Ask and you shall receive.
Colorful light heavyweight up-and-comer "King" Mo Lawal has done just about everything in his power in recent days, weeks and months to coordinate a fight against Strikeforce 205-pound champion, Gegard Mousasi.
It apparently worked.
Lawal will get his wish, according to MMAWeekly.com, taking on the stoic Armenian at the upcoming Strikeforce show on CBS, which is tentatively scheduled to take place at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tenn., on April 17.
Strikeforce officials would not immediately confirm or deny the report ... but it makes sense.
With its consensus top-ranked fighter, Fedor Emelianenko, not participating on the card, the promotion needed an interesting match up that it could promote to the masses. And a showdown between the two wildly different personalities outside the cage -- both of whom posses tremendous talent inside of it -- could just be the right answer.
Mousasi is currently on a 15-fight tear, which dates back to 2006. He's been nothing short of outstanding, however, since coming out of seemingly nowhere to win the 2008 DREAM Grand Prix Final with an upkick stoppage of Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza.
"Dream Catcher" later went on to stop Renato "Babalu" Sobral to capture the Strikeforce light heavyweight crown and then tooled Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou via second round technical knockout three months later in a non-title bout.
Mousasi most recently overwhelmed an under matched Gary Goodridge at K-1 Dynamite!!: "Power of Courage" on New Year's Eve 2009.
Lawal, meanwhile, is coming off perhaps the most impressive performance of his young (albeit promising) career with a first round drubbing of the very experienced and capable Mike Whitehead at Strikeforce: "Evolution" in Dec. 2009.
"King" -- a decorated Olympic-caliber wrestler -- transitioned to mixed martial arts in 2008, getting thrown to the wolves in his first match against the dangerous Travis Wiuff at Sengoku: "Fifth Battle."
He shocked just about everyone watching with a technical knockout finish. And he hasn't looked back since.
Strikeforce's encore show on CBS is expected to feature a middleweight championship fight between reigning division kingpin, Jake Shields, and former dual Pride FC champion, Dan Henderson.
Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more updates to the upcoming Strikeforce/CBS card as they become available.
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