15 Bellator Fighters Who Would Succeed In The UFC

13. King Mo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ77CIioouE Weight Class: Light Heavyweight If this list was being compiled 18 months or so ago, Muhammed Lawal, more commonly known as King Mo, would have been a lot higher up in. Probably top five. Why? Well, based on star power alone, and the fact that he's a former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion. The public was familiar with him. He'd feuded with Rampage Jackson, though the two were in different companies. There was talk of a UFC run, though that didn't happen, mostly due to a positive drug test in Strikeforce, which led to Mo calling NSAC member Pat Lundvall a bitch on twitter after a hearing before the commission. These events cost him his job in Strikeforce, and paved the way for Bellator to sign what was possibly their biggest name to date at the time. When Bellator brought King Mo in, big things were expected. He was going to be their star. They had a ton of TV time dedicated to him. And it looked like the signing would pay off when Mo won his first Bellator fight by knockout. Then he met Emanuel Newton in the light heavyweight tournament Lawal had been favoured to win, and Newton shocked everyone, scoring a spinning back fist KO of King Mo in a highlight reel moment. Mo would come back to win his next two fights, part of the Bellator Summer Series 2013 light heavyweight tournament. He won the short-format tournament with ease, then went up against Newton again, on what would have been Bellator's first PPV, an event headlined by Mo's old rival and Bellator's newly signed big-ticket name, Rampage Jackson, against also newly signed Tito Ortiz. Then Ortiz got hurt, the card went on Spike TV instead of PPV, and Mo lost to Newton again, in a decision in front of Bellator's largest viewing audience to date. The match was completely forgotten in the wake of the new headliner - Chandler vs. Alvarez 2 - hitting fight of the year status. People began to question Mo. He didn't look the same. A staph infection had done a number on him, the reasoning went. That might have been part of it, but it seemed like his confidence was rocked. Bellator got him right back into a tournament, this time the season 10 light heavyweight tourney. It was seeded to ensure a finale between Rampage Jackson and Mo, a fight which would no doubt draw for Bellator. Both fighters won their respective opening matches in the four round tournament, but Mo looked especially weak against Mikhail Zayats, winning something of a gift decision. An in-cage confrontation took place after Rampage's first-round win over Christian M'Pumbu, that built up heat between the two (and led to talks of the confrontation being staged, which the fighters denied) when Bellator opted to have Mo enter the cage In another weird turn of events, Rampage vs Mo wound wind up headlining Bellator's second attempt at a PPV show, after Alvarez vs. Chandler 3 had to be scrapped when Alvarez suffered a concussion in training. At the weigh-ins, a shove during the stare-down would cost Jackson $10,000, and Mo would later lose a dull decision to Rampage, which he protested, yelling that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was "dick-riding" in regards to Jackson. Insulting your boss on a live broadcast probably isn't the best idea, but Mo remains a marketable fighter, and a solid talent, despite all the hoopla, so long as he can get back to winning with his dominant wrestling and knockout power.