ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

The mixed martial arts purist in all of us is probably supposed to be a little horrified that Muhammed Lawal reportedly plans to straddle the fence between our sport and professional wrestling.

Given the special kind of ridicule many fight fans reserve for pro wrestling, reaction to Lawal’s new hybrid, multifight deal with Bellator Fighting Championships and TNA Impact Wrestling will no doubt be, eh, mixed. No pun intended.

The obligatory insults about “fake fighting” and the handwringing about how this will look to the mainstream have surely already begun on message boards and in comment sections. The fact that Lawal will enter the world of professional wrestling while his legitimate fighting career still lingers under the cloud of a positive steroid test likely won’t (and shouldn’t) be forgotten, either.

But the truth is, this move may well be a homerun for Lawal, who described it as “a dream come true.”

Considering his impressive amateur credentials, his flair for the flamboyant and his renowned mind for the fight game, you can’t really blame King Mo for looking in the mirror and seeing the complete package. He’s always presented himself as a singular talent; now, he has his chance to prove it in the kind of sink-or-swim environment that will obviously stoke his competitive fires.

If he, Bellator and Impact can pull this off, Lawal’s unconventional new deal will give the former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion unparalleled exposure and, at least in theory, the kind of unique bargaining power he’s always believed he would one day enjoy.

It’s a gamble, yes, but it seems like a calculated one.

For a guy who takes pride in bringing a healthy dose of entertainment value to MMA, it’s sort of a perfect fit. For a fighter who describes himself as a “moneyweight” and an unabashed member of “Team Get Dat Paper,” the financial possibilities are obvious.

If there’s a drawback here, it’s probably not with Lawal, but with his partners.

From an MMA standpoint, it’s not clear what professional challenges Bellator will be able to offer him. The company’s current 205-pound champion is Christian M'Pumbu (yes, I had to look that up), a relatively unknown 34-year-old who isn’t within spitting distance of the light heavyweight top 10 and whose last fight was a nontitle loss to Travis Wiuff. Coincidentally, Wiuff is the guy Lawal defeated in his MMA debut in September 2008, back when the journeyman fighter had just 66 professional contests on his resume.

A quick glance at the 14 other 205-pounders listed on Bellator's website makes it clear this will be a high risk-low reward situation for Lawal. Unless the fight company can go out and sign a number of other top-tier light heavyweight free agents -- from a crop that may not even exist -- every fight in Bellator will be one Lawal should win impressively, and that will make his every appearance there a referendum on his own standing in the sport.

Since he began his MMA career with three consecutive TKO victories in 2008-09, we’ve been waiting for King Mo to become the break out star we believed he could be. So far, though, his fighting life has been punctuated by both highs (i.e. winning the Strikeforce title from Gegard Mousasi in August 2010) and lows (losing it to Rafael Cavalcante in his next fight). From the outside looking in, it doesn’t appear that Bellator will be able to offer up the kind of consistently top-shelf competition necessary for Lawal to boost himself to that next level.

Were I a 31-year-old athlete still very much in the process of proving I was as good as I said I was, that would concern me. Unless, of course, I was just there for the paper.

From a professional wrestling standpoint, the company formerly known as Total Nonstop Action has been trying hard (almost embarrassingly so) to revamp its product in recent months. It has rebranded itself as Impact Wrestling -- or TNA Impact Wrestling, or something, no one is exactly sure -- changed its overall look, made some key additions to the creative team, launched a sister promotion in India and has vacillated awkwardly between trying to establish new talent and trotting out dusty old standbys like Hulk Hogan and Sting.

Somewhere in there, former New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs and one of the dudes from “Jersey Shore” both made guest appearances.

Impact is by no means the complete disaster some wrestling fans make it out to be, but it’s also not the kind of organization I would feel tremendously confident in were I a talented, moderately well-known and self-admittedly green rookie like Lawal.

Unless, of course … right, right, the paper.

Certain fans will gripe, but the truth is we’ve never seen a deal quite like this one, so we have no idea how it will work out. For a guy who seems to enjoy pushing the envelope as much as Lawal does, that’s an exciting (and potentially lucrative) proposition. Hopefully, it all works out for the best.

As both Bellator and TNA are currently constituted though, it would be a disappointment (at least to fans) to see Lawal spend the remainder of his athletic career there.

Perhaps in a perfect world, he’ll help elevate both Bellator and Impact Wrestling to new heights of legitimacy and profitability, while in the process making himself a bigger and bigger star.

Either that or he will use this deal as a launching pad into the UFC or WWE, depending on which path -- and which paper -- he wants to pursue.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is making his way around the media circuit in these UFC-less times. Is he basking in the spotlight? No: He's conducting himself with meditative calm, quietly explaining his business model while the testosterone levels around him go bananas.

For whatever reason, there’s a lot of turbulence within the world of MMA. Maybe it’s because Dana White has been relatively out of touch; or because Lee Murray is no longer being permitted conjugal visits to his lonely Moroccan cell. Or it could be that the long-simmering Jon Jones/Rashad Evans feud has finally succeeded in infecting our outlooks.

But there is tension in the air. And there is tension on the air.

This week it centers on Muhammed Lawal.

So far, Lawal has had a very bad 2012, beginning with a positive steroid test in January and ending with a Twitter tirade that ultimately got him canned a few days ago. This has made for a public rift, and which side you fall to depends on which way your antennae are skewed. In the wake of Lawal’s hearing and suspension, either Pat Lundvall of the Nevada State Athletic Commission is a barely disguised racist, or a totally condescending busy body, or merely a fascinating literalist. The gamut is extreme. And same goes for Lawal. The other side says he’s a remorseless person and a loose cannon -- and a particularly jobless loose cannon, to boot.

(There are even new peanut gallery accusations that he’s a boring wrestler, which somehow plays a role in all of this).

In any case, Lundvall -- the first woman chair of the NSAC -- came off as a pill asking a college educated black man if he could read and speak English during the hearing. And in retrospect, Lawal might have been better served not to fire off a Tweet calling her a “racist b----” afterward. He told ESPN.com’s Franklin McNeil, if he could do things differently, “I wouldn’t have called her a b----. Maybe I should have waited until after the hearing, calmed down a little and approached her directly.”

