TWICBS » muhammad lawal

I have a feeling that I may be one of a very few that believes King Mo may not have won his fight with Gegard Mousasi. Now, before you start sending me hate mail…let me explain.

The hype behind that bout between these two light heavyweights was and is justified. Both are very dynamic fighters and both are going to have very long and illustrious careers barring injuries.  Here is my issue with the title fight between Mo and Mousasi. I will grant that King Mo did a wonderful job controlling the fight with takedowns, but…yes, here we go…Mousasi landed close to 50 more strikes the amount of strikes than Mo did. Most if not all of those strikes were with Mo in Mousasi’s guard. A major contributor to Mo’s victory was control, but if Mousasi was able to land strikes pretty much at will from guard did Mo truly have control of Gegard Mousasi. If so, how could King Mo be awarded the victory?

Before we get further in figuring out if King Mo really won this fight, let’s look at the judging criteria. Judges follow this criteria and in this order of priority:

1) The effort made to finish the fight via KO or submission.  I would say this aspect of the fight was pretty even. Mousasi tried to work for multiple submissions from the guard and tried several times to remove Mo’s head from his body with upkicks and Mo was trying to work some serious ground and pound to end the fight. Even

2) Damage given to the opponent. Mo’s left eye was completely messed up. Not sure if he could see out of that eye after the second or third round and Mousasi didn’t come out of the fight unscathed. Bloody nose and a lot of time staring up at the lights in the arena. For damage, because of the fact that King Mo could barely see out of the left eye…Advantage Mousasi.

3) Standing combinations and ground control. I give the slight advantage to standing combinations to Mousasi. It look as if Mo really didn’t want any part of the stand up of Mousasi in the later rounds. And I don’t blame him. Mo is an elite wrestler and I don’t begrudge any fighter taking his opponent out of their comfort zone and not take damage. Problem, in this fight Mo took more damage in Mousasi’s guard then standing. So, even though King Mo was in top position, did he really have control of Mousasi? Because of the amount of strikes that Mo took in Mousasi’s guard, I am going to say no. Advantage Mousasi.

4) Takedowns and takedown defense. Here is where Mo completely owned Gegard Mousasi. Mo was able to hit takedowns pretty much whenever he wanted and Mousasi may have stuffed one or two, but with the amount of time Mousasi spent on his back Mo wins this part of the judging. Advantage Mo.

5) Aggressiveness. I think aggressiveness was equal. Both came to fight and both did everything they could to win this fight. It could be interpreted as Mo being more aggressive because of all the takedowns, but with all the strikes that Mousasi landed from the bottom Mousasi was equally aggressive. Even.

Out of the 5 criteria listed above, Gegard Mousasi should still be the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion. Again, before you start sending me hate mail King Mo fought a good fight. I just find it hard to believe that when someone lands the amount of strikes that Mousasi did over the amount of strikes that King Mo did in the context of their April 17th fight that the fighter that landed the most strikes didn’t win that fight. I would really like one of the judges or a commission official to explain to me while watching the fight why when Mousasi is landed 171 strikes. 121 of those strikes were from Mousasi’s back and Mousasi completely owned the clinch. Mo landed 125 total strikes. 102 on the ground and 9 in the clinch. According to FightMetrics and their formula, Mo won the fight. I still don’t see it. This should be an interesting conversation in the Forum on Five Knuckles…Actually, I will probably get roasted. But I have to go with what I believe.

You can bet this fight and this article will come up on this week’s episode of Shambala Sports Radio.

Strikeforce: Nashville Analysis

Scott — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:31:45 +0000

This Week in Combat Sports April 16th, 2010:

Shambala Sports Radio has a new home on Blogtalk Radio

Silva vs. Sonnen targeted for August in Utah

Edgar-Penn Rematch in Works for Late Summer, Fall

UFC 115 sells out in 30 minutes

Welterweight Jason High one and done in UFC

Bobby Lashley looks to return to cage in May or June

K.J. Noons likely for June Strikeforce debut

Ray Mercer, Bobby Green Off Friday” onclick=”return TrackClick(”,’%3Ca+href%3D’)”s King of the Cage Card

Shane Mosley promises KO

Mosley tested 4 times in 3 weeks

Haye to fight Klitschko soon

Strikeforce: Nashville – Jake Shieds vs Dan Henderson

Strikeforce: Nashville – Gegard Mousasi vs King Mo

Strikeforce: Nashville – Gilbert Melendez vs Shinya Aoki

CBS? Why the tape delay for the West Coast?

Email your comments and questions to twicbs@gmail.com. Or post you comments here. See you next week.

Cruiserweights in MMA?

