The crowd got into the fight early with the familiar King! Mo! chants. The matchup started slow, with neither guy looking to engage much on the feet for the first minute. Lawal had his hands down and was waving Gracie in to engage. Gracie didn't. Mo lands a couple of jabs to the body. Gracie pawed with a jab but didn't connect. Gracie finally threw a kick and landed a knee to the body. Gracie threw a flying knee. I never thought I'd type that sentence. The referee encouraged the fighters to work with 90 seconds to go, but it didn't help much. The crowd was booing, and with good reason. For now, anyway.
Then out of nowhere, Lawal finally landed the huge right hand he had thrown four or five times before, and Gracie collapsed to the mat. Mo rushed in and landed two more shots, and the referee jumped in. Gracie wasn't completely unconscious, but he was definitely in dreamland.
This was Lawal's first bout in over a year due to a knee injury he suffered when he lost his Strikeforce light heavyweight title to Rafael Cavalcante last August. Gracie is a multiple-time world champion in BJJ.