'King Mo' Lawal has no regrets about fighting 'Cro Cop' so soon after Ishii: 'I knew what I was getting myself into'

On Dec. 16, Muhammed Lawal was in Dublin, Ireland, headlining Bellator 169 opposite Satoshi Ishii. Less than two weeks later, he was in Japan, this time getting ready to face Mirko Filipovic at the Rizin FF Grand Prix Open Weight 2016.

Lawal, who’d taken a unanimous decision over Ishii, ended up suffering a TKO loss to “Cro Cop” in the quarterfinals of Rizin’s tournament. But, in spite of the unfortunate outcome, “King Mo” doesn’t regret taking on such close-together cage appointments. After all, what is a little bit of jet lag after a lifetime of overcoming physical hurdles?

“I fought with a torn ACL most of my career,” Lawal told MMAjunkie Radio. “Most of my fights, probably I had a torn ACL just about. I could feel the weakness, but I couldn’t feel the pain. When it’s time to fight, all doubts, all injuries just go away. You have no time to think about that. So when it’s time to fight, jet lag, there’s no excuses, man. I knew what I was getting myself into. I chose to do it.

“As a matter of fact, I wanted to fight ‘Cro Cop.’ At one point, they were going to try to re-draw the brackets, I think, and I was like, ‘No, I want to fight ‘Cro Cop.” Why not? I’m a fighter. This is how I get paid, and I want to go out there and knock him out. I wanted to knock his ass out. But he got me instead.”

Filipovic (33-11-2), who went on to beat Kaido Hoovelson and Amir Aliakbari to become the Grand Prix winner, was originally supposed to face Wanderlei Silva at the event. But, after the “Axe Murderer” withdrew on less than a month’s notice, Lawal (20-6) stepped in.

Looking back, “King Mo” believes he was winning the fight up until that point and sees the setback as more a result of a poor strategy than anything else.

“I trained for Ishii for about a month and a half,” Lawal said. “So I trained hard for Ishii to avoid the clinch. The main thing, whenever I was training, we’d spar, Steve Mocco would grab me, and people would just grab me, my thing was just to disengage the clinch. So I spent so much time disengaging the clinch, that when I fought ‘Cro Cop,’ I disengaged when I should have engaged in the clinch.

“That was my mistake. I should’ve made that adjustment on the fly. I’m a professional, I’m a vet now, so I should have known better. And two, I didn’t realize how stiff those ropes were.

“Because what Cro Cop was doing is – when I’d shoot, and get in deep, he would back up, and use momentum to bounce off the ropes and throw double under hooks to lift me up and back me up. So, he was smart, he had a great gameplan as well, but really, I should have won.”

After taking home the tournament trophy, 42-year-old “Cro Cop” went on to once again announce his retirement from MMA, while “King Mo” had a rematch against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson recently announced for Bellator 175, set to take place on March 31.

Should “Cro Cop” choose to un-retire again, however, Lawal wouldn’t mind running it back with the striker.

“Hell yeah, I’d fight him tomorrow,” Lawal said, before his Bellator 175 matchup was announced. “Look, I don’t care – it could be Hong Man Choi, it could be whomever. If there’s an opportunity for me to fight and get paid and challenge myself, I’m definitely going to do it.

“This is a dream. Any time you’re doing something that you enjoy doing and you’re getting paid for it, it’s the dream. It’s the American dream. So hell yeah, I would. I would fight ‘Cro Crop’ every day of the week if I could. I’m a fighter, it’s what we do.”

For more on Bellator 175, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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