King Mo: Bellator hasn’t been that cool
“Viacom has been cool. Viacom are my people. Spike TV have been cool,” said King Mo “But Bellator, they haven’t been that cool. Look how they promoted me.”
Muhammed “KIng Mo” Lawal spawned a new MMA meme Saturday night when after losing a controversial decision to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, he called Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney “ya dick riding ass.”
The pair patched things up before the post-fight press conference, but Lawal and his manager Mike Kogan appeared today on The MMA Hour, and detailed what led up to the moment.
“To be real with you. Viacom has been cool. Viacom are my people. Spike TV have been cool,” said Lawal as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti. “But Bellator, they haven’t been that cool. Look how they promoted me. Look at everything Bjorn said in the promotion.
“‘Rampage is God. Rampage, man, he could blow and make things fall down. Rampage is a black superman. No one can beat Rampage. Rampage this, Rampage that.’ He’s like a cheerleader. And he just kind of downplayed me. Everything in the lead up to this fight, he never said one thing positive about me. Everything positive was about Rampage, and then he was like, ‘oh yeah, we have Mo right here.’ So I felt disrespected a little bit.”
By the time of the post-fight press conference, King Mo was ready to explode.
“You know what, at first I was trying to be cool,” said Lawal as transcribed by MMAFighting. “I was listening to my music. But then, I’m going to be real with you, when someone asked him ‘do you agree with the judges’ and he said ‘yes’… man, the n-word in me was about to come out and just put some hands on him.
“I had to think about different things because I was like, this dude is just out there bulls—ing. … After the fight, I looked over at him, he looked like he was distraught.
“And then after the judges gave the fight to Quinton, I looked at him and saw him kind of like do a fist-pump type of thing, clap his hands a little bit. I was like… this dude. That’s when I was like, ‘gimme the microphone.'”
“I’ll give him the rematch. Because really, I should be giving him the rematch because I won that fight. He came up and asked me for the rematch. ‘We’ve got to do this again.’ He came up and asked me for it, so I’ll give him it.
“But I just want to get paid and treated with respect. And if Bellator can’t do it, maybe someone else will.”
Will Brooks too expressed dissatisfaction with the organization, via Twitter. Things started off jovially, and then took a turn…
Will Brooks @illwillbrooks86
•So much respect to Michael Chandler that dude is a G. We had a amazing war I wouldn’t mind fighting him again some day
•Rolled out of bed and I’m feeling like I got hit by a bus hahahaha me and Chandler had a war and I had a blast. That was so much fun
•RETWEET @EdAlvarezFight vs @illwillbrooks86 is best for the fans. Unite the belts first then do the trilogy @BjornRebney @BellatorMMA
•Got my belt and my bad chick @cece_t to keep it warm for me. #blessedman #goldstrap #bellator #championshipbelt #badchick #beautiful #girlfriend #winnerscircle
•I honestly couldn’t careless about what Bellator does next. I’ll be here getting better and ready to fight anyone anytime. #anyonecangetit
•Like it or not I won the belt. I don’t care what Bjorn or Bellator does next, go do Chandler/Alvarez III I don’t care #nofucksaregiven
•Bjorn’s not going to send 1 of Bellator’s poster boys to the back of the line and back in the tournament. Let’s stop playing games
•I honestly don’t need the Bellator belt to be champion I just want to get better as a fighter and change the way things work now.
•It’s all BS and the people know it and the fighters. Like me or hate me I’m going to force change in this organization or be fired
•I paid Chandler respect said “with or without a belt Chandler is a champion still” he can’t show the same respect fine lets do it again bro
•Chandler/Alvarez are only worried about fighting each other and making their money and more power to them for that can’t hate them for it.
•But I’m focused on changing things for the fighters in the organization because there’s talent in Bellator that’s getting over looked
•We the fighters break our necks, grind, suffer, and sacrifice in the gym to battle and entertain. And for what? To be taken advantage of
•Some people believe Chandler beat me and that’s fine your entitled to your opinions. But this fight I took wasn’t about a win or the belt
•I took the fight against Chandler because I believe 100% that it’s time for a change in the organization so I put myself out there
•I just want the best for the fighters of this sport not the organizations. The fighters and the sport should be first at all times
•Sorry everyone I’ll stop ranting I’m just a very passionate person and I believe people aren’t looking deep enough into things. Goodnight
•I care about the men of this organization (bellator), their well being, and equal treatment. So I’ll be the bad guy for them and speak up
•Blessings to everyone and goodnight. I swear my rant is completely done now