Quick Jabs: A ‘Mo’ Betta Contract
BY BOB EMANUEL JR. | SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal has signed a contract that will allow him to compete under the TNA Wrestling banner and fight in MMA for Bellator Fighting Championships.
Lawal, who is out because of an injury and suspension, is expected to start for TNA this summer. He will make his Bellator debut early in 2013 when the promotion joins TNA on Spike TV.
“That’s the magic of the synergy that exists underneath the Spike umbrella,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said. “This is the first of a lot of different kind of synergistic pieces of the business that we’re going to put into play.”
Lawal, the former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion who was suspended for failing a drug test and subsequently released earlier this year, will honor Bellator’s format and enter the Season Eight light heavyweight tournament. With three wins, he would qualify for a title bout, likely next summer or fall.
“I will enter the tournament, and I’ll win the tournament, and I’m going to get that belt,” Lawal said.
Elsewhere in the MMA world:
• Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor Nick Diaz is being fined $79,500 and banned from fighting until next February for testing positive for marijuana use following a fight in Las Vegas.
Nevada Athletic Commission executive Keith Kizer said the fine imposed amounts to 30 percent of Diaz’s $265,000 purse and bonus following his Feb. 4 UFC welterweight title loss to Carlos Condit. The one-year suspension dates from that fight.
Diaz and his lawyer, Ross Goodman, failed to convince commissioners that Diaz had a prescription from a doctor in California to use medicinal marijuana for treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Diaz also lost his license for six months and was fined $3,000 by the commission after another positive marijuana test following a win in 2007.
• Dominick Cruz, the UFC’s bantamweight champion, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee earlier this month and will not defend his title against fellow “The Ultimate Fighter Live” coach Urijah Faber this summer.
