"I'm not one of those coaches that when a guy loses, it's his fault. No! It's our fault. We are a team. I gotta take some of the blame, even if I'm not to blame. Me, myself, I'm not gonna say I put Mo in that boxer's mindset, but I think I taught him so well that I probably did in a way. In a way, I kind of took his mind off of what he was supposed to do. I'm not gonna say that's a good or bad thing. I will say the one thing about us is this, we work hard together and we will win together and we lose together. At the end of the day, I'm not gonna be someone who says it's his fault or he should have done this. No! It's our fault and now it's my job to get him back to the mental status he was once at and get him ready for the next fight," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who gave us an update on his work with mixed martial arts fighters King Mo Lawal and Roy Nelson. Check it out!
PC: How is everything going, Jeff?
JM: Everything is going good.
PC: King Mo suffered a loss in the second round of the Bellator tournament. What do you feel you guys have to do to prevent that from happening again?
JM: Well, I think the most important thing is for Mo to actually be in MMA mindset. I think he was actually in a boxing mindset, and by him not being in a MMA mindset, he probably wasn't prepared for that punch coming, or at least have his hands up, but I think that because he was so focused on boxing, that maybe that's why he didn't see the spinning backfist comingÂ…and plus it was a desperation punch. At the end of the day, the thing with Mo, and I told Mo after the fight that I didn't want him to focus so much on boxing. He is a world-class wrestler; why not use it? I think that now we gotta find a balance. The one thing with Mo is he is kind of punishing himself in a positive way because now, when we do the "Doom Session", he pays me a dollar every time I doom him. That's his way of correcting things. And I told him, "I hope you don't owe me $100 by the end of the month." That means he didn't learn nothing. So he has made a true commitment to get better and just be more aware. That could have happened to anybody. That's the thing about MMA; it's totally different from boxing. In boxing, if a guy's back is turned to you, you not expecting nothing to come back at you. Like I said, it was a punch that was thrown in desperation, because as long as the guy was in front of him, Mo had no problems with him at all. Once Mo started to put that pressure on him and he felt Mo's pressure coming on him, he hit that backfist. It just happened. It's one of the many things that can happen.
PC: You never want your fighter to suffer a loss, but being that you guys are kind of new in the relationship, do you think the timing was good to get him back into an MMA mindset?
JM: I think that eventually this possibly could have happened. I won't say it's fortunate that it happened because it's never fortunate to get knocked out or anything, but it is a reality check. And it's one of those things to actually force Mo to be in the mindset, like I said, to say, "Hey, some of these guys, I need to take down." Just because you can stand up and box with certain guys, and he does have the skillsÂ…there are no worries with his boxing abilities because he can stand with those guys in the gym. But at the same time, at the end of the day, there are all different forms of striking, so it's not just boxing; there are knees and kicks and elbows and things that I don't even know about. I'm still learning the terminology to some of that stuff, but there are different aspects to striking, and it's not just the boxing that we cover in the gym. So Mo could be the better boxer, but in MMA, when you're fighting a guy with good Muay Thai or whatever, it can offset your traditional boxing. I don't want Mo to get away from what can happen in that cage. It's so much going on, and the most important thing is I want him to start being alert. And like I said, he challenges himself. Mo pays me good to work with him and now he is doing the dollar every time I catch him during our sessions for himself. It's kind of like self-punishment and he's doing well. So far, I have only made $6 (laughing) and that's a good thing. I have only caught him a few times and we have had a lot of sessions. That means he's aware of what's going on.
PC: As long as he's not putting you in another tax bracket from it (laughing).
JM: And Mo is one of them guys who is such a good-hearted person, he feels it is all his fault. Like I told him it's not his fault. It's not a matter of nobody's fault; it happens. You get defined by how you come back. Look at how Georges St. Pierre got knocked out and look at him now; the whole world loves him. One thing about the MMA world, it's such a different sport, they will probably never have an undefeated guy in the MMA world. It's one of those sports that anything can happen at any given time and there are so many ways that these guys can lose, I don't see it happening to where one of these guys retire undefeated. I'm just trying to keep Mo in a positive mindset. He's getting back to the old Mo. His swag was a little messed up for a minute, but he's good. Like I tell everybody, I'm not one of those coaches that when a guy loses, it's his fault. No! It's our fault. We are a team. I gotta take some of the blame, even if I'm not to blame. Me, myself, I'm not gonna say I put Mo in that boxer's mindset, but I think I taught him so well that I probably did in a way. In a way, I kind of took his mind off of what he was supposed to do. I'm not gonna say that's a good or bad thing. I will say the one thing about us is this, we work hard together and we will win together and we lose together. At the end of the day, I'm not gonna be someone who says it's his fault or he should have done this. No! It's our fault and now it's my job to get him back to the mental status he was once at and get him ready for the next fight.
PC: Roy Nelson also has a fight coming up against Cheick Kongo. How is Roy looking during training for that fight?
JM: Big Country's looking great. You can look at his body type if you want to, but that means nothing; this guy works hard. He works really, really hard. He went from throwing probably 200 punches a round to now 550 punches a round. He has come a long way and me forcing him to do that is my way of being sure that he's in shape. I don't care what he looks like. I know how hard he works because I bring everything out of him and that's what he likes. He don't want me BSing him and holding him back. He likes a challenge and now he is getting faster because he's using these weighted gloves that Mo brought him and they are like 5 pounds. I burn his arms up. I don't stop. Just because you put on 5 pound gloves, we keep up the same pace. I'm still gonna get that 550 out of you. He also wears a weighted vest and weighted shin guards. He is pushing himself to the limit. And the one thing with him is he is one of those guys that is a fun-loving guy also. Him and Mo are a lot alike. One thing I like about Roy, after the Mo thing happened and everybody was trying to go so hard on Mo and saying this and thatÂ…somebody made a comment about "Big Country", saying you better keep your hands up. He made a joke about it like, "That's our style. That's how we like it." He's friends with Mo and he's not gonna rag on Mo. He doesn't care what anyone says. He got caught and it can happen to anyone. It doesn't take away the talent that he already has. He still is who he is; he just got caught with a punch.
BE SURE TO CHECK BACK SOON FOR MUCH MORE WITH JEFF MAYWEATHER!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]