'Rampage,' 'King Mo' go Round 4 at Bellator post-fight, CEO open to rematch

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – The jawing that at times seemed forced and perhaps staged seemed a lot more real after Quinton Jackson and Muhammed Lawal actually fought.

After Jackson’s unanimous decision over Lawal in the headliner of Bellator 120, the two light heavyweights bickered while sitting opposite each other at the event’s post-fight presser.

Promo clips for Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view event showed the two arguing heatedly behind the scenes. But the week of the event, they were spotted at the same table, looking not entirely like bitter rivals. And the tournament face-off that reportedly preceded their rivalry didn’t look entirely organic.

That might have changed, however, with the result of the fight. The presser’s format allowed Lawal the first word in the verbal spot, with the former Strikeforce champ saying Jackson’s request for an immediate rematch really was the acknowledgement of a loss.

“He said it before the judges said anything; he said he wanted a rematch,” Lawal (12-4 MMA, 4-3 BMMA) said at Landers Center in Southaven, Miss., where the pay-per-view event took place. “You all know what that means.”

Jackson (34-11 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) then interrupted and reiterated one of his comments post-fight: “The only reason why I said I wanted a rematch was because I wanted to knock you out.”

Then Lawal: “But you didn’t come close. You lost.”

And Jackson: “Because you wanted to hump. I wanted to fight.”

And off they went, arguing whether Lawal’s wrestling-heavy approach to the fight was valid as a counter to Jackson’s boxing-focused plan. Although Lawal largely was able to control the range of the fight and stifle Jackson, he was rocked by a punch in the second round. As the three-round bout came to a close, however, Jackson was left unsatisfied.

“Last time I checked, it’s MMA,” Lawal spat. “If you want to go bang, go box. Get knocked out. Kickbox. Get knocked out. You saw what happened to Pat Barry.

“That’s Pat Barry – that ain’t me,” Jackson retorted. “Look at your face. Look at you, man. Look at the mirror before you start talking about someone getting knocked out. You was on queer street…”

“I wasn’t on queer street,” Lawal countered.

“I took your best punch and I kept going,” went Jackson. “You showed that you are a better wrestler than me.”

“I saw the people leaving before they announced that you won!” protested Lawal. “Say what’s up. Bjorn, if you want to be real, let’s do a rematch then! Because you know I won. You picked me to lose. Be real media!”

Jackson conceded he felt that Lawal won the first round, but lost the second. The third frame, he said, was a close call.

“But look at your face,” he finished. “All you did was take me down. You didn’t punish me on the ground! If you would have punished me on the ground, I wouldn’t say nothing. Go back and watch my fights. When I think I lose, I keep it real. I say, ‘Yeah, I lost.’”

That wasn’t good enough for Lawal, who bellowed again of seeing the crowd leave prior to the decision. The two argued some more about Lawal’s wrestling and threw a few more sentences back and forth even after putting down their respective micas.

Jackson earned the right to fight undisputed light heavyweight champ Emanuel Newton, though he reiterated his misgivings about the matchup based on their common coach, Antonio McKee.

Bellator, however, appears to have a marketable rematch to sell. If not for the tournament format of the Viacom-owned promotion, it wouldn’t be unheard of to seize opportunity and delay the bigger-picture fight, especially as Bellator looks for traction on pay-per-view.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney wouldn’t commit to such a scenario, but said, “Talk about good problems to have. They’re talking rematch; we’ve got Emanuel Newton, who’s a spectacularly talented fighter who fits into the mix because he’s got the belt.

“Options. You look to build the kind of depth where you have [options], where you’ve a ‘King Mo’ Lawal and ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Tito Ortiz sitting a few seats down, and by the way, Emanuel Newton actually has the belt and has been beating people up in the cage, and there’s more. You dream about building an organization like this, having partners like Spike, getting a million people-plus per week watching, and then having that kind of depth. That’s what my fantasy was a few years ago, and it’s coming true.”

For complete coverage of Bellator 120, stay tuned to the MMA Events section of the site.

– Matt Erickson contributed to this report from Southaven.