do anything because he was ultra talented could never be ironclad, because there was empirical evidence that he could be upset, truly upset. Feijao knocked him out early in his career after King Mo gassed - here, King Mo was the heralded veteran expected to blow through this nobody, and he got caught lacking, and no amount of win streak could rebuild what King Mo lost. As a fan, I Still believed in King Mo as a fighter for a time - his subsequent fights saw him return to his wrestling background and decimate his opponents, but his rematch with Newton later in 2013 also resulted in a loss, this time by decision. Mo was in a strange place - he was a king but without the belt, it seemed hollow, and his two losses to Newton seemed to prove he was unworthy… but, again, King Mo’s self worth wasn’t tied to sporting supremacy, but in the world of viability. If he was an attraction, the proverbial big dog in the yard, then he still held worth in Bellator. In May 2014, King Mo had the opportunity to expand his worth as he fought PRIDE and UFC legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Rampage was, in a lot of ways, a prototype of King Mo - he made his name in Japan as an exciting wrestler and entertaining personality, but unlike Mo, Rampage’s exploits in Japan established him as one of the world’s best fighters. Despite losses to Wanderlei Silva and Shogun Rua, Rampage Jackson was considered one of the scariest fighters in the world, a reputation that was proven to be worthy when he went tot he UFC in 2007 and knocked out longtime champion Chuck Liddell to become UFC Champion. Rampage became one of the biggest stars in the company, but years of struggling with motivation, injuries and disputes with the UFC saw him leave the company in 2013, joining Bellator. For many, Rampage debuting in Bellator 2 weeks after King Mo’s second loss to Newton was proof that Bellator had failed and were moving on - it was now Rampage in the commercials, it was Rampage promoted as the big dog in the yard, it was Rampage on TNA, and in 2014, the two would be put on a collision course as part of the 4 man Light Heavyweight tournament. Starting on opposite sides of the bracket, both would win their matches handily to meet in the finals at Bellator 120 - for both men, while this was a tournament final and hte winner would be next in line for a title fight, the pride behind it was the most important. It was a fight that saw Rampage putting at stake his ego as a legend of the sport taking a perceived step down to Bellator expecting to dominate, and King Mo potentially being rendered irrelevant as Bellator could move him to the wayside and prop up Rampage the way they did him just a year prior. It’s an emotional and captivating build up that meant everything and more to the two men, and they fought as if they were fully aware of just how much the fight meant; the fight was slow paced, tentative, and ultimately uneventful. In the end, Rampage Jackson’s hand would be raised in a controversial decision that nobody could bring themselves to even be upset about. If you judge the fight, sure, King Mo should have won, but what was the point of contesting it? It’s not like he had a spirited performance and was tragically robbed, it’s not like this loss derailed some massive run he was on; for most people, they saw a decision that should have gone the other way between two past their prime light heavyweights in a fight that was hyped up and ultimately sucked. Did King Mo deserve to win? By all rules of hte sport, sure, but in the grand scheme of things, this did not matter - the hope that King Mo, now 33 with 6 years and 17 fights of experience, would suddenly turn things around with a win over Rampage Jackson just wasn’t worth the investment to sway public opinion. As seemingly the last fan of King Mo, the Rampage fight was where I gave up hope; I enjoyed what King Mo had done, but the hope that I had for Mo to be anything more than what he’d already become had withered away into nothing; he wasn’t Bellator champion, he wasn’t the attraction in the division, and it was clear that the crown he wore was what his detractors had always said it was - a hollow prop that meant nothing.
If you look hard enough at the events in life, you’ll see a lot of trends that seem almost too good to be true; trends that appear as if the universe has a plan in mind for a story that takes the pain and struggle in life and makes it all worthwhile. It’s one of the greatest qualities of sports, the stories that we share with each other that sound straight out of a movie, but they are special because they happened what we perceive to be organically - one of the questions i’ve always had, though, is whether or not these trends exist because, as a society, we grew up being told fairy tales, so we want to believe that life could be that fantastic. I’ve never had a true answer to this because nobody can truly tell the influence that stories have on us; all we can do is tell the stories as we see them.
