Bellator 175 results: King Mo gets revenge on Rampage
By Eric Kowal
King Mo got the best of Rampage on Friday night
Tonight, in the main event of Bellator 175 from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and ‘King Mo’ Muhammed Lawal went to battle for a second time.
In the opening round the two men traded back and forth on their feet for the first two minutes before Mo got the fight to the ground with a takedown. Rampage worked his way back up to his feet, but Mo held on and snuck in a few jabs before getting a second takedown to clearly win the the first stanza.
The second round saw more of the same, Mo pushing the pressure, getting Page up against the cage before referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy saw enough of the stalemate position and separated the two men. A winded and sweaty Rampage benefited from the break and landed a big shot that rocked and stumbled his opponent. Rampage landed a few elbows that might have been near the back of the head and McCarthy warned the former UFC light heavyweight champion. The two men finish the second round with Rampage tossing Lawal to the canvas.
The third round saw several failed takedown attempts by Lawal until finally, with a minute and a half left, he finally got Rampage down, but the fight immediately returned to the feet where they continued to exchange leather until the bell.
Lawal won a unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards which set up a fight with Bellator MMA newcomer and former UFC, Ultimate Fighter winner, Ryan Bader.
A total of 1,049 days passed since the original outing between ‘Rampage’ and ‘Mo’ at Bellator 120. In that time, a lot has happened that has changed not only the landscape of the sport but also the dynamics of the two foes.
The first fight between Mo and Page took place May 17, 2014, and headlined the first and only Bellator MMA pay-per-view to date. We now know that the second largest MMA promotion in the United States will make their second attempt in the pay-per-view business on June 24 when Chael Sonnen takes on Wanderlei Silva at Madison Square Garden. The Bader-Lawal fight will be part of that event’s pay-per-view.
Jackson would win a unanimous decision that night, but it was a very lackluster fight, one that did not win over fans and further led to a feud between then Bellator MMA CEO, Bjorn Rebney and Lawal.
In that two-year, ten-month span, Lawal has fought a total of 10 times, which is five times the amount of his adversary in Jackson. Rampage has been the center of contract disputes between Bellator and the UFC which led the UFC bringing him back for one of those two fights he participated in, only to be dragged back to Bellator to finish out his obligations.
Not only has there been a leadership change in Bellator since the men first fought, but this time around the weight-class was different as well. Yesterday Rampage tipped the scales at 253 pounds, his heaviest ever since competing in MMA. If you did the math, that is a 41-pound weight difference between Page and Mo. The bout was originally scheduled for heavyweight so Jackson did not come in overweight, however when you compare to their first matchup at 205 pounds, one has to wonder if inactivity on Rampage’s part had something to do with the higher weight class.
Bellator officials mentioned several times throughout the broadcast on Spike that this second fight would be the last time these two combatants met in the cage.