Unafraid of Ground Game, Lawal Vows to Take Down Gracie

Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal is not afraid of Roger Gracie's ground game. | Photo: Dave Mandel

Ahead of the matchup, Lawal joined the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Savage Dog Show” to discuss a variety of topics, including his strategy against Gracie, MMA fans and whether Georges St. Pierre should fight Anderson Silva.

Lawal on whether records matter, considering that Roger Gracie is only 4-0 in MMA: “No, not really. Not really. … His first fight was like in [2006]. He’s probably been doing a little training here and there but not as much. Really all that record stuff don’t matter because he has a strong skill set on the ground. … I’m looking at him like he’s been fighting for a while.”

On his strategy against Gracie: “I’m not worried about him taking me down. I’m going to take his ass down. … Why not? It’s MMA. I can stand. I can take him down. Whatever presents itself, I’m going to do. I’m a wrestler. He’s a jiu-jitsu guy. I’m out there to win my fight. I can keep it standing, but you know what? There are going to be times when I shoot. If he stands upright like that, I’m going to take him down.”

On how he’ll get Gracie to the ground without getting himself in trouble: “It doesn’t have to be a perfect double leg. It can be a knee-tap. It can be a trip. There are different ways to take people down without falling in their guard. People don’t realize that because a lot of people don’t really know wrestling. They think, ‘Oh, single leg, double leg.’ There are other moves you can hit other than just a single leg and a double leg. There are modified single legs. There are modified double legs you can hit.”

On some MMA fans not understanding the sport: “A lot of fans are just stupid, dog. Plain and simple. A lot of them are just dumb. They don’t know s--t. They think they know s--t, but they don’t know s--t. … They’re not sports fans at all. They don’t understand other sports. They just look at MMA or actually the UFC and they just, whatever fact they hear about the fighters, then that’s gold. That’s all they need to know. … Some of them really can’t come to conclusions on their own. That’s the problem. They have to look to an outside source to tell them what’s real and what’s not. They don’t know the true history of the sport.”

On how kickboxer Tyrone Spong would do in MMA: “I think Tyrone, his style, especially when he’s moving, he’d do great. He just can’t use the traditional Dutch style where you stand in front of somebody and bang and cover up because that would not work in MMA. But when Tyrone’s on point, [when] he’s moving and he’s throwing combos and using his speed, he’d be hard to beat in any sport: MMA, boxing, kickboxing. As far as what weight class he’d fight at, it’d be at 205. I feel like he’d be good at 205. He’d match up great against all those strikers that want to strike with him. All those strikers would become wrestlers as soon as they got hit by him. … Technically, his standup is light years ahead of anybody in MMA, hands down.”

On whether Georges St. Pierre should move up to fight Anderson Silva: “I think it’d be a tough fight for GSP, but personally, between me and you, I don’t think that fight should even happen. Georges should stay at 170 and just keep winning. That’s kind of asking a lot for somebody to bump up to fight somebody who walks around at 220. … Stay in your weight class, Georges. If you want to go up, put on the proper weight and go up. I think he’d have a hard time against Chael [Sonnen]. I think he’d have a hard time against a lot of those guys there. He’s not naturally big at that weight class.”

Listen to the full interview (beginning at 54:43).