King Mo Lawal Slated to Return as Part of Bellator Summer Series Tournament

Most of us expected Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal to run through the Bellator Season 8 Light Heavyweight Tournament, and at least make it to the finals, likely against fellow favorite Renato “Babalu” Sobral.

Three fights later and neither Lawal nor Sobral remained in the tournament. Sobral lost in the quarterfinal round, while Lawal was taken out in the semifinals; both met their demise courtesy of a spinning backfist.

Season 8 concluded last week, but Bellator on Wednesday announced that it would do another light heavyweight tournament – along with heavyweight and bantamweight tournaments – this summer, albeit with four-man brackets instead of the usual eight.

No competitors were announced in the initial announcement, but Spike TV president Kevin Kay later on Wednesday revealed to MMAWeekly.com that Lawal would make his next start in the Bellator cage as part of the Summer Series Light Heavyweight Tournament.

“Mo is actually going to fight in the Summer Series and I think people will be very excited to see how he comes back and what he does different this time,” said Kay, who was as surprised as everyone else to see Lawal get knocked out at Bellator 90.

“Of course I didn’t want to see him get knocked out, but that’s the tournament,” Kay added. “It just validates the tournament structure.”

Kay didn’t know yet whom Lawal’s next opponent would be, only that he will be a part of the Bellator Summer Series on Spike TV.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/king-mo-lawal-slated-to-return-as-part-of-bellator-summer-series-tournament

I'm guessing the line-up will be Lawal, M'Pumbu, Djambazov, and MAYBE Godbeer.

Nice. Looking forward to seeing Mo get a second crack at this. Hopefully he comes in with his hands up and chin down.

I'm glad these Summer Series tourneys are only 4 man, Bellator will churn out challengers for the belts faster this way.

CDF47 wrote:Nice. Looking forward to seeing Mo get a second crack at this. Hopefully he comes in with his hands up and chin down.

He's gonna really have to start doing something. He's so far behind his own hype train he can't even hop on it himself.

Whats the reason for switching to 4 man tourneys?

TehPackage wrote:Whats the reason for switching to 4 man tourneys?

Mini tourney just for the summer.

I did not mind the 8 man tourneys for the summer but this will bring quicker challengers to the titles at Bantamweight, LightHeaveyweight and Heavyweight.

CDF47 wrote:Nice. Looking forward to seeing Mo get a second crack at this. Hopefully he comes in with his hands up and chin down.

Totally agree. He needs to get back to his wrestling roots as well. It is great he went to Mike's and Jeff Mayweather's gym but he could be so much more dominate if he mixed up his wrestling and improved striking. There is no reason he shouldn't be Bellator's LHW champ.

Mo has a good chance of winning this. I hope he learned his lesson from the Newton fight. He needs to start relying more on his wrestling or mixing up wrestling with striking. It really makes me wonder why fighters such as Lawal or Evans, Who are such strong wrestlers, depend solely on their striking in their latest matches.

He really could be a handful for most opponents in his weight class, if he chooses to mix up strikes with take downs or even take down attempts. If he keeps on going to striker mode and keeping his hands down and chin up, Lawal needs to reconsider some major things in his game plan and fighting style.

The biggest lesson Mo needed to learn in his last fight was to just stay focused on his opponent. He was doing quite well in the standup but let his guard down and got caught. I'd still pick him over pretty much anyone in the tournament.

I don't think he was doing all that great against Newton.

Newton kept landing the same combo on numerous occasions until he unleashed the knockout punch.

All Mo needs to do is.quit what he's doing defensively. He needs a more orthodox approach because he's certainly not Sweet Pea or Roy Jones.

He needs to go back to doing what he did to,

AudaxSmoke wrote:I'm glad these Summer Series tourneys are only 4 man, Bellator will churn out challengers for the belts faster this way.

Agreed. Makes sense for the summer series.

Dagwood wrote:

CDF47 wrote:Nice. Looking forward to seeing Mo get a second crack at this. Hopefully he comes in with his hands up and chin down.

He's gonna really have to start doing something. He's so far behind his own hype train he can't even hop on it himself.

Yeah, I agree. The way he fought that last fight was ridiculous. His hands were at his side the whole fight like he has Floyd Mayweather skills. He has a wrestling background so not sure WTF he was thinking. I know he improved on his boxing but his head blew up from it.

Blackzilian wrote:

CDF47 wrote:Nice. Looking forward to seeing Mo get a second crack at this. Hopefully he comes in with his hands up and chin down.

Totally agree. He needs to get back to his wrestling roots as well. It is great he went to Mike's and Jeff Mayweather's gym but he could be so much more dominate if he mixed up his wrestling and improved striking. There is no reason he shouldn't be Bellator's LHW champ.

Agreed.