King Mo joins the American Kickboxing Academy
Posted on April 5, 2011, 05:33 PM by Ryan VenturaMuhammed Lawal better known as King Mo is one of the most accomplished freestyle wrestlers to ever make the jump to Mixed Martial Arts. Mo was a Division One NCAA All-American wrestler for Oklahoma State University and at one time was even the number one ranked wrestler in the US in the -96kg division. When the King failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, he took his skills from the mat, and applied them to MMA.
He flew to Japan, made his debut at Sengoku 5, and has never looked back since. After only six professional fights, Strikeforce matched him up with top ten Light Heavyweight Gegard Mousasi for the title. Mo upsetted Mousasi and in only two years he became champion. Four months after winning the strap, he defended his title against Black House product Rafael Calvalcante, and was brutally TKO'd. That was the last time we've seen Muhammed Lawal in the Strikeforce cage.
Since losing the belt, he had knee surgery, flew to Holland to work on his striking with Tyrone Spong, and came back to the States work on his boxing with Floyd Mayweather Sr. In the pursuit of becoming a much more well-rounded Mixed Martial Artist, Muhammed Lawal will be preparing for his next fight at American Kickboxing Academy. I had a chance to speak to AKA's head trainer Javier Mendez who most recently opened up a new gym and had this to say about Mo coming to his camp:
"King Mo is coming in a week from now. He's good friends with Daniel Cormier. They are best friends. Mo misses training with Daniel (Mo and Cormier were teammates at OSU), and I mean, who better to sharpen each other's wrestling skills than the two of them? As a result of their friendship, King Mo is coming here."
When Mo arrives at the new AKA in San Jose, he'll be surrounded by some good company. Not only with his friend Daniel Cormier, but names like Cain Velasquez, Jon Fitch, Josh Thomson, Josh Koscheck, and many more train there to be built into champions. King Mo is expected to make his return to action this summer and I'm looking forward to seeing him showcase the new skills he has learned with all these different world class coaches.
Our exclusive interview with Javier Mendez will also be released this week. You'll have a chance to get to know more about the man behind AKA, and how the camp was formed. He shares stories of his early Kickboxing days, stories of a young BJ Penn, the early days of Cain Velasquez, find out who his top student is, and much more.
Photo by Esther Lin for allelbows.com
Comments
I really like Mo, good move for him
Ya I agree....AKA is known for transforming wrestlers in to complete MMA fighters, look wat they did with Cain, Fitch and Kos and Cormier is looking better every fight too
I dont like is attitude but no doubt the sky is the limit
I agree with everyone based from the list but Fitch? Hmmmmm
Why not Fitch?....AKA made him into one of the best fighters in MMA rite now, alot of ppl consider him top 10
This is a good move for him, plus it couldn't be any worse than getting his teeth knocked out by Gokhan Saki.... Yeah, Mo. It's not a good idea to spar with that man with no mouthpiece.
It was actually Tyrone Spong that knocked one of Mo's teeth out.
lol. you're right bro, but it's still not a good idea ;)
Spong give overeem one hell of a fight!
It's a terrible idea to spar without a mouth guard, Mo must have been like extra excited or something, and forgot lol.
You my friend are a ball of information, I don't know where I'd be without you. Do you want my job? Lol jk, but ya man good on you to point out those facts *takes notes*.
I'm very excited too, how many fighters in MMA today work with not only world class grapplers, but K-1 level, and top level boxing coaches? Not many.
I wonder what made him make the change from Jackson's camp to AKA beside his friend Cormier wanting him to come. Seems like there's tension going on at Jackson's camp maybe because of Jones and Evans thing.
Mo never trained with Jackson's, just Evans.
I thought the title was pretty specific about what this post entailed...
Does anyone know what he's king of? England?...
I just hope SF doesn't try to create drama between King Mo and Mike Kyle. And how come they use Kilos when representing the divisions in NCAA wrestling?
ahhhh ok. I thought it was during his collegiate career.
with how things have played out in Strikeforce's LHW division, King Mo vs Mike Kyle does make sense, although now training at the same academy would be an issue.
If Fedor gets in "shape" to compete at 205, it would be a good matchup for Mo.
I cant see Fedor ever dropping to 205... his whole style was about fighting at his natural comfortable weight, thats why he never bulked up for compete with bigger guys (although as guys have gotten bigger the gap is too much to bridge). He'll try to continue at HW if for nothing else because he's already been accused of ducking overeem and other elite HWs. I'd love to see Couture finish his career with a legendary Fedor fight... maybe at catchweight or back at HW.
Back on topic of Lawal... good move I hope we see him back in action against some top competition after his return... does anyone think the beef between him and Jackson is legit and if it is could this be on the cards... how many SF fights are left on Lawals contract??