Bellator 199: Bader vs. King Mo - May 12 (OFFICIAL DISCUSSION)

The fourth and final opening round matchup in 2018's Bellator Heavyweight World Grand Prix will feature Bellator's current light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader(24-5) jumping up a weight class to take on perennial "money-weight" fighter "King Mo" Lawal (21-6, 1 NC) in Bellator's return to the Bay Area at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Saturday, May 12.

Ryan Bader will make his third appearance for Bellator and his first since successfully defending his light heavyweight championship at Bellator 186 against Linton Vassell. Fighting out of Tempe, Ariz., Bader began his professional career on an impressive run, steamrolling the competition en route to a 12-fight unbeaten streak and winning one of the most competitive seasons of The Ultimate Fighter in franchise history on Spike in 2008. "Darth" continued his path of dominance by collecting 15 victories over some of the 205-pound division's top talent, including wins over former world champions Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Rashad Evans and Phil Davis twice. The former two-time NCAA Division I All-American wrestler from Arizona State University will look to take the first step in becoming a current two-division Bellator champion on May 12.

A longtime vocal advocate for competing in multiple divisions, "King Mo" fights again at heavyweight and will look to build off his success within the weight class following wins against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Cheick Kongo and Satoshi Ishii. A winner in nine out of his last 11 fights, the 36-year-old Murfreesboro, Tenn.-native will look to claim heavyweight gold and add to his collection that already includes the STRIKEFORCE light heavyweight title and 2015 RIZIN World Grand Prix championship. A former Oklahoma State University NCAA Division I All-American, the flashy fighter owns additional career wins over Linton Vassell, Gegard Mousasi and Roger Gracie.

Going with Bader in this one.

Big fight tomorrow night.

CDF47 wrote:Going with Bader in this one.

Want to Mo to win but I agree, got to go with Bader. I know size isn't everything but Bader looks a size bigger.

Looking forward to Mo vs Bader!

Wow, Bader smashed Mo. Pico looked solid again. Kongo finally finished someone. Was a really good main card, aside from Fitch fight.

I think Bader and mitrione are the favorites e to win it all though do people think he Bader matches better against fedor or chael?

westcott123 wrote:I think Bader and mitrione are the favorites e to win it all though do people think he Bader  matches better against fedor or chael?

I think Mitrione should be the favorite of the GP right now but I hope Fedor pulls off the upset.  I think Fedor takes out Chael and Mitione defeats Bader for a rematch I think we all would like to see in the finals of the GP.  I know I am looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.  Glad Bellator put this GP together like this.  To answer your question though, I think Bader matches better against Chael.

westcott123 wrote:I think Bader and mitrione are the favorites e to win it all though do people think he Bader  matches better against fedor or chael?

I think a lot consider them the favorites. Should be interesting since they're facing each other next.

Rocksoldier84 wrote:

westcott123 wrote:I think Bader and mitrione are the favorites e to win it all though do people think he Bader  matches better against fedor or chael?

I think a lot consider them the favorites. Should be interesting since they're facing each other next.

It's an interesting fight. You have Bellator's top HW in Mitrione right now versus their LHW champion. Mitrione has the size advantage in this fight and I am picking him to win the fight but I would not count Bader out.

CDF47 wrote:Wow, Bader smashed Mo.  Pico looked solid again.  Kongo finally finished someone.  Was a really good main card, aside from Fitch fight.

Haven't seen it yet but it sounded great. Really sad about Mo. I knew he likely lose but not like that. I'm still surprised by Fitch as he's not an elite fighter anymore and he's not known for exciting fights so I don't get why they signed him. Good for Pico especially against a far more experienced opponent. I like Pico attempts body shots since they're quite underrated.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1704488482931631&id=105550656158763

It has nothing to do with anything on here people bitching about 7lbs 3.175kg man they would have hated Mma in the early days maybe that's the real reason they hated pride hmm?

Rocksoldier84 wrote:

CDF47 wrote:Wow, Bader smashed Mo.  Pico looked solid again.  Kongo finally finished someone.  Was a really good main card, aside from Fitch fight.

Haven't seen it yet but it sounded great. Really sad about Mo. I knew he likely lose but not like that. I'm still surprised by Fitch as he's not an elite fighter anymore and he's not known for exciting fights so I don't get why they signed him. Good for Pico especially against a far more experienced opponent. I like Pico attempts body shots since they're quite underrated.

It is great they are building him when if he gets to 10-1 11-1 they should start putting him against more top 15 top 10 opponents.