Obviously this is not remorseless. Lawal’s just selective in what he chooses to feel bad about.

And the Lawal story is prime for a who’s right/who’s wrong debate on the airwaves, to the point that you wonder sometimes if these things blow up as a cure for boredom. People need to talk, and sometimes talking points only require that we give drama a good stir. Sometimes we may even stumble upon new and further afield things to argue about.

For instance, on Thursday night’s "MMA Uncensored" on Spike, host Craig Carton was left to explain King Mo’s absence from the show. Lawal was scheduled to be on to discuss the spiraling events that have shaped his 2012. If you’ve seen the program, you know Carton is outspoken, and the show’s running motto is to hold no punches (which can be refreshing). So Carton made sure you knew right away which side of the fence he was on, saying that there’s a difference between being racist and offensive, and that there was nothing racist about what happened. When reading Lawal’s fateful tweet, he referred to him as “this brainiac” in the only way that people can refer to someone as a “brainiac.”

Et cetera.

But then you wondered what was offending Carton more -- the fact that Lawal was so far out of line that he deserved to be fired, or that he stood them up for what might be political reasons.

“Many of you were expecting King Mo to be sitting right here next to Mike Straka, because we said he was going to be,” Carton said. “We had an agreement with King Mo to come on the show tonight. His agents and lawyers got involved, and his agent’s name is Mike Kogan. And Mike Kogan informed us this afternoon, ‘there’ll be no King Mo on the live show.’ Now let’s play that out a minute -- why wouldn’t you put your client on the single most watched MMA show in America and allow him to tell his side of the story and even be contrite? Could it be that Mike Kogan is involved with a low-rated network that also tries to do MMA talk?”

Forget about how quickly the red carpet got rolled back up. How did we shoot past Lawal’s dilemma of being cut, to the drama of which platform he’ll use to discuss it? And did Lawal's flaking out on the show ratchet up Carton’s general ire toward Lawal’s situation? It was a confusing mix of live blossoming dramas, and one which underscores just how irrationally opinions can be shaped.

And yet, on the same show, there sat Rebney, coolly talking about the importance of a meritocracy in his model. He wants his fighters to make their way toward a crescendo, as in other sports, where you start with eight and then whittle to one. He was so soft-spoken and direct on the topic that you couldn’t help pick up on his conviction.

So soft-spoken, in fact, that you could barely hear him through all the noise being made over Lawal.

Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal is a college-educated man. He often speaks his mind and doesn’t mince words. He's also very aware of the language he uses to express his feelings.

So when Pat Lundvall, who is the first woman chairs of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, questioned his understanding to read or speak English during a hearing Tuesday, Lawal took offense.

Lawal believed the question did not serve any probative value during the commission's inquiry into his positive test for anabolic steroids after his Jan. 7 bout with Larenz Larkin.

The commission found Lawal guilty. He was hit with monetary fines, suspended for nine months and his victory over Larkin was changed to a no contest.

Lawal was disappointed by the ruling, but accepted it.

What he refused to accept was the question from Lundvall. Lawal believed it was intended to belittle him because of his race.

Lawal is black; Lundvall is white. Attempts by ESPN.com to speak with Lundvall were unsuccessful.

Insulted, Lawal took to Twitter to express his anger. He defined the question from Lundvall as “insulting, prejudice and a lil racist.”

It was on the social media website where he also called Lundvall a derogatory name directed at her gender.

Shortly thereafter, Lawal (8-1, with one no contest) was released from Strikeforce.

Lawal’s anger has not subsided, but he has had time to reflect on his response. And if he could do it over, Lawal would handle the situation differently.

“I wouldn’t have called her a b---- on Twitter,” Lawal told ESPN.com. “Maybe I should have waited until after the hearing, calmed down a little and approached her directly.”

Had Lawal taken that approach, he might still be on the Strikeforce roster. But the 31-year-old former All-American wrestler at the University of Oklahoma is not apologizing for standing up to what he believes was an insult directed at him. And while he is disappointed that Strikeforce decided to cut him, Lawal doesn’t harbor any bitterness toward the promotion.

“My feelings toward Strikeforce haven’t changed at all,” Lawal said. “They gave me my first chance.

“I’d like to fight under Zuffa [Strikeforce’s parent company] again, but they’ve released me and I can’t force them to take me back.”

But Lawal isn’t looking back. He will serve the nine-month suspension that NSAC handed him on Tuesday and begin preparing for life outside the Zuffa family.

“I have injuries, an infection and some healing up to do,” Lawal said. “After that I will get back to training and see what opens up.”

CHICAGO -- Based on the less-than-favorable receptions former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans receives from fans whenever he is introduced, it’s safe to say that most don’t care for him much.

But whether fans like Evans or not, no one can say the man doesn’t speak his mind. Evans can be brutally honest about his feelings toward whoever happens to be his opponent, or potential opponent, for a given event.

Fast-rising Phil Davis is the man who now gets to hear Evans’ personal thoughts about him. And considering the statements Evans has uttered in recent weeks, he doesn’t have a favorable opinion of the man who will oppose him Saturday night in the Octagon at UFC on Fox 2.

But unlike Quinton Jackson and Jon Jones, both of whom Evans dislikes personally, his dislike to Davis isn't personal. It's just business.

“A fight is a fight. And sometimes it’s easier to fight somebody when you don’t like them,” Evans said during a news conference on Friday. “For the most part I’ve really got nothing against Phil, but we have to fight each other so I have a lot against him right now.”

Finding a reason to dislike Davis is difficult. He is one of the kindest guys in the sport and never has a harsh word to say to anyone.

But after digging, Evans fought something negative to pin on Davis: His resume. As far as Evans is concerned, Davis has no business in the cage with him at this time. Evans prides himself on facing the best fighters at 205 pounds, and he doesn't believe Davis fits the criteria.

“Phil is just a nice guy,” Evans said during a recent conference call. “He’s not a fighter. He’s an athlete, a great athlete, but not a fighter. He has no killer instinct for this and he’s got no experience at this level.

