MMA News 2016: Light Heavyweight Veteran 'King Mo' Lawal Discredits Conor McGregor for Being Original 'Moneyweight' Fighter
Light heavyweight veteran fighter Muhammed Lawal is not a big fan of UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor. "King Mo" has been throwing tirades towards McGregor's way for the last few months now.
In a December 2015 report by David St. Martin for MMA Fighting, Lawal questioned the logic behind comparing "The Notorious" to the man simply known as "the Greatest" Muhammad Ali.
"How dare you all say he's like Ali. [McGregor's] turning heads, he's got Ireland behind him," Lawal said. "White folks love Ireland and Italy, but Ali stood for something different, a whole different thing."
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He once again reiterated the same line of thinking during his appearance on the MMA Roasted podcast (as reported by Bloody Elbow), during the height of boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather's comments about racism in combat sports.
The said issue that "Money Mayweather" brought up was about him being lambasted for his brand of self-promotion, while McGregor is being lauded for it. Mayweather pointed out that there could be racial components to it.
Lawal agreed with Mayweather's sentiments, saying, "If Conor was black? Man, shut that down."
After his victory over José Aldo last December at UFC 194, McGregor immediately decided to jump to 155-pounds at lightweight to challenge champion Rafael Dos Anjos. And when Dos Anjos was forced out of the bout and was instead made to fight former lightweight contender Nate Diaz at a non-title welterweight bout, the brash Irishman took on the new challenge as well.
These said fights that McGregor has gotten himself in had earned him the praises for being a "moneyweight" fighter, competing at multiple weight classes.
But for Lawal, the aforementioned fighter should not be the only one who should get credit for it.
"People want to credit Conor McGregor, how about guys like Din Thomas? Din Thomas is the original moneyweight fighter," Lawal said in another MMA Fighting report. "Sakuraba was the original moneyweight fight. "Royce Gracie was the original moneyweight fighter," he continued. "I'm a throwback fighter. These guys back then didn't care about weight class."
