"Man, King Kong is the truth. I sparred with him yesterday. I've never seen somebody so big and can do the shit he does. There are things that he does in practice that he didn't have to showcase in a fight yet. He's like a bigger version of Rigondeaux, straight up," stated Bellator light heavyweight contender King Mo Lawal, who shared his recent experience sparring with interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis Ortiz. With Mo being a mixed martial artist, it's obvious that there's a disparity when it comes to skill level inside the boxing ring. That being said, having sparred with several other heavyweight boxers and competed against some of the biggest heavyweights that mixed martial arts has to offer, Mo was extremely impressed with how Ortiz was able to fight like a smaller fighter despite being a big guy.
"We be sparring and he be playing, cracking jokes, and touching his shoes and hitting us and we rotating on this motherfucker, man. He's in great shape, he's light on his feet, and he moves well on his feet. He has explosive punching power and thudding punching power," Mo explained during a recent conversation with FightHype.com. "BY [Bryant Jennings] fucked me up too. Bryant Jennings fucked me up. They toy with me. I'm just trying to get better. I know I'm not on their level, but I'm trying my best. I put myself in uncomfortable positions to improve. These motherfuckers could stop me if they wanted to. They just work with me, thank goodness. They are the truth, man. It's a different game and people don't understand that until they go in there with them motherfuckers and feel what they can do. Being in there with guys like Ortiz and Jennings forces me to learn and work on certain skills. You have to work on your shit."
Mo added, "I was in there with Luis Ortiz and I was like, 'I'm going to try some shit,' because I knew I was in over my head, so I tried it. Then I wanted to use my grappling, so I grabbed him. I didn't know this motherfucker knew judo (laughing). He was keeping me off of him. So I played his game and I was like, 'I'm going to grab him and break off with a right hook.' I was just trying shit because everything I tried, he was shutting down. I had to be careful because he was countering everything I threw and I didn't want to catch a hot one. I learned a lot with them."
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]