Recently on twitter there has been a discussion of the recent health issues of former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight champion “King” Muhammed Lawal. Following his fight with Lorenz Larkin at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs Jardine, Lawal removed himself from twitter and the public eye due to a positive test for a substance called Drostanolone. It was on Sunday that several people on twitter started to talk about the whereabouts of Lawal and the rumored health issues he was dealing with prior to his fight with Larkin.
Luke Thomas and R.J. Clifford of SiriusXM’s Fight Club had the opportunity to speak with Lawal on their show on Monday to try and get the Strikeforce star to open up about his medical issues. Lawal addressed the rumors and confirmed that he had been dealing with not just another ACL tear but a dangerous bout with staph. The staph had spread to a point that it was amputation was discussed as a way to treat the infection.
Below is a transcript:
Alright here’s the thing. All this happened like three weeks ago but I didn’t tell nobody. I was in the hospital with people texting me and I was trying to keep it like nothing was going on so there wouldn’t be any red flags. But what happened was I had surgery after the fight. I had ACL and microfracture. The ACL wasn’t a big deal but the microfracture was a bigger deal in my cartilage. One of the sutures got infected and I had to go to the hospital the day after the Rashad Evans/Phil Davis fight. I got blood taken out of my knee and taken to a lab. I was at my manager’s crib…Mike Kogan’s crib and all of the sudden my doctor’s like ‘hey, you’ve gotta come to the hospital right now’. And this is right after Chael won. So I went to the hospital before the Rashad Evans/Phil Davis fight and I watched the fight at the hospital. Then went into the surgery spot and woke up with the PICC line in my arm and they were telling me I would be in there till Monday. I figured I’d go in there and clear my knee out and I’d be out the same night or the next night but I was in there till Monday. Then they checked out my knee again and took the temperature and the knee was still hot and swelling up. They decided to take me back into surgery to do another flush procedure to get the staph infection out. In twelve days I had five procedures to remove the staph and I’m staph free now. But now they’ve pushed IV medicine through my PICC line that’s connected to my heart through my arm every day for six weeks.
This is the toughest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. The harded that I’ve experienced in my life. Spiritually and emotionally, man I’ll put it like this. I’m not religious at all. I was born to a Muslim family. Man this had me thinking I had to purchase the Quran and get back to my faith and start having more talks with Allah. Seeing my teammates come see me, it broke me down a few times man. Coach Mendez came and saw me a lot. Coach Bob, Paul Buentello, Dan Cormier…people on the team. Jermain Ramsey and Jenna…Phil. I just had so many people contact me and come through it was tough man. It pushed me. Mentally I’ll be a stronger person. I know I’ll be stronger and I’ll be a better fighter.
King Mo has experienced one of the scariest moments of his life when he could have lost much more than just his career. Listening to him speak, his voice and words were that of a man with a different outlook on life and one that recognizes how fragile life truly is. I hope that he uses this as a way to motivated himself to be the best person that he could possibly be, not just as a fighter, but also as a man. He has an opportunity to become something much more than an entertaining fighter and hopefully he realizes his potential.
I know I speak for the staff at Bloody Elbow when I say that I hope that Lawal has a speedy recovery.
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