“He’s never fought at heavyweight like I had to [on “The Ultimate Fighter” 2] to get into the UFC. He didn’t get punched by Chuck Liddell and Jackson like I did.

“He’s not had to dig deep at all. He’s in deep water, and I’m the shark.”

White not buying Lawal’s denials

Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal vehemently denies ever taking an anabolic steroid, despite a recent positive test result administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Lawal tested positive for Drostanolone.

“I’m very surprised about this,” Lawal told ESPN.com’s Josh Gross earlier this month. “I’m very careful about what I put in my body. I’ve never tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. I’ve gone through, and still welcome, Olympic-style testing.

“I will do whatever is necessary to get to the bottom of this.”

But UFC president Dana White isn’t moved by Lawal’s passionate pleas. White wants Lawal to take a different approach.

“If you get caught doing something, admit you did it,” White told ESPN.com. “This whole, ‘somebody put something in my system that I didn’t know about.’ ... Who here lets somebody put s--- in them that you don’t know about?

“I don’t buy that s---. Own up to what you did. Everybody makes mistakes.”

White went on to say that Lawal or any fighter who tests positive for a performance-enhancing drug and fails to admit the error of his ways risks never again fighting in a Zuffa-promoted event.

So what does the future hold for Lawal or former Strikeforce women’s featherweight titleholder Cristaine Santos, who also recently tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug earlier this month?

“I don’t know,” White said. “It depends on how they handle themselves. We will see.”

Title shot likely for Miller-Diaz winner

It’s too soon to start calling the lightweight showdown between Jim Miller and Nate Diaz a title eliminator, but that is likely to be the case when they step inside the cage May 5 in East Rutherford, N.J.

“Obviously the guy who wins that fight will probably get a shot at the title,” White told ESPN.com.

But White isn’t quite ready to completely remove former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis from the No. 1 title-contender discussion. Pettis will face Joe Lauzon at UFC 144 in Japan on Feb. 25.

When asked about Pettis’ status, White said: “I don’t know. We’ll see.”

While the Miller-Diaz winner has a good chance of fighting for the lightweight title, the fight won’t headline the UFC on Fox 3 card. White said he is still working to put a high-profile main event together for that event.

The validity of Muhammed Lawal's mixed martial arts monarchy was tested this week.

On Tuesday, the 31-year-old former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion learned a urinalysis administered by Nevada State Athletic Commission returned positive for the anabolic steroid Drostanolone (marketed as Masteron).

The following day, Lawal underwent surgery to insert a new anterior cruciate ligament into his left knee -- a surgery he said he paid for out of pocket because he didn't qualify under Zuffa's insurance policies. (According to Mike Kogan, Lawal's manager, policy restrictions mandate the same injury can't be covered twice within 18 months).

An All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State in 2003 before committing himself to an unsuccessful Olympic team run, Lawal, who's never run afoul of drug-testing authorities before, is aiming to clear his name.

Through Kogan, Lawal supplied a list of supplements to ESPN.com, which he claimed were the only ones used in the run-up to his second round win against Lorenz Larkin in Las Vegas on Jan. 7.

After digesting the news and engaging the Nevada Attorney General about the positive test, Lawal, who entered MMA in 2008, joined Kogan in speaking to ESPN.com.

Josh Gross: Just to start off the top, you’re saying you didn’t take any anabolic steroid -- is that right?

Muhammed Lawal: Yeah, I didn’t take any anabolic steroids, man. That’s not my way of doing things. My track record shows. I came from college to the Olympic and world competition. I was drug tested then and up until now, you know what I’m saying. This is the first time anything like this has happened in my life. I’m shocked just like everybody around me is.

Gross: So, you’ve never taken anything is what you’re saying. In your entire sporting career, you’ve never taken anything that would have put up a result like this?

Lawal: Never, never. I don’t need to. I’m all about competition, game planning and training hard. I’ve gotten to where I’ve gotten to through hard work, smart training and coaching. No type of performance enhancements.

Gross: What was your reaction when you learned that Nevada said you tested positive for Drostanolone? How did you respond to them and what were the steps you took?

Lawal: I heard from the media. They said, “Mo, you tested positive for Drostanolone.” I was bombarded with phone calls. I was just shocked. I didn’t take anything that I think are made of steroids. I’m not a steroid user. I don’t need it. I’m all about training hard and game planning. It took me by surprise and I still am shocked.

Gross: Have you spoken with the commission? Do you plan to appeal?

Lawal: We haven’t spoken with the commission, but [we have spoken] with the Attorney General. I don’t really know what the plans are right now. I think we have to end up meeting with them and go from there. An appeal? I’m not sure yet.

Mike Kogan (Lawal’s manager): I could probably give you a better understanding of what’s going on. I talked to the Attorney General’s office and yesterday (Thursday) we submitted a list of all the supplements and medications that he’s taken prior to this fight. ... The Attorney General’s office is now going through each one of those supplements and medications, as well as I believe they’re going to have some doctor review it also. And then they’ve asked us to do the same thing and go through it. Unfortunately, Mo is not Floyd Mayweather -- he does not make $25 million a fight so I can’t go hire a chemical lab to sort through every one of these things and try to chemically break them down. So we just have got to do the best research we can through Google, and try to see if we can find somebody who knows about this stuff who can shed a little bit more light to it. And they’re going to do the same thing. Once we’re able to discover something or hopefully find something or figure out something that might have caused either a chemical reaction that would have shown up as this Drostanolone or whatever, then from there we’ll present our response to the commission. I wouldn’t use the word “appeal.” I think a lot of people misunderstand the word “appeal.” An appeal would be a questioning of the finding of the commission, or the finding of the test, and challenge either its results or chain of custody or whatever else people question. In our case it’s premature to say that because we don’t know what those supplements show. We don’t know where it came from. So I can’t say we’re going to file an appeal or not file an appeal because we don’t know where it came from. Depending on what our findings show based on the list we have, we’ll then proceed. If we don’t find anything in our supplements or anything that can even remotely approach it, then we may request Sample B to be tested and hope that there was some kind of error with Sample A. We still have the right to do that. We’re taking more of a systematic approach than just yelling from the top of the rooftops that we didn’t do it. Bottom line: he didn’t knowingly take anything, he didn’t put anything in his system that would enhance his performance in any way. As a matter of fact, this particular drug is not even a performance enhancer, it’s mainly used for weight cutting. That’s what baffles us even more, because Mo doesn’t have a problem cutting weight. Never did. He walks around in camp at 212 pounds, 208 after training. He’s 205 right now with a bum knee. So as of right now we’re basically just researching the supplements, the medications the doctor prescribed and the Attorney General’s office is doing exactly the same thing. We’ll circle back with them and go from there.

