In one of the bigger upsets in recent MMA, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal was knocked out (literally) of Bellator’s Light Heavyweight tournament by Emanuel Newton. Some in MMA were not as shocked by this, just by the mere fact the King Mo fights with a bit of cockiness with leaving his hands low. He does not think that was the cause of his KO. Recently he explained the KO loss to FightHype.com.

“I didn’t even see the shot. A lot of people saying that I was fighting cocky and with my hands down, but if you watch it, when he missed with his right hand, I threw a right hand and then he came with the spinning backfist,” he explained. “So he kind of caught me in the act of punching, but no excuses, I’m good, and I will be back and hopefully I get to fight him again in the future. It was the first time I had been knocked out, and the good thing is I came to pretty quick. When I saw the ref standing over me, I just said, ‘Damn!’”

The loss drops his record to 9-2, with one no contest. Lawal is one of the better Light Heavyweights on the Bellator roster, so don’t expect this loss to affect him too badly. He most likely will fight again sooner than later. With every loss a fighter can see where his game needs to be improved, and even if you think King Mo is cocky even he understands that he has work to do on his defense.

“I have been here before and I bounced back from it, and I will do the same this time. I am going to work more on my defense with Jeff Mayweather and I’m going to go back to my roots and work with Kevin Jackson, and I think I will be just fine. Emanuel did what he had to do and he caught me.” 

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