When you are away from your job for an extended period of time, you are either not looking forward to going back or excited to go back. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal fits the latter.
The former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion returns to the cage this coming Saturday night as faces Roger Gracie at Strikeforce: Barnett vs Kharitonov live on Showtime at 10:30ET.
We haven’t seen Lawal in almost 13 months as we last saw him when he lost his title to Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante last August in Houston. Lawal was injured with multiple knee injuries heading into the fight and got surgery following the fight. Now, he is anxious to get back into the cage.
“I am anxious for the weigh-ins, anxious to get to the press conference over with, go to the afterparty once I win and I am anxious for the whole thing”, said Lawal.
In the past Lawal would train at different gyms leading up to past fights, but he now decided to make one gym his home base for all of his fights. That gym? American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose,CA. What made him decide on AKA?
“Good team, good structure and I was cool with Daniel(Cormier), Luke(Rockhold), all the guys including Cain(Velasquez), Silverback and all these guys. They are just cool, its just a good fit”, he said
It is not too often that fighters at the same gym all are preparing for a fight and Lawal feels that benefits all of them.
“Brings more competition to the room because we all try to look good. Everybody is training at the same time, all the same schedules and I just think you see better results with everybody on the same schedule”, he said.
You can listen to the full interview at sportstownchicago.com.
For all updates on Strikeforce: Barnett vs Kharitonov, stay tuned to MMASucka.com