“

I don't need to [use performance-enhancing drugs]. I'm all about competition, game planning and training hard. I've gotten to where I've gotten to through hard work, smart training and coaching. No type of performance enhancements.

” -- King Mo Lawal

Gross: Mo, Mike sent out a list of supplements that he said you took during camp and you take during regular training. Can you walk me through those supplements, and help me understand what they do for you? It’s a pretty long list. I’ll read it off:

Bete Alanine by Pro Performance?

Lawal: Bete Alanine is supposed to be a supplement that helps delay fatigue. That’s what I heard it does. It’s for cardio.

Gross: Collagenic Intensive by Metagenics?

Lawal: That’s for your cartilage. It’s supposed to help for your cartilage.

Gross: EC Matrixx by Metagenics?

Lawal: Same thing. Metagenics puts out cartilage supplements.

Gross: Glutamine by Bodytech?

Lawal: Glutamine is another recovery agent. You mix it with your protein powder or amino drink.

Gross: Omega Factors by Nature's Purest?

Lawal: Omega is kind of like a natural anti-inflammatory. It helps with your heart.

Gross: Endurox R(4) by Pacific Health Laboratories?

Lawal: That thing saves me, man. It keeps me from cramping up. It’s a carb drink.

Gross: Elite Recoup Amino by Dymatize?

Lawal: That’s amino acids. I mix it with my Endurox. It gives me extra amino acids.

Gross: Iron by Nature Made? That seems self-explanatory.

Lawal: Yeah, it’s Iron.

Gross: SuperVitamin B Complex with Vitamin C by Nature Made?

Lawal: It helps with the Iron absorption.

Gross: OK, and there were two that were “take only as needed.” Mass Lean Gainer by Rock Solid?

Lawal: Yeah man, I usually take that when I’m lifting. It just depends. When I’m doing rehab stuff I like to take a pill or two. One pill in the morning and one pill after I lift. That’s supposed to help you work out longer and tighten up the muscles.

Gross: And AminoCell-AKG by Nuetraceuticals?

Lawal: That’s amino acid pills. Sometimes when I travel I don’t want to travel with all the powder. If I carry the powder there’s been a few times when it comes undone in the bag, so I just carry the pill form of amino acids.

Gross: Are these the only supplements you took leading up to the Larkin fight?

Lawal: Yeah, those were the only supplements I took leading up to the Larkin fight.

Gross: So there was nothing you added during the camp for the Larkin fight that was different than previous fights? No change? Nothing that is a possible reason for the positive steroid test?

Lawal: No, there’s nothing I needed to add. That’s my whole routine right there.

Gross: What about the shot the doctor gave you, the anti-inflammatory shot for your knee. What was that?

Kogan: That’s Dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory steroid.

Gross: So that’s different. That’s not something you take that’s normally part of your camp?

Lawal: No, that was just a thing when I came back from Brazil and Austin, my leg was swollen. I was training and my leg was swollen. I was trying to do rehab on it, lifting and leg curl extensions. My leg was still swollen and I went to the doctor. He drained my knee. He said the leg wouldn’t be better unless I got the swelling and the fluid out of the knee. So we went to him to drain it.

Gross: How many times did that happen leading up to the fight, and how far out from the fight did that take place?

Lawal: That was three weeks before the fight. Honestly, three weeks before the fight and every week leading up to the fight I was getting my knee drained.

Gross: Were you also taking Dexamethasone every week before the fight, or just the once?

Lawal: I’m going to be real with you. I turned my head when he put the needle in, so I’d lean back and close my eyes and try to focus on something else

Kogan: I spoke to the doctor, Josh, and the anti-inflammatory was only administered the first time when the most swelling was there. He pulled out almost a glass full of liquid from his knee. That’s the only time that he shot the anti-inflammatory in. From there on, including that day and every week thereafter, every time he would drain him he was injecting Orthovisc, which is the rooster cartilage lubricant. Once the anti-inflammatory took effect and then because of the constant lubricant being put in through the Orthovisc, the knee wasn’t really getting that swollen anymore. That was the only time they put that particular anti-inflammatory steroid in, just once.

Gross: Mo, you had surgery on the knee Wednesday. How are you and how was the surgery?

Lawal: I’m good. I feel good. No problem really.

Gross: What’s your recovery period and how soon would you be able to fight if you were not potentially suspended?

Lawal: What it comes down to more than anything with microfractures is how they heal. I was thinking, the last few times I came back within four to five months. So I’m thinking maybe the same. The microfractures [issue] is mostly cartilage growth. That’s the big thing there. I was hoping around four months, or sooner.

Gross: And you also had an ACL inserted into your knee, was this a major operation?

Lawal: Every time you have a knee operation I think it’s major. But one thing the doctor stressed to me is that the ACL is an issue, but it’s not that bad compared to the microfracture. Most of the thing he said as [about] cartilage. Microfracture is when they stimulate cartilage growth to the knee, I guess. He said one thing I don’t want to do is mess that up.

Gross: You’re addressing your situation in the media. What do you hope to accomplish by addressing publicly like this? Also, steroid use is an issue in mixed martial arts. Are you concerned about being labeled a steroid user, perhaps a cheater, and what effect that may have on your career?

Lawal: That’s always the issue. I don’t want to be labeled as that, but you have people that don’t like me that will say that regardless. In the public eye, you’re always guilty before innocent. All I got to do is worry about the people that have been there for me since day one, my family and my friends. I want to prove my innocence to those people first and foremost. I’ve been a clean athlete. I’m still a clean athlete. I don’t know what happened here but we’ll get to the bottom of this. I’m kind of in disbelief. I’m having a hard time eating and sleeping because of all of this. I’m just hoping the sooner we can get the ball moving, we can get my name cleared.

