King Mo: CM Punk Proved He’s A Fighter

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal said that he considers CM Punk a fighter after his UFC 203 debut against Mickey Gall, which he lost in quick fashion. Here are highlights:

On Punk’s loss to Gall: “My silver lining is, [Punk is] a fighter. Here’s why I say this. Any normal man would’ve tapped when he’s getting beat up like that, and would’ve quit. Man, he didn’t quit. He was getting pummeled, he got put in every bad position, he was flattened out getting hit. And you know what? He kept on trying. There are people, there are vets, there’s some champions out there who’ll tap to strikes. But you know what, he kept he fighting and got submitted. So I can give him that. He went out there to win. He tried. That’s all you can ask. Next time he’ll do better.”

On not faulting Punk for his mistakes: “Here’s the thing, man, he’s new to the sport. He jumped in head first and I could tell he felt good. The crowd didn’t get to him, but when he got in the cage, his nerves got to him, because when the fight started, instead of settling down and moving around a little bit, he shuffled forward in kill mode — not using his tools, because he was in a good camp. Duke Roufus knows his thing, he knows his stuff, so I’m pretty sure he was like, ‘when you go out there, feint, use your jab, set something up,’ but CM Punk was in kill mode and just forgot, just didn’t implement the gameplan. It takes practice, it takes time. He’s been training for two years with Duke Roufus, putting in work. I text him here and there to check up on him, see how he’s doing and see if he’s feeling good, and man, he was serious about it. You could see his body change. He was pumped up. A lesser man would’ve just found a way to not take the fight, or found a way to pull out, but he didn’t. He stepped up to the plate and took a swing.”

On if Punk will fight again: “I think he’ll fight again. I think he wants to. I don’t know if the UFC will allow it, because I don’t really know what the UFC is doing. I don’t really keep up with them. I just keep up with fighters who I’m cool with in the UFC, but I hope he gets a chance to fight again. If he doesn’t, hey, come on over to Bellator, dog. We’ll get you a fight over here too. … We’ll book him up.”