‘King Mo’ Lawal explains why he would never fight Chael Sonnen

Later tonight, in the main event of Bellator’s debut in Ireland, light heavyweight veteran Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal will take on Satoshi Ishii in a heavyweight bout. If he emerges the victor in this bout, he’ll reestablish himself as one of the very best heavyweights on the Bellator roster. This, of course, would put him neck-and-neck with the winner of January’s Chael Sonnen vs. Tito Ortiz bout. If Sonnen wins that fight, however, don’t ask King Mo to fight him. As he explained in a recent interview with MMAFighting.com, that’s something he’ll never do.

King Mo’s reluctance to fight Sonnen comes down to a staph infection that he suffered in 2012. When he was dealing with his infection, King Mo says that Sonnen approached him, out of nowhere, and offered him financial help if he found himself needing it.

“When I was sick, he hit me up out of the blue and was like, ‘If you’re hurting for money or anything, if you need help, I got you,” King Mo explained. “I’ve got money put aside. I can give you money to pay your bills.’ I didn’t need it, but I was like, ‘Thanks, bro.’ The fact that he reached out to me like that was shocking. Me and Chael are cool, but just for him to put himself out there to help me, not many people would actually help people.”

King Mo went onto explain that while some people do good deeds in an effort to improve public perception of themselves, he believes that Sonnen’s offer came from an entirely unselfish place.

“People help people, but when they do it’s like a feel-good story,” Lawal said. “Chael came out of the blue. And you know what the funny thing is? When it was all said and done, no one knew but me. And I put it out there, like ‘Chael did this for me’. He never said nothing. Still to this day, he don’t bring it up; I bring it up.”

The Bellator light heavyweight also went on to assure that, despite Sonnen’s legendary pre-fight trash talk, he is a genuinely good person.

“Everybody is somewhat different [in the buildup to a fight], Lawal said. “I have people coming to me, like ‘Oh, you’re probably an asshole.’ I’m not an asshole. I’m just me. Chael, when it comes to sell a fight, yeah we all have to be a certain way. But when you see him in public, Chael is cool as can be. Cool as can be, man.”

If King Mo defeats Ishii in Ireland tonight, who do you want to see him fight next? Sound off, PENN Nation!