There wasn’t a lot of good news to go around once Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney confirmed that Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez wouldn’t be making the trip to Southaven, Miss., for Saturday night’s pay-per-view.
Bellator had to be bummed because the loss of the trilogy fight almost certainly meant a significantly lower buy-rate for the event. Michael Chandler was bummed because it meant he wouldn’t get a chance to avenge his only career loss. Alvarez was bummed because, well, he has a concussion, but also because it throws a wrench in his plan to fight his way out of Bellator and into a fat UFC contract.
Bummer, bummer, bummer, as far as the eye can see.
But there’s at least one person who stands to benefit (two if you count Alvarez’s replacement, Will Brooks, who at least succeeded in forcing people to Google ‘Will Brooks’ once the change was announced), and that person is former Strikeforce champion Muhammad Lawal, who now finds his fight with longtime rival Quinton Jackson firmly ensconced in the main event slot.
This is the fight that Lawal has been aiming at for years, ever since he and “Rampage” traded verbal barbs during a seemingly never-ending van ride back in 2009. It’s also the fight that Bellator clearly had its eye on when it organized this four-man light heavyweight tournament to begin with (what, you thought Mikhail Zayats vs. Christian M’Pumbu was Rebney’s pay-per-view dream fight?).
Jackson and Lawal, that’s the 205-pound endgame for Bellator. It also might be the last best chance Lawal is going to get to become the fighter he was supposed to be.
Lawal is 33 years old and well into the sixth year of his pro career. He’s won a championship and lost it. He’s positioned himself for a possible jump to the UFC and lost that, too. He made the leap to Bellator, where his particular mix of genuine skill and obstinate charisma seemed bound to make him one of the organization’s crown jewels … and then he went 0-2 against current Bellator light heavyweight champ Emanuel Newton.
It’s not that Lawal has crashed and burned – and, after nearly losing his leg to a staph infection, he could probably be forgiven even if that were the case. It’s more that we seem to be still waiting for him to fully develop into the talent he once claimed to be, and we can only wait so long.
That’s why the stakes are so much higher for Lawal than they are for Jackson in this fight. “Rampage” already had his glory days. He slammed his way into PRIDE highlights and won a UFC championship before washing up on the shores of Bellator. He doesn’t need this. Whatever he does now is just extra padding in a long career with a complicated legacy. Lawal’s the one who’s still trying to forge a legacy of his own, and for that he has to win this fight.
Say he doesn’t. Say Lawal gets knocked out or loses a decision to a past-his-prime “Rampage” in Saturday night’s main event. Say that’s him bumping his head against the ceiling of his own potential as a fighter. What, then, would be the biggest win of Lawal’s career?
His decision over Gegard Mousasi in 2010? His KO of Roger Gracie in 2011? How about the thumping he put on the Kimbo-killer, Seth Petruzelli, in 2013?
All of those fights seemed, at the time, like glittering little promises of the bright future to come, the one where Lawal’s performances in the cage would justify the hype outside of it. And, for all we know, that future is still out there.
If Lawal wants to reach it while he’s still young enough to do something with it, however, he has to start on Saturday. He has to start with beating “Rampage” Jackson. It’s the only remaining path into that future he once seemed destined for, and it gets a little narrower with every passing year.
Source: www.MMAJunkie.com By: Ben Fowlkes
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