This Thursday January 24, 2013 Bellator Fighting Championship Presents Bellator 86 from Thackerville, Oklahoma. This will be the debut what is being called this generation’s first two sport athlete Muhammed Lawal or King Mo. We saw King already debut on Spike TV but it was for Impact Wrestling.
King Mo had a very interesting 2012: he failed a drug test, dealt with staph he contracted after knee surgery, and he began to learn professional wrestling while training at Ohio Valley Wrestling. Mo’s knees seemingly are an issue going into this fight but as he told me, “I went to Holland to test myself against top fighters and I left there with no injuries.”
We also have big title fight between Karl Amoussou and Ben Askren. These guys are not fans of each other in the slightest. Askren’s eighty seven wins in college wrestling ranks in the top-10 all time in NCAA history. Ben uses his wrestling very effectively and controls his opponent on the mat for most of his matches.
Ben has been accused of using a boring “lay and pray” style in his fights to which he responds:
“People just try to get under my skin. In one of my interviews after the Lima fight, people want to see me lose for whatever reason whether it’s my attitude or anything. When I get on top and I do it quickly, they know that I won’t get knocked out and they won’t submit me. It sucks for them because they know what’s going to happen which is 25 minutes of me winning. Come next Thursday, the fans will be disappointed again because there’s no way that belt isn’t leaving with me.”
I was able to ask Karl if the fans begin to boo in reaction to Ben Askren’s controlling style will this affect his game plan at all he said, “My nerves are good. I’m calm and cool. I’m ready to fight standing up, I’m ready to wrestle and I’m ready to grapple. If fans are ready to boo as often happens in Askren fights if it goes to the ground, but that’s not my biggest concern. I’m coming to win the belt.”
Bellator 86 will have 4 big fights Thursday night but the title fight and King Mo’s debut will be defiantly worth checking out.
— Alex Goff @AlexGoff84