‘King Mo’ Lawal set to fight in Rizin FF Grand Prix

[Edge Guerrero]

by Danny Segura @DannySeguraTV Dec 16, 2016

Muhammed Lawal keeps finding success in the heavyweight division.

The typically light heavyweight fighter defeated Satoshi Ishii in a heavyweight contest in the main event of Bellator 169, which took place on Friday at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.

It was a fight that had very little action from both fighters. Ishii was hesitant and stayed on the outside occasionally throwing punches that wouldn’t really do anything significant. ‘King Mo’ pressed forward and, although a little bit more active than Ishii, there wasn’t much action from the former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, either. A couple of takedowns here and there in rounds two and three, plus his cage control, were able to get ‘King Mo’ a clean unanimous decision victory.

With this victory, ‘King Mo’ bounced back from his light heavyweight loss to Phil Davis back in May. ‘King Mo’ is now 9-0 as a heavyweight, and improved his overall professional record to 20-5 with one no contest.

After the fight, Bellator announced via a press release that ‘King Mo’ will continue to compete against heavyweights, as he’s now a part of the Rizin FF openweight grand prix, taking the vacant slot left by an injured Wanderlei Silva. Bellator officials confirmed with MMA Fighting that it’s still “undecided” whether ‘King Mo’ will take Silva’s slot and compete against Mirko Cro Cop, or get a different opponent.

The 2016 Rizin FF openweight grand prix is currently in the quarterfinal stages, where are set for the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan on Dec. 29. The semifinals and finals will be Dec. 31. Mirko Cro Cop, Baruto Kaito, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Shane Carwin, Amir Aliakbari, Valentin Moldavsky and Szymon Bajor are the remaining competitors in the tournament.

Source http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/12/16/13991300/bellator-169-results-king-mo-lawal-picks-up-decision-victory-over-satoshi-ishii