Gross: If you don’t have the answer to this, maybe Mike can answer. What steps, in addition to speaking to the Attorney General and giving them the list of supplements, are you planning to do in the immediate time period, and what’s the game plan?

Kogan: I’ll backtrack for a second and offer some elaboration on your last question, if you don’t mind and then I’ll give you the timetable. When the news first came out on Tuesday, obviously the first day was not the day for us to talk. I asked Mo to stay away from media and stay away from Twitter. Mainly because we spent half the day Googling to figure out what it is. The day after he had surgery and [Thursday] was really the first day we sat down, made the list up, and decided we need to send this list to the commission and also to select reporters. It’s time for us to talk to the media. The most important thing is this: there is a large group of fans that, ultimately, they hear the words “anabolic steroids” and they make up their minds -- it doesn’t matter what you say or what you do. You’re never going to change their minds. We also have a very large contingency of supporters and we feel like it’s important for them to hear from Mo directly that he’s not hiding [he’s not coming up with random excuses or some UFO stories. He’s ready to face it, ready to deal with it, ready to investigate it and try to do our best to explain it. So that’s basically all we’re trying to accomplish -- to say his side of the story.

We’re not going to address every single media outlet and let people just drive traffic to their Website. We’ve selected a handful of people that we feel have been around this sport for a long time, have a legitimate journalistic interest in anything that deals with MMA and are not just some fly-by-night spontaneous people who just want to get people to their Websites. So without doing any investigating ourselves, as soon as that list was complete and sent to the commission, you, Greg Savage [of Sherdog.com], and MMAJunkie.com got the same list. Our intention is we’re not hiding anything. We’re actually out in the open with whatever we find and whatever our process is, and allowing select media and the Attorney General’s office to follow us along in this process. Everything that we’re doing is going live. We find something, you get it and the same thing with the Attorney General’s office. The only delay was I wanted to talk to the Attorney General’s office because this is an offense that needs to be dealt with the Attorney General’s office, and that’s really the primary concern of ours. I don’t want to fight this thing in the media and create a big thing in the media without first taking the steps that are necessary in the process -- that we’re going to deal with the Attorney General’s office. I spoke to them and I said, “Listen, we’re going to release this list to select media and we want to be able to have them do their own investigating, is that going to be a problem?” They didn’t have a problem with it, so we said OK, that’s the step we’re going to take. We’re talking because we don’t have anything to hide, and we want to be sure as we find something and take the next step, then you guys are right there with it and are able to do your own assessments and conclude your own judgments.

As far as the process moving forward, there is an administrative hearing the commission has Feb. 1, and the Attorney General has informed us that they will inform the commission at that time to issue a temporary suspension pending further investigation. From last Tuesday when we were served with the papers, we have 20 days to file a response, whether that be an appeal or just an answer to their complaint. And then sometime in March, when the commission gets together for their scheduled hearing, we’ll be able to go up there and present our case. That’s the timetable we’re following. My goal between now and for the next 14 or 15 days is to narrow down what these supplements do from a chemical standpoint, not just their general conceptual use but how they break down, and see if there’s anything in there that might have caused it. And if it has to, we’ll file an answer to the commission with that. And if it doesn’t, we’ll also file an answer. Bottom line is if we don’t know, we don’t know. There’s nothing wrong with filing an answer saying, “I don’t know. Here’s what I took and nothing causes it. This is all we did.” Then face the commission and deal with it then. If we don’t find anything in these supplements that may raise a red flag, we will ask for the B Sample to be tested. We felt at this point it was premature because we don’t know what’s showing up. What’s the point of testing the B Sample if I don’t know what could have caused this? If I’m 100 percent positive that nothing he took could have caused this, then we’ll ask for a B Sample to be tested and hope that it was some kind of mistake.

It was just four months ago that Muhammed Lawal made the most unfortunate verbal gaffe of his young career, comparing Strikeforce to a “cancer patient” and saying that fighters mired in what everyone thought were the organization’s last days were “just waiting for it to die.”

As one of MMA’s most intelligent and analytical fighters, Lawal must have regretted the choice of words immediately. He’s since apologized and backed off the original statement, even though -- aside from the dreadful phrasing -- the underlying sentiment was one most people shared at the time. For much of 2011, we all assumed that Strikeforce was just playing out the string, that it would vanish at year’s end and that up-and-coming stars like Lawal would be absorbed into the UFC.

Approximately 120 days later, things look at lot different and, frankly, even more unclear.

With an extended broadcast deal reportedly struck with Showtime, Strikeforce enjoys an unexpectedly bright future as it prepares for its first show of 2012 on Saturday night. While that’s great news for the brand itself, it has to be sort of unsettling for fighters the caliber of Lawal, who is slated to fight undefeated prospect Lorenz Larkin on this weekend’s televised card.

At least back when it seemed like Strikeforce was about to go the way of the dinosaur, fighters knew where they were headed -- either to the Octagon or the independent circuit.

Now that SF will reportedly live out this year, guys like Lawal, Luke Rockhold and Tyron Woodley must feel condemned to continued time in limbo. Indefinitely confined to an organization that has seen its end date extended, but has yet to feel any more vital or relevant than it did in September, when Lawal initially pronounced it terminally ill.

Dana White has promised change, a worthwhile working environment for fighters and a positive experience for fans. That change could well still be coming, but at least on paper, Strikeforce’s first offering of 2012 doesn’t feel any different.

There are some interesting matchups -- Lawal versus Larkin and Woodley’s bout with Jordan Mein probably chief among them -- but Rockhold’s middleweight title defense against Keith Jardine feels downright nonsensical as a main event and there has been typically little promotional buildup. Stuck as it is between last weekend’s UFC 141 and next weekend’s UFC 142, this event threatens to get totally lost in the shuffle. Especially with Zuffa planning a show every weekend during January.

For now, fighters and executives alike are putting a brave face on things. If there’s one constant in fight sports, it’s that you can count on everyone involved in a bad and frustrating situation to insist it’s neither bad, nor frustrating until after the fact. Especially when that seems like the best way to continue getting paid.

