Lawal feels good ahead of Bader bout
‘King Mo’ chilling by the bay with Bellator 199 around the corner
SAN JOSE – It’s a beautiful evening in the Bay Area, the sun is just beginning to set, and Muhammed Lawal is chill as can be while he sits on an outside table listening to hip-hop.
It’s hard to tell what mood “King Mo” is in, but he seems cool. And he feels good, which is something he hasn’t felt in a long time.
“It’s been a while since I’ve felt good, you know what I’m saying? Without no aches,” Lawal said. “A year ago I couldn’t even sit like this. I couldn’t put my foot up on this bench.”
It’s a good thing, too, as Lawal (21-6) prepares to meet Ryan Bader (24-5) on Saturday night in the last quarterfinal-round bout of the Bellator MMA World Grand Prix. The matchup serves as the main event to the Paramount-televised Bellator 199 event at SAP Center, and the winner advances to face Matt Mitrione in the semifinals of the tournament that will crown a new heavyweight champ by year’s end.
For Lawal, no stranger to the tournament format, it’ll be his first fight since March 31, 2017, when he defeated ex-UFC champion Quinton Jackson in a heavyweight bout. That makes this 407-day layoff the longest of his nearly 10-year career, but it wasn’t by choice.
Lawal’s lengthy absence stems from an ailing hip. As best he can remember, the hip started giving him problems in early 2010, but he fought through the pain over the years — until finally he couldn’t take it anymore.
He had surgery known as Birmingham Hip Resurfacing, an alternative to complete hip replacement for younger individuals, in May 2017. A flare-up forced him out of a Bellator 185 matchup with Liam McGeary last October. But since then, Lawal insists he’s finally 100%.
“I feel healthy, man,” 37-year-old Lawal said. “I can walk without limping. You noticed that, right? I ain’t been limping. Man, I don’t know. I guess y’all going to see on Saturday.”
Lawal isn’t expected to go far in the tournament, in large part because he’s the smallest competitor of the field. Even against 205-pound champion Bader, Lawal — who could probably fight at 185 pounds if he wanted — he is still a nearly 3-to-1 underdog.
Those odds don’t bother Lawal, though, probably because the end result doesn’t matter much to him. He’s simply here for a fight. “Tournament’s nothing to me really. When it comes down to it, it’s just another group of fights,” Lawal said. “It’s funny how people discount me when I (already) beat Quinton Jackson. They discount me, and I beat Quinton, who’s already lost in the tournament (to current semifinalist Chael Sonnen in January). But it is what it is.
“I ain’t going to lie. I’m polarizing. People love me or hate me. A lot of people hate me. I get a lot of hate. I get a lot of love. It is what it is.”