Nearly one month ago, Joe Vedepo was winning his third straight fight in a row as he defeated Davin Clark by TKO in the third round at Bellator 129 in a middleweight bout.
At that time, Vedepo (17-8) did not know that he would be stepping back into the Bellator cage on November 15th and would be stepping up a weight class to face Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal.
“When opportunity comes knocking, you have to answer that door,” Vedepo said. “This isn’t something I could walk away from. I’d be crazy or a fool not to take this fight with King Mo. I want to inspire people. I want other people to see me and be inspired to take chances in their lives. If I could inspire someone to do the same thing I’m doing with my life, that would be the biggest victory for me.”
Lawal (13-4, 1NC) is one of the most popular fighters in Bellator and is a former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion. No question, this is the biggest fight in the career of Vedepo and he does not want to waste the opportunity that is currently in front of him.
“This fight with King Mo is a great opportunity,” he said. “Looking to provide for my family and it means a lot to them for me to be able to fight again before the end of the year. This is a big chance for me to shine. I get to fight on one of Bellator’s biggest cards against one of their best athletes. This is an amazing opportunity. I’ve let other opportunities slip through my fingers in the past and that has driven me to work harder and become a better fighter. Now I have the biggest opportunity of my life staring me in the face and I don’t want to let it go to waste.”
When it comes to the strengths of Lawal, Vedepo is very familiar with what he will see on Saturday night and plans on bringing the fight to Lawal.
“King Mo is an extremely powerful individual,” Vedepo said. “You can see that in all of his fights. And he’s a gamer. He’s been around for a while and he’s beaten some really good guys. He’s dangerous everywhere so you can’t make any mistakes with him. He has a lot of ways he can beat you and I’m very aware of that. It’s exciting. I mean, it really is. It’s exciting. He’s a bad dude but somebody must think I’m pretty bad too or they wouldn’t have put me in the cage with him. So I’m looking to go out there and give the fans what they want to see. I’m going to bring it. I’m going to come at him.”
“I don’t think anyone would say that I have any major advantages over him. But with that being said, I’m in the best shape of my life and I know I can win this fight. I can’t say that I’m better than he is anywhere because I’m not sure about that. One thing I can say is that I want to win this fight more than I wanted to win any other fight in my life.”