Disappointed with some of the comments queen mo I could ko that bum love to see them try what does a person expect from these new age fans? Fact all of king MO losses have been to guys who were are title holders in major mma organizations.

westcott123 wrote:Disappointed with some of the comments queen mo I  could ko that bum love to see them try  what does a person expect from these new age fans? Fact all of king MO losses have been to guys who were are title holders in major mma organizations.

Mo is great but it sounds like he got caught which wouldn't surprise me because he fought a light heavyweight that fought at heavyweight and it both divisions, all it takes is one punch. Not surprised though since he lost so quick and they probably think he's overrated anyway cause he never fought in the UFC.

Rocksoldier84 wrote:

CDF47 wrote:Wow, Bader smashed Mo.  Pico looked solid again.  Kongo finally finished someone.  Was a really good main card, aside from Fitch fight.

Haven't seen it yet but it sounded great. Really sad about Mo. I knew he likely lose but not like that. I'm still surprised by Fitch as he's not an elite fighter anymore and he's not known for exciting fights so I don't get why they signed him. Good for Pico especially against a far more experienced opponent. I like Pico attempts body shots since they're quite underrated.

It was a really good event. I wasn't expecting Mo to lose like that either. I thought maybe a UD or something. Yeah, Fitch was boring. He just grinded out the entire fight. That one is not worth watching. Pico impressed again with another real nice shot to the body. I think I am going to get him into our rankings next month.

Rocksoldier84 wrote:

westcott123 wrote:Disappointed with some of the comments queen mo I  could ko that bum love to see them try  what does a person expect from these new age fans? Fact all of king MO losses have been to guys who were are title holders in major mma organizations.

Mo is great but it sounds like he got caught which wouldn't surprise me because he fought a light heavyweight that fought at heavyweight and it both divisions, all it takes is one punch. Not surprised though since he lost so quick and they probably think he's overrated anyway cause he never fought in the UFC.

Looks like mo ducked into that punch why are they like that? I'm sick of this "you have to be in the ufc to be considered great mentality" I so wish I had a time machine I would go back in time and tell them don't sell pride to zuffa anyone but zuffa. I know they said we tried to keep pride going they didn't want to work with us yeah bullshit I bet if it was anyone else they would of been able to work with the Japanese it is because Dana is an ego maniac.

Good thing about Bellator they have that Viacom back up so they can't be bought out easily plus no way sakkikabarra would sell Rizin to the ufc .

https://www.mmafighting.com/2018/3/19/17140656/paddy-pimblett-isnt-interested-in-competing-at-ufc-london
https://www.mmafighting.com/2018/5/13/17349246/aaron-picos-goals-are-to-be-a-two-sport-world-champion

Paddy doesn't really care if he goes to the ufc or not and Aaron interest are clearly not signing to the ufc smh how dare they didn't they know? they are supposed to listen to the ufc fan Boys and go to the ufc because they said so.

westcott123 wrote:

Rocksoldier84 wrote:

westcott123 wrote:Disappointed with some of the comments queen mo I  could ko that bum love to see them try  what does a person expect from these new age fans? Fact all of king MO losses have been to guys who were are title holders in major mma organizations.

Mo is great but it sounds like he got caught which wouldn't surprise me because he fought a light heavyweight that fought at heavyweight and it both divisions, all it takes is one punch. Not surprised though since he lost so quick and they probably think he's overrated anyway cause he never fought in the UFC.

Looks like mo ducked into that punch why are they like that? I'm sick of this "you have to be in the ufc to be considered great mentality" I so wish I had a time machine I would go back in time and tell them don't sell pride to zuffa anyone but zuffa. I know they said we tried to keep pride going they didn't want to work with us yeah bullshit I bet if it was anyone else they would of been able to work with the Japanese it is because Dana is an ego maniac.

Good thing about Bellator they have that Viacom back up so they can't be bought out easily plus no way sakkikabarra would sell Rizin to the ufc .

I'm sick of the suckers who really believe Dana White & UFC when they blamed the Japanese for them shitcanning PRIDE. Anyone who knows Zuffa's track record and has a brain knows it's shit. If UFC was going to keep PRIDE going then why give up almost immediately. The sale was finalized on May 25, 2007 and on July 10th, they announced the Rampage/Hendo fight would be a unification match. Why would you announce a unification match so quickly if you intend to keep this thing going? Why were PRIDE fighters beginning to go to the UFC during this time? Then they shut everything down on October 4th which is only four months into Zuffa's ownership. Who buys something and then gives up after only four months?

