Though it would end in less-than-optimal fashion for him, there was something about Bellator: Dynamite that was right up "King" Mo Lawal's alley.
He is a longtime fan of both professional wrestling and the Japanese mixed martial arts scene—two places where the way you present the thing you are presenting is just as important as what actually happens in the ring or cage. That's why Dynamite, with its glitzy video entrance ramp and former Pride announcer Lenne Hardt doing her thing, was "pretty cool" for King Mo. He particularly enjoyed the entrance of Mike Bronzoulis, who came to the cage for his fight against Josh Thomson garbed in the armor of a Spartan warrior.
But what wasn’t pretty cool for Lawal was the injury he suffered during his bout with Linton Vassell. It came during a moment of hard-headedness for Lawal, who had just been slammed by Vassell. King Mo, the world-class wrestler, getting slammed by an opponent with significantly less wrestling skill? And the crowd eating it up, oohing as if it was a life-changing accomplishment?
This would not stand.
Lawal, grinning, escaped from the ground. The look on his face at that moment said this: Yeah, that’s how we’re going to play this? OK. You slammed me. You got me. Now here comes payback.
Lawal gripped Vassell around the waist and began launching him over the top of his head. If it felt like Lawal was intent on spiking Vassell on top of his head—much like the dangerous pro wrestlers from Japan whom Lawal so adores—well, that’s because he was absolutely trying to do that very thing.
"Hell yeah, I tried to drop him on his head,” Lawal tells Bleacher Report with a laugh. "I was waiting for him to wrap around me, and I was just going to pitch him backward."
Somewhere in there, after the idea but before the finishing of the thing, it all went awry for Lawal. It’s why he’s currently lying in bed, unable to turn, move or really even breathe heavily without sparks of pain shooting through his body.
"I tried to do too much. I did a five-point move, but he posted his hands up,” Lawal says. "When he posted his hands up, I popped my hips and rotated into him. And that’s when I felt the click, click, pop."
That “click, click, pop” was actually a tearing of Lawal’s rib cartilage and an occult fracturing of his seventh rib. If that sounds painful, well, that’s because it is. Standing in the cage after earning a unanimous-decision win a short time later, Lawal knew he was injured. But he figured he’d go backstage, drink some water and stay warm, because in his mind the tournament finals would be 30 or 45 minutes away, tops. He thought he could easily stay warm enough to prevent the injury from affecting him.
But then 45 minutes turned into an hour. Ninety minutes turned into two hours. When the time finally rolled around for the finals, Lawal was cold, and he certainly wasn’t able to avoid the pain, because the pain was excruciating. During the second round of the Glory bout between Zack Mwekassa and Saulo Cavalari, Lawal tried to start warming up for the finals. It wasn’t working.
“I was struggling. I couldn’t grapple. I couldn’t hit mitts. People in the back saw me and they said something to the doctors, so they came to check me out. And I just had to be real with them. I wasn’t going to go out there and fight with an injury. I spent most of my career fighting with no ACL or fighting with some injury. I was feeling good. I had a great camp. I didn’t think it would be smart for me to go out there with an injury. People hate me anyway. I want to fight, but I want to fight at my best. I’ve fought through injuries throughout my career, and I’m tired of it.”
And so Lawal pulled out of the finals, which saw Phil Davis beat the alternate Francis Carmont, who booked a spot in the tournament finals simply because he was the healthiest man left. For Lawal, there will be recovery. And when he returns to the cage, he'll have several intriguing options: a bout with the winner of Davis vs. champion Liam McGeary, perhaps.
Or Tito Ortiz, the intense veteran who is clearly still hellbent on fighting the best, even though Lawal says there’s no way Ortiz actually wants to fight him.
“He acts like he’s a b---h. He ain’t gonna fight me,” Lawal says. “He says he ain’t gonna fight me because I’m ghetto? I’m like, what the hell? First of all, I’m not ghetto. I’m college educated. I’m smart. He comes up with the dumbest excuses to not fight me. He went out there against Liam and tapped twice, but only got caught tapping once. He wants to fight because it’s good for his career. He wants a big fight to jump into the mix.”
And then there is Fedor Emelianenko, the Russian legend who returned on Saturday night and announced he will be coming back to fight in Japan on New Year’s Eve. Is that a fight Lawal would take?
Uh, yes.
"Hell yeah, I’ll fight Fedor. I like combat. Fedor is one of the best I’ve ever seen, across the board. Watching him fight and hearing him land his punches? It’s something everyone needs to hear once in their lifetime,” Lawal says. "I wouldn’t want to be hit by him, but I wouldn’t mind going out there and trying to mix it up with him.
"I’d love to be the person that fights Fedor."
Jeremy Botter covers mixed martial arts for Bleacher Report.
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