King Mo’s Bellator Career had seemingly bottomed out after the loss to Rampage Jackson. He fought overmatched opponents the rest of 2014, and not once did it ever feel as if it mattered, but 2015 was when everything changed. Looking for a fresh start, King Mo sought influence from his past - after his 2006 and 2008 losses in wrestling to Andy Hrovat, King Mo decided that he would cleanse his palette and move up a weight class, in 2007 to 96 Kilos and in 2008 to fight Travis Wiuff in Mixed Martial Arts. King Mo’s opponent at heavyweight would be journeyman Cheick Kongo, a weathered kickboxer who had solid success after leaving the UFC and joining Bellator. The two met in February 2015 at Bellator 134, and while it wasn’t in the most decisive terms, King Mo would win by split decision to give Kongo his 2nd loss in Bellator, but more than that, he left the night with a renewed path forward. On the surface level, King Mo had strung 3 wins together for the first time since his early career unbeaten streak, and while it wasn’t against the best competition, King Mo had shown that he was prone to upset losses to no name fighters, so any extended period of winning could only be a good thing. To go a little bit deeper though, on the same night Mo beat Kongo, the main event saw Light Heavyweight Champion Emanuel Newton lose the title to the undefeated Liam McGeary, which provided potential for King Mo to get another title shot as a fight with McGeary was fresher than a 3rd with Newton. To get down to the core, just 2 months later, Bellator would sign Phil Davis, a top Light Heavyweight who had been unceremoniously cut from the UFC following a controversial split decision loss. Davis had been one of the UFC’s more successful projects, signing him just 4 fights into his career where he amassed a 9-3 record - Davis was young, athletic and good enough to be the best, but with the UFC’s release, it provided King Mo one last chance to show that he was truly worthy of recognition. Things were to come to a head on September 19th, at Bellator’s Dynamite show, the main attraction of the double headed monster card being a 4 man, one night tournament to crown the next contender for the Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship - Phil Davis would fight former champion Emanuel Newton, and King Mo would face Linton Vassell, a talented fighter who had come just short of winning the championship against Newton the year prior. The play in mind was, of course, King Mo vs Phil Davis, the winner facing Liam McGeary in a major showcase bout - Phil Davis lived up to his end and emasculated Newton, taking him down, manhandling him with ease and submitting him in the first round. For King Mo, the question was simple; could he shine when the lights were the brightest? He was the favorite, he was expected to meet Davis and prove why he still called himself King… but those questions about him still lingered… could King Mo do what he’d always struggled to do…
King Mo beat the hell out of Linton Vassell. The contest wasn’t close even for a second. Mo would throw Vassell around with his takedowns or his punches and had Vassell holding on for dear life. Considering it was a one night tournament, Phil Davis wouldn’t be able to gameplan specifically for Mo, which played well for Mo considering he looked the best he ever had against Vassell. The main event of the evening had been set… but alas, King Mo is not allowed to have luck on his side. Had King Mo beat up Vassell just a little bit less, it might have been to his benefit, as word came in that Mo had injured his hand and thus would not be able to fight Davis in the finals. King Mo watched from the sidelines as Phil Davis cruised to an easy victory against tournament alternate Francis Carmont in a fight that he deserved to be part of. King Mo, even when he wins, is still subject to torment… but then, a silver lining appeared - the silver lining that King Mo had spent his entire career working towards. It was a singular event that would invoke ever high and low of his turbulent journey, and it would either bury him or it would show once and for all that everything that had happened to him had been for a reason; His career beginnings in Japan, his forays into the heavyweight division, his exile to Bellator, his failure to live up to his role to represent them and, finally, his failures to end the tournament with the gold medal in hand. On December 31st 2015, King Mo was given the chance to Rise.
Rizin Fighting Federation was an endeavor to revive Japanese Mixed Martial Arts. Headed by former PRIDE boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Rizin’s plan to inject life into the scene would begin on NEw Years Eve 2015, hosting massive events in the famous Saitama Super Arena on December 29th and 31st, with the throughline of the events being the 8 man tournament to start on the 29th and end with the semi finals and grand finale on the 31st. In an effort to fill the tournament, Rizin staff scoured the planet for the best Light Heavyweights available, securing great young fighters from all over the world to partake in Japanese MMA’s gasp of life. In an effort to expand their reach, Rizin reached a deal with Bellator, announcing their Grand Prix on the Bellator 145 broadcast in November, with King Mo set to join the tournament as the representative for Bellator. Mo would join the field as the demonstrable favorite as he was joined by unknown or unproven talent such as the Czech Republic’s Jiri Prochazka, Russia’s Vadim Nemkov, Brazil’s Bruno Cappelozza and Lithuania’s Teodoras Aukstuolis. These were nobodies - if people did know about them, it was on lists of “Fighters to look out for in the coming years” compiled by deep divers of MMA promotions, and in the middle of them stood a former world level wrestler and Strikeforce champion. King Mo stood in a field full of people not as talented as him, and was expected to fight through them; there would be no glory if he won, because he would be fulfilling expectations… but that’s what King Mo had to do. This was it for him - it may as well have been a situation where he wins or he doesn’t get to go home because all that would wait for him in Bellator should he lose and make another person’s career at his expense would be humiliation. He had been called upon to represent Bellator one last time, to do what he was expected to do and cross the finish line. December 29th arrived… and the marathon began.
