(Props: AllElbows via Fightlinker)

We haven’t thought much about bare-knuckle backyard brawlin’ since Kimbo Slice stepped up to the big leagues. Yet the Miami yard-fighting scene appears to be flourishing, with a new ringleader named DADA. Above is the trailer for Dawg Fights, a documentary from the creators of Cocaine Cowboys that takes a look at unregulated ghetto-vale-tudo. Aside from one rear-naked-choke attempt, you’re not going to find much technique in the fight clips, but it’s not really about that. Can wild haymakers in a 12-foot-square ring heal a hurting nation?

Below: In part two of "The Year of the Mo," Muhammed Lawal explains that his fighting urge comes primarily from a childhood that one could politely describe as "shitty." Lawal, now 4-0 in Sengoku, will unfortunately be out of action for about three months while he rehabs a torn ACL.

(Props: AllElbows via BloodyElbow)

(Props: "Card" on the UG)

Now that we know who’s going to be in the upcoming UFC game, it’s time to look at how those fighters will throw down within the "virtual Octagon." In the above video, 2009 Undisputed producer Neven Dravinski takes us through weak and strong strikes, and the various ranges they can be delivered. The GSP Superman-punch KO of BJ Penn at 0:09-0:12 makes us smile every time we see it.

Below: One day left until Jason Guida gets a giant reality check — but for the time being, he gets to be talk about how he’s "all over [Lashley's] mind" and how he actually feels bad for him, because the former WWE star has to jump in the deep end right away without being built up first. (*Cough*) Skip to the 2:18 mark and smell the magic.

After the jump: King Mo‘s pimp-ass post-Sengoku press conference.

(Props: FightTrend)

- Muhammed Lawal def. Ryo Kawamura via unanimous decision
- Hatsu Hioki def. Chris Manuel via submission (armbar), 4:12 of round 1
- Nam Phan def. Hideki Kadowaki via TKO, 3:09 of round 1
- Jim York def. James Thompson via KO, 4:33 of round 1
- Michihiro Omigawa def. L.C. Davis via unanimous decision
- Marlon Sandro def. Matt Jaggers via submission (arm-triangle choke), 2:57 of round 2
- Masanori Kanehara def. Jong Man Kim via unanimous decision
- Chan Sung Jung def. Shintaro Ishiwatari via submission (rear-naked choke), 4:29 of round 1
- Ronnie Mann def. Tetsuya Yamada via unanimous decision
- Nick Denis def. Seiya Kawahara via TKO, 2:36 of round 1

Notes:

— King Mo was yellow-carded in the second-round for poking Kawamura in the eye twice. He dominated the fight with his takedowns; one judge scored the fight 30-24 for Lawal.

— The second-highest-ranked featherweight in the tournament, L.C. Davis, lost to the fighter with the worst record. Yes, we’ll be updating that Power Rankings page soon. Red-hot prospects Marlon Sandro and Ronnie Mann may have a spot on it shortly.

— The night’s other notable upset belonged to Nam Phan, a middling lightweight who dropped a weight class to be in the tournament and wound up knocking out former Shooto champ and top-15 featherweight Hideki Kadowaki.

— James Thompson went back to doing what he does best: Getting KTFO’d. His traditional fight-opening gong-and-dash nearly sent him flying out of the ring.

(Props: Cage Writer)

So you want B.J. Penn to stop his courageous fight for truth, justice, and a no contest?  That probably means you’re a bad person who hates MMA.  Bummer.  Penn continues to frame this as a crusade to clean up the sport, which would be great.  But odds are the UFC is still not going to give him that "fair fight" rematch he wants.  And maybe he should be thankful for that.

(From All Elbows, via Fightlinker)

King Mo tries to entertain himself while he waits for his Sengoku bout.  I have to admit that it’s refreshing to see how much pleasure he gets out of old episodes of “Martin,” but when he starts telling the Japanese media how much he loved pro wrestling as a kid and mentions both The Ultimate Warrior and “Ravishing” Rick Rude as favorites, that’s where I get suspicious.  How can you like both guys, Mo?  Don’t you know they were mortal enemies?!  Just ask Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.  He’ll tell you.

("The Year of the Mo: Part One," courtesy of Esther Lin.)

With no UFC event scheduled until April 1st’s UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Kampmann, the MMA world feels like a bit of a wasteland lately. But if you get HDNet in your cable package, you’re in for a treat. Sengoku: Seventh Battle goes down Friday at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, and will be broadcast live on HDNet beginning at 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT. (So, late Thursday night, in other words.) A replay is scheduled for Friday night at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, in case you forget to set your DVR, or you’re too poor to afford one or something.

Sengoku 7 features the first round of the league’s featherweight grand prix — which includes #7-ranked featherweight Hatsu Hioki, undefeated Nova Uniao prospect Marlon Sandro, UFC vet Michihiro Omigawa, and former Shooto champ Hideki Kadowaki — as well as a headlining light-heavyweight scrap between King Mo and Pancrase vet Ryo Kawamura, and James Thompson‘s latest attempt to participate in a fight that doesn’t turn into an utter fiasco. The official bout order is after the jump, courtesy of Nightmare of Battle. Will any of the gaijins fail as hard as David Gardner did at the last DREAM show? Tune in to find out!

(Images courtesy of MoSpace)

So, Maggie from Cage Writer came across the top photo of Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal‘s amazing new tattoo, which she found on his MySpace page. A cursory visit to that page reveals a nearly non-stop cavalcade of awesomeness — honestly, such a welcome and uplifting change of pace from the reliable sadness of myspace.com/warmachine170nhb. I mean, just look at Lawal’s "About Me" essay:

(Props: Facey)

Our boy Matt S./"Facey" just sent us the second installment of his brilliant MMA highlight reel project, where he complies the best moments from each month into a single, convenient video. January ’09 had more than its share of killer moments, from Jose Aldo‘s knee-knockout and people’s-champ celebration at WEC 38, to the string of near-lethal KOs at "Day of Reckoning," to Jon Jones’s utter tooling of Stephan Bonnar, to Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal’s call-and-response bit at Sengoku 7. You can check out more of Matt’s work at FightFace.blogspot.com.

Below: A fan-shot video of Akihiro "Oh No" Gono‘s legendary ring-entrance at UFC 94. After the jump: The latest video trailer for UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson. Man, they’re really playing up the "London is rainy" angle…

(Props: BloodyElbow)