The Bellator 134 card that was initially set up as a England vs USA card has come apart, with several high profile fights falling by the wayside, including the main event of Douglas Lima vs Paul Daley. Bellator has added a heavyweight match between “King” Mo Lawal and France’s Cheick Kongo.
You have to give credit to King Mo,as his Bellator career has not gone quite the way he planned, and he has struggled with putting on good performances. He has made appearances on Spike TV with the TnA Wrestling show, but that crossover has not really generated any real publicity. Lawal has won two fight in a row at light heavyweight, but didn’t produce what could be termed a memorable performance.
One of the other matches that came off the Bellator 134 card is the James Thompson vs Bobby Lashley rematch. Lawal offered to step in and fight the gigantic Thompson, but when that match could not be made, it turned into “King” Mo against Cheick Kongo at heavyweight. At this level, this is Mo’s first venture to heavyweight, and he is a bit of an undersized light heavyweight, so the risk is there. The fight will have a noticeable size difference, which could turn a King Mo win into a heroic performance of some time. With his wrestling background, he has to have faced bigger men before, and wrestling has not been considered one of Kongo’s strengths. Using his speed, if he hits Kongo hard enough, he may be able to take him out, but if that is not the case he is going to have to wrestle.
Kongo has a nice 4-1 record under the Bellator flag, though he has not really cut a huge highlight reel for himself either. His lone Bellator loss is to champion Vitaly Minkaov, and he hasn’t done enough to warrant a rematch. More than anything, Kongo is dangerous to Lawal because of his size and safe style. It doesnt take great wrestling to make Lawal work while defending takedowns, and Kongo has shown a tendency to not take risks and do the basic, professional minimum to win a fight. That would be another blow to Mo’s career, if he just got decisioned.
Check out the Bellator highlights of light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton‘s mistreatment of King Mo:
