Strikeforce
UFC President Dana White cuts Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal from Strikeforce contract
Mar 27, 2012 - 9:00:43 PM UFC President Dana White cuts Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal from Strikeforce contract

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

2012 will not go down as a good year for Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal. The former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion kicked off the year with a win over Lorenz Larkin, but things have deteriorated quickly from there.

Lawal was popped for the anabolic steroid drostanolone out of the bout, then his life and career were at risk following multiple knee surgeries and staph infections. Now, after lashing out at a member of the NSAC on Twitter following his suspension hearing on Tuesday, UFC President Dana White has released Lawal from his Strikeforce contract.

The release was reported by MMAJunkie.com on confirmation from White.

Lawal was handed a nine month suspension and fined $39,000 on Tuesday for his steroid test failure in January, but he took umbrage to a line of questioning from commissioner Pat Lundvall. Lundvall asked Lawal whether he read and understood English after failing to disclose anything on his pre-fight medical questionnaire.

"I honestly feel like Lundvall was a racist bitch asking me if I can read or speak English," Lawal responded on Twitter. "Go on somewhere with that [expletive]!!!"

He backpedaled a little bit as people responded to the comment, and said he believed the commissioner was out of line with the question being asked.

"It's funny how people are [trying to] say that I'm [calling] the commission racist," he wrote. "No!! They aren't. But there was one person on the panel that was out of line with the question she asked me. I found it insulting, prejudice, and a [little] racist. I say racist from my past experiences, I have been asked that in the past as an insult."

However, the damage has been done, and Lawal has gone from the path back to a title shot to being out of a spot on the roster in a very short span.

Penick's Analysis: White wouldn't go into details on his decision to release Lawal, but it clearly wasn't a good idea for Lawal to take his grievances to Twitter in that fashion after being suspended for a failed steroid test. Regardless of his issues with today's proceedings, commenting on the situation in that way didn't sit well with White, and so a bad situation got even worse for him. I'm not sure what his next move is from here, but this has been a precipitous fall for Lawal in the last three months, and I'm not sure how he goes about bouncing back from this right now.