But if change is truly coming to Strikeforce, well, it needs to hurry up and get here. If it doesn’t, it might be tempting to think the organization is still just playing out the string.

A much, much longer but similar looking string.

Dana White alluded to the new Strikeforce/Showtime deal in the past couple of weeks with a sense of giddiness. He talked about it like it would knock our socks off just as soon as he was finally able to reveal the nature of the thing. This sort of teasing made for fun gossip.

Well, yesterday, along with Strikeforce’s Scott Coker and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza, he finally dished what’s been burbling behind the scenes between a Ken Herschman-less Showtime and the UFC and Strikeforce and all the contents therein.

What was it? Let’s just say it was the right kind of stuff to make our socks remain snug on our feet.

The gist was this: Strikeforce lives. Nobody’s absorbing anything. There will be six to eight Strikeforce events airing on Showtime in 2012, to go along with the fat bank of 32 UFC events that, if slapped on a two-page spread, would look like a United Airlines destination map. This kicks off Jan. 7 with a middleweight title tilt between Luke Rockhold and Keith Jardine. As for the belt vacancies in other weight classes? You’ll have to stay tuned.

Strikeforce not only lives, but it will operate as a non-feeder league. Viable on its own. A second port for the industry’s best. The women’s division will remain intact (in fact, will be glorified). Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Cristiane Santos, Gina Carano (presumably) -- these are the network stars. And the rest of Strikeforce will stay pursuant of the top global talent, so long as you cut a reasonably lean figure.

That’s because the heavyweight division will be disbanded after Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier sign off on the heavyweight grand prix, and of all the participants to that tournament, none of them will assuredly graduate to the UFC (though some surely will). Rather, the Barnett/Cormier winner will have one more fight in the heavyweight division, a cryptic prelude to something up somebody’s sleeve. Otherwise, there was no satisfactory answer as to why the heavyweight division will be phased out. Yet the hunch is that the UFC will deepen its heavyweight division by integrating its strongest pieces. Let’s face it, even if the Strikeforce/UFC heavies are consolidated, it’s a division that still lacks depth. But it’ll be a lot deeper than it is now.

As for lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez? He remains an island. A totally stoked, rich, tourist-unfriendly island just off the coast of the archipelago islands known as the Coveted Elite. Who will he face? Jorge Masvidal this weekend, then some opponents who, we are assured, will keep him happy for something like forever. The details on Melendez grow vague from there so, as is the common refrain from Dana White, “we’ll have to see what happens.”

The light heavyweight division -- arguably the strongest in Strikeforce with the most thievable pieces -- will rev along as is. That means Gegard Mousasi, Rafael Cavalcante, Muhammed Lawal and Ovince St. Preux are still the bedrock. Lorenz Larkin will be knocking. This is the lushest patch in the Strikeforce garden.

And all the rest is still being determined. The bottom line is there will be 40 weekends in 2012 with Zuffa cards. This is good news for MMA volumists, those who can’t get enough. This is horrific news for Sean Shelby, who as a matchmaker in both organizations will spend the heft of 2012 staring out an airplane window wondering about home.

But in the end, the news was that Strikeforce will go on, and Showtime will harbor it.

As for all the speculative matchmaking between Strikeforce’s hemmed-in best and those in the UFC? Not going to happen, which couldn’t help but make these new revelations a little bittersweet.

While we’re into all these new cross-promotional intrigues, why not entertain former Strikeforce champion Muhammed Lawal’s sincere request to fight former UFC champion Quinton Jackson in Japan?

Mo knows Jackson. He wants Jackson. Jackson wants Japan. Mo loves Japan. Jackson likes yen-to-American dollar conversion rates. Mo called Jackson an Uncle Tom for, amongst other things, hating on multi-syllabic words.

Talk about pulchritudinous. If all that doesn’t translate into something worthwhile, what does?

The gutters are about to start running over with Strikeforce’s best sloshing their way toward the UFC. It wouldn’t be surprising if Dec. 17 is the last big Strikeforce card, at least for things like “championship belts” being contested over. If Strikeforce becomes a feeder league, as some suspect it might, Lawal is already well past prospect level. If it folds completely, that doesn’t change the basic fact that King Mo exists (though Dana White has sort of disputed this).

Everybody knows that Strikeforce has become a foster home, and that the UFC is the mansion on the hill with all the spoiled children. Lawal, like others in the less desirable circumstance, wants to make his way over there and smack somebody in the mouth. What’s not to appreciate? And realistically, Lawal versus Jackson would be a fun fight both leading up and in actuality. Lawal would happily stand and bang with Jackson, and that’s all Jackson ever asked for. Somebody to throw “bungalows” with. That Lawal can wrestle only intensifies the settings.

We know that Jackson requested a fight with Mauricio Rua for the Feb. 26 card in Japan. Jackson probably forgot (or didn't care) that Rua has a fight lined up with Dan Henderson on Nov. 19. It’s possible that Rua loses to Henderson and a fight with Jackson looks attractive enough. But from a fetish standpoint of build-up -- the fight game’s bread and butter -- Rua is always polite and Lawal, to use his own words, likes to “keep things 100.” In fact, he’s already barking.

“This fool Rampage calls me out, and then people get mad when I respond?” he told MMA Fighting’s Ben Fowlkes. “[Jackson]’s a b---- in my eyes, because he didn’t respond. Maybe he’ll respond later, but the word is he wants to fight ‘Shogun.' That’s whatever. But he called me out, so I’m going to respond.”

Lawal’s contract is up in February. If he’s not on the December card, he won’t likely be fighting before then anyway. If it’s not Rua and Jackson in Japan, it should be Lawal and Jackson, two former champions who’d never allow things to be anything other than thoroughly entertaining.

All the buzz coming out of Dan Henderson's camp has been that he is UFC-bound and would like to unify the 205-pound belts against Jon Jones. Yet, Henderson himself hasn't been contributing to these reports.

In fact, he says if he had it his way, he'd defend his light heavyweight title in Strikeforce and fight in the UFC, interchangeably. Speaking to Clinch Gear Radio this week, he broke it down.