Not to mention, look at what Zuffa did with WEC and Strikeforce. They bought WEC in 2006 and kept it going for a couple of years but they ended the heavyweight division almost immediately, the Light Heavyweight & Middleweight divisions were gone by 2008, Welterweight by 2009, and then, the promotion in 2010. When they had the WEC PPV, they omitted all references to WEC. Then there was Strikeforce where Dana famously said "business as usual" only for Zuffa to raid SF's roster and their heavyweight division while telling them to make due with what they got, then got into pissing contests with ShoTime in record time, and kicked out media people Zuffa didn't get along with before shutting it down within 2 years.

Fortunately, WME is not in any position to buy out companies. They spent $4 billion on the UFC and still have to earn that back.

They always have when I found out the ufc bought strikeforce I even said rip strikeforce people thought I was a nut but I even said look at their track record when they buy a rival organization.

The silver lining is that the ufc is 4 billion in debt so it would be a while before they can buy out any other promotion and other promotions especially Bellator Rizin one fc Acb efn etc are growing in size and popularity. The ufc out of all the major organizations is the most bland the other organizations pride the Wec strikeforce Bellator rizin they all have something the ufc doesn't I know they will say "the ufc is not WWE like those other organizations" yet the most popular or talked about are the ones who have that wwe personality pot meet kettle.

westcott123 wrote:They always have when I found out the ufc bought strikeforce I even said rip strikeforce people thought I was a nut but I even said look at their track record when they buy a rival organization.

The silver lining is that the ufc is 4 billion in debt so it would be a while before they can buy out any other promotion and other promotions especially Bellator Rizin one fc Acb efn etc are growing in size and popularity. The ufc out of all the major organizations is the most bland the other organizations pride the Wec strikeforce Bellator rizin they all have something the ufc  doesn't I know they will say "the ufc is not WWE like those other organizations" yet the most popular or talked about are the ones who have that wwe personality pot meet kettle.

UFC just seems like a bloated outdated dinosaur at this point. We're now seeing why they were so obsessed with being considered to have the best fighters in the world cause they got nothing else. It's become clear to everyone UFC doesn't have all the best fighters so what do they have? Their theme song is utter shit that needed to be retired ages ago, the production is bland as oatmeal, and their format is bad as it takes forever to get to the next fight while the main event takes 20 minutes. Not to mention, they're oversaturated,

Got that right. If UFC isn't WWE like then why are fans sometimes saying it? Explain McGregor and he's antics. Not to mention the brawl with Jones and Cormier. Chael Sonnen making his biggest name by cutting wrestling promos.

Then again, you want to talk pot meet kettle, fans mock Bellator for having older fighters or the retirement league but I got to thinking and UFC is just as bad. Overeem, Arlovski, Cummins, Rashad, Bisping, Jacare, Matt Brown, Edgar, Maynard, and Cormier are all in their late 30s. Hunt, Werdum, Anderson, Machida, Barnett, Oliynyk, Romero, Little Nog, Lombard, and Maia are all in their 40s (Machida will be 40 at the end of the month).

Both have older fighters and to me age is not a priority to me look at romero guys 41 yet can move better then most 20 year Olds there are factors involved.

It is bullshit they give Bellator shit for having older fighters yet the ufc has older fighters too it just goes back to what I have always they only want the ufc to be the only player in town, Bellator and Rizin are a threat to them otherwise why would they need to talk shit? I even said in an older post you know an organization is going to be big is when the zombies talk shit about it.

Yeah, the zombies were talking shit about Rizin even before their first show. Rizin also gets hardly any news coverage by the Zuffa controlled puppet MMA media here which is annoying. They put on big shows and are lucky to have their weigh-ins reported on Sherdog and the results. Yet, there are 2 dozen stories on a shitty UFC Fight Night.

Even then it is not about the fight it is about what ever was twitted or some other gossipy shit ^^

But of course the only time they talk about is if there is a "fixed" fight yep Ishii fell down from a phantom punch so he can he kicked and knead in the head. Or if Gabi is fighting some old lady.

Seriously do they actually think before they write? If all mma fights in Japan are all fixed the winners and losers would be completely different.

Bellator is closing in on the ufc Rizin is growing and will be a major player in the Asian mma scene whether it will be become top dog on Asia who knows? Might might not.

It is amazing what happens when the ufc can't buy out a rival organization.

Be great to have a Bellator rizin partnership something to that effect or any organization hell doesn't even have to be a partnership if the fighters want to compete and become the champion in 2 different promotions why not?