Bellator 110’s ‘King Mo’ Lawal discusses split with AKA, lack of distractions

With the first round of his third Bellator MMA light heavyweight tournament just a day away, Muhammed Lawal is done screwing around.

After signing with Bellator in 2012, “King Mo” was expected to be a major player in the organization. While he’s certainly had some high-profile fights so far, the 33-year-old would be lying if he said things have gone as planned.

Whether it’s pro wrestling training, not being entirely satisfied with his fight preparation, or the lingering effects of a nearly career-ending staph infection from years ago, Lawal is refusing to let anything weigh him down as he heads into this latest tournament run.

“I’m focused only on the fight,” Lawal told MMAjunkie. “I’m not going to do anything else until I have that belt.”

The belt Lawal speaks of is Bellator’s 205-pound title, which is currently held by Attila Vegh. Emanuel Newton, a fighter who twice defeated Lawal in 2013, currently owns the division’s interim strap and will unify the belts with Vegh at Bellator 113 next month.

While it would normally take a lot to get a third fight with someone who holds two wins against you, the Bellator tournament format could allow Lawal to get another crack at Newton (should he defeat Vegh) with just two victories in the four-man tourney.

That thought is an encouraging one for Lawal, who after fighting five times this past year is ready to keep busy and earn his way back into title contention.

“I have to win one fight, and I’m right there contending for the belt,” Lawal said. “ (If) I beat Quinton ‘Rampage’ (Jackson after Mikhail Zayats), I’m right back in the mix.”

Since joining the Bellator roster, Lawal hasn’t strung together more than two wins in a row and has come up short in his most meaningful Bellator fights. In order to ensure his third run at the Bellator title doesn’t resemble the first two, Lawal shifted his training away from a familiar location at San Jose’s American Kickboxing Academy to Florida’s American Top Team.

While Lawal spent the first part of his training camp at Jeff Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas, the most grueling portion was spent at ATT alongside the likes of upcoming UFC light-heavyweight title challenger Glover Teixeira.

Lawal wouldn’t go into the specifics behind his departure from AKA. However, he did say the decision was at least partially influenced by his results in the cage.

“I’m not at AKA any more – it just wasn’t getting the results for me,” Lawal said. “I did the very first part of camp in Vegas, and I finished up the last six weeks at ATT.”

With everything outside of the cage seemingly in order for the first time in recent memory, Lawal (11-3 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) is highly confident Friday’s fight with Zayats (22-7 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) will be his best yet. The semifinal matchup, which takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and airs on Spike TV, will determine who meets the winner of Jackson (33-11 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) vs. Christian M’Pumbu (18-5-1 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) in the season 10 tournament final.

Despite knowing “Rampage” would the most lucrative matchup Lawal could find in Bellator right now, he knows the fight is nothing more than fantasy if he can’t get past Zayats.

The veteran wrestlers means serious business going into Friday’s Bellator season opener, and he hopes his performance against a well-respected and durable opponent will prove 2014 is his year.

“I think he’s solid – he’s pretty good,” Lawal said of Zayats. “He’s the type of fighter I like to fight.”

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