King Mo would first meet England’s Brett McDermott, a replacement for then BAMMA Heavyweight Champion Mark Godbeer. Of the opening round match ups that Mo could pull, McDermott at 5-2 fighting otu of england was probably the safest on paper, but even considering the experience and skill discrepancy, King Mo would put the entire tournament on notice with his performance. Continuing his momentum from the Vassell bout in September, King Mo seemingly could not miss inside the Rizin ring, landing bombs on McDermott on the feet and on the ground. The assault continued for 9 minutes and 20 seconds when Mo would come through with a knockout of the year contender at the expense of McDermott to advance to the new years eve Semi Final. Elsewhere in the tournament, the other semi finalists were enacting their own acts of carnage; Vadim Nemkov, 5-0 student of FEdor Emelianenko, would flatten UFC veteran Goran Reljic in 3 minutes. Jiri Prochazka, 14-2 wizkid out of the Czech Republic, would pick up a fast finish of lone Japanese entrant, the failed Judo crossover Satoshi Ishii. Teodoras Aukstuolis, 6-2 Lithuanian bruiser would flatline Brazil’s Jungle Fight champion Bruno Cappelozza in 4 and a half minutes, capitalizing on a stray kick attempt that left him susceptible to one viscous blow that ended the fight. This final 4 represented more than just King Mo’s demons; it’s one of the great dawns in MMA History. When December 29th ended, people who were watching Rizin noticed that with seemingly little effort, Rizin had scouted and introduced several young and extremely talented fighters with no name or history in major organizations to the largest stage they had ever seen before, standing in stark contrast to the UFC’s struggle to find young and talented fighters to carry the torch of Light Heavyweight into the future. In the following years, the talent from this tournament would spread across the MMA World, winning UFC, Bellator and PFL Championships by the end of 2022. The 2015 Rizin World Grand Prix was special - everybody who watched it knew that something was unique about it after Day 1, but after the 31st, there was not a question in anyone’s mind; things could not be the same as they were.
New Years Eve 2015, King Mo stands across from Teodoras Aukstuolis to start the show. Mo knows that he needs to win this fight to proceed to the night’s main event, the Grand Prix Finals, but that he can’t have a long, drawn out war with the hard charging power puncher - not only would this give him a chance to land a big shot, but the more energy used here, the less he will have later in the night. For Aukstuolis, Mo forwent the safe route of wrestling as controlling another grown man is exhausting, instead relying on his striking. For years, King Mo had been praised for his advancements in the striking game; as he had come from wrestling, his comfortability on the feet would always be the question, but when he debuted in Bellator come 2013, his comfortability on the feet after training with Jeff Mayweather was clearly beginning to bear fruit, but it was also something that he had been criticized for, opting to fight with his hands down and rely on head movement instead of blocking, with this decision being pointed to for his upset loss to Newton. Against McDermott, Mo looked every bit of the positive and the negative of this style, standing in punch range and avoiding many of McDermott’s punches while responding with huge counters, but also eating more punches than he should have. For years, people urged King Mo to just stick to wrestling as it mitigated this aversion to defense, but against Aukstuolis, King Mo never got touched clean, keeping LithKen at range with a sharp jab. Anytime Aukstuolis attempted to get anything done with his haymakers, he would be met with a piston jab from Mo and hooks off of it to keep him off center every second of the bout. The fight went to decision after 15 minutes, and King Mo cruised the entire time in what I consider to be his best career performance, and potentially the best use of the lead hand in Mixed Martial Arts up to that point, maybe even to this day - it’s a perfect and sublime performance that saw King Mo safely and smoothly land himself in the Red Corner of the Grand Finals of the Rizin Tournament, navigating around the upset minded power puncher. However, in the other tournament bout between Jiri Prochazka and Vadim Nemkov, there was an entirely different philosophy - the chaos and aggression of youth. Prochazka and Nemkov, both under 25 years old at the time of the bout, fought as if their lives depended on the outcome - it is a 10 minute fight of nonstop interactions, scrambles, exchanges and risk taking that has very few equals in history. Between Jiri’s constant movement and Nemkov’s emphatic takedowns and both of their powerful striking skills, the two showed the world a glimpse of the future that night in Saitama Super Arena. It’s one of the most insane endings to a fight you will ever find, and considering the context, the craziest fight period - these two fighters were too talented to not put on a classic fight, too arrogant to take a step back from their opponent, and too young to realize that putting a brick on the gas pedal when there was a fight at the end of the night with King Mo for the tournament final was the least advisable way to approach their semi finals bout, and these two did not care in the slightest. Jiri Prochazka didn’t just beat Nemkov, but he played a game of chicken with someone who was seemingly more skilled, daring Nemkov to match him will for will, and he won by breaking him down so badly that he simply could not answer the bell after the 10 minute round - not because he was too damaged or injured, he was just too tired to answer the call. For King Mo, Jiri Prochazka represented the worst possible scenario - a fighter too young and too brash to fear what he brought to the table, and too good to skate by as he did Aukstuolis. Against Nemkov, Jiri Prochazka showed that you could take him down, you could hit him, you could lock in submissions, and while he drew breath, he was going to continue coming after you, which meant that King Mo only had one option as he touched gloves with the demon from the Czech Republic - if Jiri Prochazka couldn’t be stopped while he drew breath, then King Mo had to kill Jiri Prochazka.