"I definitely feel that there's still the possibility for me to defend that belt in Strikforce, but I think now that the UFC has bought Strikeforce and they need to make money and I need to make money, so we'll see what happens," he said. "I'd like to work out a deal where I'm fighting in both promotions...I'm sure we'll figure out a deal within the next month, two weeks. I would love to be able to fight in the UFC and defend my belt in Strikeforce."

He also went on to say that the Anderson Silva loss at UFC 82 was the one that stuck in his craw the most. "Probably," he said. "Especially the way [Silva] fights most the time. He's disrespectful to his opponents and the fans at the same time."

Whether a deal like that can be worked out or not depends on what Zuffa's big picture plans on for Strikeforce. The writing appears to be on the wall that Strikeforce isn't overly interested in having traditional champions and defenses the way the UFC operates. Right now there is a vacant welterweight and heavyweight title, and a Henderson's is currently in limbo as he negotiates. Besides that, outside of Muhammed Lawal, there aren't a lot of vastly intriguing challenges for Henderson in Strikeforce. However, he has plenty of options in the UFC, with potential fights against Silva for the middleweight strap, Quinton Jackson (who beat him for the 205-belt in 2007), Mauricio Rua and Jones. Zuffa has stated that the Nick Diaz deal they worked out several months ago allows him to fight in both the UFC and Strikeforce, so maybe it's possible they could give Henderson a similar clause in his contract.

By any measure, Saturday's “Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov” show was one of the company’s best, most complete efforts in recent memory.

Somehow -- beyond all reasonable expectation -- Strikeforce actually lucked into a halfway intriguing final for its beleaguered heavyweight grand prix tournament when Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett breezed through their semifinal matchups. It welcomed a pair of former champions back to the fold as Muhammed Lawal and Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante both nabbed much-needed wins, conceivably setting up a rematch between the two for its vacant light heavyweight belt. It also crowned a new and arguably more interesting middleweight titlist in the upstart Luke Rockhold.

Even the two-and-a-half-hour preliminary broadcast turned out to be worth watching, despite a reliance on annoying overhead camera angles and oxymoronic attempts to dub Mike Kyle’s bout against Marcos de Lima the “undercard main event.”

Not for nothing guys, but a fight can’t really be a main event if it’s on the … ah, never mind.

Point is, for the first time in a long time, it felt like Strikeforce was making progress on Saturday in Cincinnati. The irony, of course, is thick: Along with some obvious help from Zuffa, it seems Strikeforce is shifting into second gear just as the road ahead prepares to dead end in a cliff.

Really? Now Strikeforce is going to start establishing some momentum? Now?

At this point, the questions we should be asking aren’t whether or not the winner of the grand prix should be the new Strikeforce heavyweight champ (he should) or what Rockhold’s first title defense should be (rematch, naturally), but if the company will even live long enough to see these storylines through to completion.

Perhaps the only thing keeping Zuffa brass from pulling the plug right now is Strikeforce’s ongoing broadcast contract with Showtime. Reports indicate that deal expires sometime in early 2012, but the premium cable channel has the option to extend it as far into the future as 2014. If Showtime declines, Strikeforce may well die on the spot. If it opts to renew, Zuffa’s hands could be tied.

Just to make things even more confusing, Strikeforce announced following Saturday night’s event that it’s planning the grand prix championship some time during the first quarter of 2012. That is, if Cormier’s apparent hand injury doesn’t turn out to be serious enough to put him on ice for an extended period. That could be disastrous. It would seem the fight organization can’t afford any delays.

With all this in mind, the TV guys might have a very interesting decision to make here during the next several months. The Catch-22 is that Zuffa’s influence is clearly already changing Strikeforce for the better and better broadcasts naturally sweeten the pot for Showtime. On the other hand, all previous reports indicate Showtime can’t stand certain high-ranking Zuffa officials. So, what’s the proper play here?

Will the promise of an increasingly relevant product be enough to keep Showtime and Zuffa in business together? Will Showtime just wash its hands of the whole arrangement? Could it extend the life of Strikeforce just because it knows that’s exactly what Zuffa doesn't want it to do? You can see the dilemma.

For fight fans, the real question is this: If Showtime doesn’t keep Strikeforce on life support, will the grand prix final also be the promotion’s last show? Or might it not happen at all?

Fighters like Roger Gracie and Yoel Romero Palacio, who enter MMA at a more advanced age, face unique dangers in terms of how they are matched. As time is not on their side, they oftentimes find themselves competing against far more seasoned foes in fights where their pedigrees are pushed beyond their limits. More »

CINCINNATI -- Muhammed Lawal fights Roger Gracie this weekend, and he’s not sure where a victory puts him in the title picture. In fact, with current 205-pound champion Dan Henderson all but certain to sign with the UFC, he’s having one of those “Matrix” moments that goes like this: The truth is, there is no picture.

“Nobody knows man, we’re all confused,” he told ESPN.com after the prefight newser. “Nobody knows.”

Lawal was fairly candid about the uncertainty of Strikeforce and where things are headed. Yet, he pointed out to the media on hand that there should be more media on hand, and made it known that all the things going on outside -- namely, UFC 137’s game of musical match-ups -- were overshadowing a pretty explosive card. He would like people to take note of it, but since it’s out of his hands he’ll roll with the punches. One of his favorite refrains is a shrugging one: “I don’t care.”

“That’s what I do man -- you can tell, it’s different,” he said. “The big issues are other things, like Brock [Lesnar] fighting [Alistair] Overeem, and then Nick Diaz getting pulled out of his fight with Georges St. Pierre. For me? It’s like whatever. But to Daniel [Cormier], Bigfoot [Antonio Silva], Jacare [Ronaldo Souza], Luke Rockhold, and Josh Barnett, it matters. You have the title on the line and the semifinals of the tournament and nobody cares.”

King Mo has always been one to speak his mind, and he does it well. He says the simplest way for him to proceed at this point is to keep things light-heartedly mercenary -- “it’s a business, it’s all about money” -- and win his fights. After 14 months away from the cage, he’s anxious to get back in there against the jiu-jitsu ace Gracie and get paid again. He was cleared to fight and ready to go all the way back in January, so the last nine months have come off the calendar very slowly.

