Highly touted prospect and free agent fighter Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal has signed a multi-fight deal with Strikeforce, according to a report from Sherdog.com’s Lorreta Hunt. The former All American wrestler has gone 5-0 since transitioning in MMA, and is coming off a first round stoppage of heavyweight veteran Mark Kerr in August. According to the report, which sites a “source with knowledge of the negotiations”, Lawal will compete in Strikeforce’s light-heavyweight division.
So, if you don’t watch MMA from ‘The Land of the Rising Sun’ (that’s Japan- see a book) you may be asking yourself right now, ‘so f-n what?’ Well, aside from Lawal’s aforementioned wrestling skills, King Mo has looked pretty damn impressive to date. In Lawal’s MMA debut he blew out Travis Wiuff, a guy who has more fights under his belt than a night club parking lot, and since then Mo’s taken out a few experienced vets. Plus Lawal does the whole ‘regal’ king entrance, with robe, crown, hot chicks and all…so we’re looking forward to seeing more of that. We’ll maybe not the regal part so much.
The report also states that Lawal’s Strikeforce deal will still allow him to compete in Japan, so if the UFC did table an offer, clearly, they wouldn’t be down with King Mo fighting overseas. It’s another big score for Strikeforce; look for Gegard Mousasi vs. Lawal sometime in 2010.