Scott — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:07:37 +0000

This Week in Combat Sports April 9th, 2010:

Shambala Sports Radio on Blogtalk Radio

Ohio to test new amateur cruiserweight division

Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves rematch set for UFC 115

Alessio Sakara Wants Michael Bisping

UFC Pres wants event in Cowboys Stadium

Anderson Silva Wants to “Test” Himself at Welterweight and Heavyweight

Spike TV counters “Strikeforce: Nashville” with UFC 110

Fedor Emelianenko, Strikeforce Optimistic of Finalizing Deal Soon

Shinya Aoki doesn’t regret arm-break incident

Nasal Surgery Forces Lashley Out of April 17 Strikeforce

Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Tim Stout set for “Strikeforce: Nashville”

Cris Cyborg and Cung Le retune in June

UFC 112 Saturday April 10th, 2010 1 pm EDT / 10 am PDT/a>

UFC 112: Silva vs Maia

UFC 112: Penn vs Edgar

UFC 112: Gracie vs Hughes

Email your comments and questions to twicbs@gmail.com. Or post you comments here. See you next week.

Strikeforce Finally Announced April 17th Card

Scott — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:14:18 +0000

April CBS card confirmed. What else do you have for me, Strikeforce?

Strikeforce finally announced its next CBS event. The day will be April 17th. The place is Nashville, TN. Headlining the event on April 7th will be Jake Shields defending his Middleweight title against the ever dangerous and Pride’s 2 division champion, Dan Henderson. Also on the card will be the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Gegard Mousasi taking on Muhammad ‘King Mo’ Lawal. And to round out the championship bouts for April 17th, Lightweight champ Gilbert ‘El Nino’ Melendez will put his title on the line against DREAM’s Lightweight champ Shinya Aoki. Aoki’s title will not be on the line in this bout. A champion vs champion bout with both titles on the line would have been awesome, but since Marius Zaromskis was not asked to put up his DREAM Welterweight title against Nick Diaz with the Strikeforce Welterweight title on the line as well, I can understand why the DREAM belt is not on the line.

Three championship bouts ready for April 17th in Nashville, TN, but what about the rest of the card and what about future Strikeforce cards?

No other bouts were announced, but the speculation is that Herschal Walker is being looked to as a possible viewer savior for CBS and Strikeforce. No one has yet come up with any possible opponent outside of Jose Canseco and please do not let Strikeforce bring in Canseco to face Walker. No one wants to see that fight and no one cares about that fight.

With Walker being the 4th fight on the card, who would be involved in the 5th bout of the card. I feel that Strikeforce needs to start building fighters on the big show. Luke Rockhold had about 2 minutes of work on the Feb 26th and is an exciting fighter to watch. The rematch between Trevor Prangley and Karl Amoussou from Feb 26th would be a good promotable fight as well.

So, what is my point? I think Strikeforce needs to start planning ahead. Have 3 or 4 cards in the works that the public are aware of. I would like to see a plan. A plan that would lead to better and better fights and cards and show fans, media and other fighters that Strikeforce has a plan for the future. I think because Strikeforce for the longest time didn’t have to deal with monthly events. I want to see a plan from Scott Coker and his crew. How we will see the plan is to start talking about the May, June, July and August cards now. Not waiting till 6 weeks out to officially announce the next card. Sign some fights a few months out. In a conversation I had with a fighter that will be appearing on the March 26th Strikeforce Challengers card in Fresno, CA, he did not know who his opponent was yet. 4 weeks out from a scheduled bout with no idea who the opponent is. Strikeforce may already be planning ahead, but doesn’t appear that way to me.

Please, Strikeforce, start planning ahead and the craziness that you are going through with a certain heavyweight might not have happened…but then again, probably would have happened anyway. There may be many reason for the holdout, but who knows. The further ahead you plan the more you can build other fighters. The more you can introduce the DREAM fighters to the american audience. The more fans you can bring to Showtime and CBS in the future.

And, hey, Strikeforce, if you need help, drop me a line. I have a lot of ideas for you.

Now, in defense of Strikeforce planning ahead. An event in May seems to be in the works which will feature some of the top heavyweights in the world. Strikeforce Heavyweight Champ Alistair Overeem will finally make his way into a Strikeforce cage for the first time in 2 years to face Brett Rogers. The word is the title will not be on the line. Makes me a bit mad, but hey, Overeem will finally fight in Strikeforce…we hope. The other bout in the works and confirmed by the fighters is the return of Andrei Arolovski facing Antonio ‘Big Foot’ Silva. Arlovski finally has a home after being in limbo for the last 9 months after losing to Brett Rogers in June of 2009. The Pit Bull signed a 16 month multi-fight deal.

I would like to see more forethought from Strikeforce. I would like to see rumors released about a June card and maybe even a July card.

Just what I would like to see.

Strikeforce: Evolution Weigh-ins

Scott — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:33:27 +0000

No fireworks on the dais. No pushing or shoving. Thomson and Melendez did need to get behind a towel to make sure they made weight. Otherwise, incredibly calm weigh-in.

Main Bouts (On Showtime):
Cung Le (184) vs. Scott Smith (185.5)
Josh Thomson (153) vs. Gilbert Melendez (154)
Matt Lindland (185.2) vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (185.5)
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (218.5) vs. Mike Whitehead (261.5)