"King Mo" Lawal cautiously optimistic on potential bout with Gegard Mousasi
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 (www.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)
Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/17696/muhamme ... ousasi.mma