Strikeforce: Were King Mo Lawal and Gegard Mousasi Overhyped?

Heading into last night's Strikeforce event, Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal were not only two of the most hyped light heavyweights, they were two of the most hyped fighters in mixed martial arts.

Analysts such as ESPN's Jon Anik have called Mousasi the best light heavyweight in the world, while others proclaimed Mousasi the second coming of Fedor.

There wasn't quite as much hype behind Lawal, but few people expected him to gas as badly as he did.

After last night's lackluster performance, it's time to re-evaluate both fighters looking at both the positives and the negatives.

Muhammed Lawal

Some people will look on Lawal's performance negatively, but I saw a lot of great things out of Lawal's performance.

In the first round, Lawal showed that although he's still raw as a striker, he's good at picking his spots, and was able to do well on the feet against someone who was seen as a superior striker.

Better than that, he kept to his gameplan, and took Mousasi down when the opportunities presented themselves.  He had trouble passing guard against Mousasi, but was able to easily avoid any submission threats.

When the second round came, Lawal was still able to get takedowns, but he looked badly gassed out to the point that I thought Mousasi was about to take the fight over.

Instead, Lawal dug deep within himself and managed to gut out three more rounds, winning all of them with dominant wrestling.

In case you didn't know, Lawal is a great wrestler.

Unlike other wrestlers who get stuck when they can't complete a takedown initially, Lawal was able to chain off or turn the corner in order to finish his takedowns, and the fact that he was able to do it even though he was terribly gassed impressed me.

The way Lawal was able to stick to a gameplan and overcome his conditioning impressed me greatly, even if his current skills outside of wrestling did not. In this fight, he showed me that he has the mentality of a champion if he still needs to improve his skill set.

Lawal reminded me of how Rashad Evans looked early in his UFC career, except that Lawal is more athletic, and a better wrestler. That should be praise in the highest order.

All of this, and Lawal has only been fighting in mixed martial arts for a two short years.

In Conclusion:

Lawal isn't as good as the very top guys at light heavyweight yet. He's not as well-rounded, and he's got conditioning issues. Nevertheless, he's only going to get better over the next few years and he's shown loads of potential.

Gegard Mousasi

There are few good things that can be taken out of Mousasi's performance.

Before this fight, many people were hyping up Mousasi as a guaranteed future top five pound-for-pounder. This fight will erase a lot of that hype.

Mousasi was supposed to be the superior striker, but still managed to get outstruck on the feet in many instances.

When it came to the wrestling aspect of the match, Mousasi's takedown defense was non-existent.

On the mat, Mousasi was able to defend himself adequately, but he didn't show the kind of offense there that makes me think he's capable of winning rounds off his back against elite light heavyweights.

If there are positives to take out of Mousasi's performance, they come from what we already knew about him.

Mousasi never quit, showed a good chin, and he's so young still that he has plenty of time to improve his defensive wrestling weakness.

In Conclusion:

The level of disappointment with Mousasi is relative to the level of hype surrounding him. People thought he might take over the light heavyweight rankings this year, but clearly he will not.

That being said, although Mousasi isn't a top five light heavyweight right now, he is still only 24 years old, so it's possible that he can still shore up a lot of his weaknesses.