“I think it’s a good match-up, grappler versus wrestler,” he said. “But it’s going to be more than that, it’s going to be a little bit of everything. We’ll see. I think he wants to go to the ground. I don’t care, I’m prepared for all positions. Now nine months [after being cleared], I get my shot.”

And after that shot, who knows. Lawal has made no secret about desire to fight in the UFC. There are a lot of match-ups for him there, whereas in Strikeforce, currently, the cupboards a little bare. A win over Gracie would resolidify him as a top ten light heavyweight, and more importantly remind everyone that he’s out there. Not that, you know, he cares to remind “everyone” of anything.

“A lot of people in MMA don’t know s---,” he said. “Most MMA fans that I’ve ran into aren’t fans of the other sports. They watch MMA, but they don’t watch any boxing, kick-boxing, none of that other than basketball and football. They don’t really know what really good athletes are. They can’t relate to anything because they never competed at a high level. They just watch.”

Circling back around, that’s exactly what he wants you to do this weekend. It’s a King Mo paradox, and it’s best to roll with the punches.

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, recognized as one of MMA’s premier showmen, cares little for the perception fans have of him. The outspoken 30-year-old former light heavyweight champion will return to the cage for the first time in more than a year, when he meets Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Roger Gracie under the Strikeforce banner on Saturday in Cincinnati. More »

NEWARK -- Count UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio Rua among those who are jazzed about the influx of new faces soon to make their way into the Octagon.

While having lunch at a Brazilian restaurant in Newark on Monday, just five days before his first UFC title defense against Jon Jones, "Shogun" applauded Zuffa's landscape-changing splurge and said he was happy that his division -- just as the others -- would soon be crowded with talent.

"I think it's pretty cool, because now the UFC can get the best guys in all weight classes and match them up and have them fight," Rua told ESPN.com. "I think it's a really cool thing. And I think the acquisition of the heavyweight division is going to be very nice and very strong, and that's going to be fun. Now the UFC has many top fighters. Congratulations to Zuffa."

As he gets ready to face the freelance-striking Jones -- who has seemed completely invulnerable to punishment in seven UFC fights while dishing out plenty -- Rua also chimed in on another issue that would further open things up. That is, teammates fighting teammates.

"We are professional fighters, so I think we've got to fight," he said. "This is our job, so you have to fight. It's what you do for a living. Some people keep saying, 'I won't fight this guy, he's my friend,' or this or that, but I don't think that's fair. I think training is pretty close to the real thing and we train hard and it's our profession, so you have to fight and do your job."

Rua himself fought a teammate in Evangelista Santos in 2003 while still training out of Chute Boxe. That was a Meca World Vale Tudo event where things weren't nearly as civil. Today he and his brothers, Murilo "Ninja" Rua and Marcos "Shaolin" Rua, operate Universidade da Luta in Curitiba, Brazil, as a family.

Unlike Alistair Overeem, who needed a nanosecond to declare he'd fight Valentijn when pressed, Shogun says he would never fight one of his siblings. Just about everyone else, though, is on limits -- including his friends. Unless that friend is like a brother. And that is rarer than people like to think, he says.

"I think friends in life, if you're really talking about friends, you can count on your fingers," Rua said. "You're not going to have that many friends. So people are your friends, but it's not like they are your best friends, so you have to fight them, it's your job.

"The only guy I would not fight is Wanderlei Silva because I really have a special relationship with him that goes back a long way. Other than that, they are not your best friends and even though they are your friends, you have to do your job."

It's always a fun occasion when possibility crosses over into probability -- especially when possibility has forever felt more like fool's hope.

With the epic news of UFC's parent company Zuffa purchasing its primary competition Strikeforce, the doors are being slowly opened for fights that would otherwise never happen. Amid all the monopoly talk and whether it's healthy to eliminate promotional competition, to a fan of MMA this is what's known as the upshot. It might take a year or so as contracts play out between Strikeforce and Showtime, but it's only a matter of time before the world's pound-for-pound best fight under one promotion.

Alistair Overeem versus Cain Velasquez … not as far-fetched as it once was. Georges St. Pierre versus Nick Diaz … no longer strictly hypothetical. Fedor Emelianenko versus Brock Lesnar or Randy Couture? Fans want it, fans pay to watch, money makes fights. (Fedor's management obliging). Allure is still the main ingredient in matchmaking, and Joe Silva's Rolodex is on its way to becoming whole.

So what does it all mean for the future of MMA? For one, it means that P4P rankings are about to get a lot more homogenized. It also means there will be incredible depth at every weight as Strikeforce's elite make their way to the Octagon.

Here are eight Strikeforce fighters that will carry the most intrigue into the UFC, and some matchups that still seem too good to be true.

Fedor Emelianenko

With two losses in a row, the "game is catching up to him" chants are loud enough to drown out the small matter of the 27 consecutive wins before that, but the game never catches up to must-see legacy and hype. Nor, it can be said, the fans' appreciation for the way Fedor fights. To see him finally step into the Octagon and face an opponent like Couture or Lesnar -- for so long off-limits and argued to death through speculation -- would be a "big moment." Big if for no other reason than most fans had grown used to the idea that they'd never see it. (And, truthfully, they still might not).

Dan Henderson

Dan Henderson left the UFC on the highest note possible -- by earning knockout of the year honors against Michael Bisping at UFC 100. People still thank him for it in passing. Since then, Hendo has knocked out Renato Sobral, and then Rafael Cavalcante for the light heavyweight belt. He nearly knocked out Jake Shields as well. That's what he does: He knocks people out, or he goes out trying. For a guy who'll happily fight in three weight classes, he could feasibly fight anybody from Chael Sonnen to Mauricio Rua to Junior dos Santos and still have likable chances.

Gilbert Melendez

Strikeforce's lightweight champ would be jumping into the deepest talent pool in MMA, but it's hard to imagine Gilbert Melendez and current UFC champion Frankie Edgar putting on anything other than an epic fight. And not just Edgar: Guillard, Guida, Pettis, Maynard, Jim Miller et al. The round robin matches at 155 -- already so competitive that most guys just below the top 10 are looking over the shoulder for fear of a pink slip -- get that much crazier with El Ni