“King Mo” Lawal knows why he lost the heavyweight title
August 31, 2010 by Stuart
Filed under MMA News, Strikeforce
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal knows exactly why he lost his title to Rafael Cavalcante via a third-round stoppage at Strikeforce: Houston earlier this month….he didn’t use his wrestling.
Speaking via Sherdog.com, Lawal said:
“I threw out my wrestling. The thing is, if you look at (UFC 118), wrestling dominated. Demian Maia used wrestling to get his takedowns. Gray Maynard used wrestling. Frankie Edgar used his hands and his wrestling when he had to. I didn’t use my wrestling enough. I didn’t set anything up. I didn’t fake any takedowns. I didn’t really shoot any hard takedown attempts.”
Lawal, currently 7-1 MMA, 2-1 SF, was beaten during his first title defence after Cavalcante floored him with two consecutive knees and a punch. The Brazilian was knocked down by Lawal early in the fight but regained his composure to make a comeback and knock Lawal out..
“A slam is a slam. A takedown is different. If you take somebody down, you control their whole body into a position when you land. But I slammed him and was looking to throw punches and he came back up. I was trying to throw some punches and he came back up and recovered. If I’d just grinded him out and taken him down over and over like I did with Mousasi, he would’ve been gassed out dead in the third round.”
Lawal, who will now undergo knee surgery and will be out for several months, had never lost in his short MMA career and will now have some time to train before making his comeback.
“I’ve lost before in wrestling. I’m going to bounce back. I didn’t want to lose, but I deserved to lose because I went out there and abandoned my true game plan. I just went out there and fought a stupid fight. If I hadn’t lost, I would’ve gone back and done the same things over and over again. If I wouldn’t have lost now, who knows who I would’ve lost to later.”
Lawal was a heavy favorite going into the fight against Cavalcante at Strikeforce: Houston and surprised everyone with his loss. Who knows why he left behind his wrestling base, but “King Mo” will have a lot of time to think things over.
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