As the confetti fell on Saitama Super Arena, it felt as if King Mo had changed his own story. Across all of 2015, King Mo amassed 6 straight wins over fighters that would go on to become some of the best of the world. He returned to Japan with the crown he always claimed, he won a tournament against fighters hungry for a victory over him as Bellator’s chosen representative. On December 31st 2015, King Mo lived up to everything that people claimed he could be - by winning the Rizin World Grand Prix, he had conquered the demons that had plagued him for 10 years. All of the injuries, the heartbreak, the trials and tribulations had built to this moment where King Mo would become immortal…
If you look hard enough at the events in life, you’ll see a lot of trends that seem almost too good to be true. If you believe in the art of stories, then you have realized the cathartic release of the journey’s end, the knight slaying the dragon of the King Mo saga… but if you believe that these events are too good to be true, and that King Mo’s saga is not a storybook but instead a history of trends, then you know how this plays out.
King Mo returned to Bellator in 2016 with the chance to make good on his 2015 aspirations, signing to fight Phil Davis in a number 1 contender fight for the Light Heavyweight Championship. In Davis was the legitimacy King Mo desired and a win that Mo felt he was robbed of in the Dynamite Tournament the previous year, but after winning in Japan, it was time for Mo to right the wrongs of the past - this was meant to be a different King Mo… but it wasn’t. When Mo stood across from Davis, a fighter who could not threaten him on the feet and would struggle to take him down, Mo stood across the ring tentatively, almost afraid to open up as he did against Rampage. Paralyzed by the prospect of losing, King Mo let second after second tick by where he didn’t seize the fight, and in the 3rd round, Mo was rocked and taken down by someone who, on paper, was his inferior in every meaningful way. The fight went to decision, and while many felt that King Mo once again deserved the decision, it would be Davis who’s hand was raised, and any hope that I had for King Mo vanished. I was dejected when he had this performance against Rampage, and that convinced me there was nothing to Mo anymore - the bout with Phil Davis instead was a harsher and more cruel endeavor. I had so much more belief in Mo after his 2015 campaign, so for him to turn in the same lifeless performance, it didn’t just disappoint me, but it broke my heart. It didn’t matter that I thought he should have won the decision, it showed me that the belief in the talent Mo had was a nowhere road - a can’t miss investment that will never pay out and will only let you down. After the loss to Davis, it seemed that Mo knew he couldn’t keep it up anymore, losing 5 of his last 7 bouts before retiring in 2019. The game was up, and Mo got out when it was clear his body couldn’t support him anymore.
The story of King Mo is not one that ends with bitterness as expressed post Davis bout, but one of the tragedy that follows talent. For most, King Mo’s career is looked at as a bitter failure, someone who never lived up to the lofty expectations that people had for someone of his skill level, and we can have a conversation about whether or not the expectation for the talented is fair or unfair, but the question at hand is what is an unsuccessful career? King Mo failed to win all the titles… but he didn’t go winless in big fights. King Mo wasn’t ever hte best fighter in his weight class… but he was consistently a threat to top end fighters until his body gave out. How we measure a successful career is often not how those who have the career measure it - King Mo has been asked about never fighting for the UFC or never being the best, and he believes he didn’t miss out on anything because he was able to make the money he did, help his family and retire when it was clear he couldn’t do it anymore. While historians might look upon the mountain of skulls that create the history of the sport, documenting who was at the top by where their skulls lay, they might well see King Mo’s bones at the bottom among everybody else, and conclude that he was a disappointment or something less than what he was in life, but the story of King Mo isn’t one of bitterness or disappointment, but one that forces us to recontextualize what success means. Putting lofty expectations on a select few and chastising them when they don’t meet the bar that we created is hinging someone’s legacy on a criteria that we have decided must be different from one person to the next - perhaps Muhammad Lawal was never the King of the World, but the impact he made on the sport of Mixed Martial Arts in the time he was part of it will live forever in the stories of those who lived it.
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