The MMA Daily

 Emanuel Newton may not be known by the casual mma fan or if he is, he probably is referred to the guy that hit Muhammed Lawal with a lucky punch. But, if you’ve followed Newton’s career, even before his biggest win to date, you’d know at some point, he would be ready for high profile fights. It’s interesting sometimes to look into hypothetical’s, but Newton could of very well been the Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion had he not lost a split decision to current Champion Atilla Vegh. Further diving into the hypothetical, had Newton beaten Vegh, the opportunity to be in the next Bellator Light Heavyweight tournament and face Muhammed Lawal would of never happened. But Anyways, Newton will rematch against Muhammed Lawal in Bellator’s innagural Pay Per View card, headlined by Tito Ortiz and “Rampage” Jackson. Lawal earned a shot at the title by winning Bellator’s 4-man Light Heavyweight tournament, but since Bellator deemed Champion Atilla Vegh injured (which already prevented Newton from his rematch with Vegh), the logical next step was a rematch against Newton, with an Interim Championship Belt on the line. 

This could be the fight to stamp Emanuel Newton’s name on the map and silence the critics about the first fight, despite winning convincingly. And although in my ranking (Here & below) I have Muhammed Lawal ranked 17th, still above Newton (20th) despite losing, it’s because of Lawal’s previous track record (Gegard Mousasi). If Newton can beat Muhammed Lawal again, he will certainly be due for a big boost in the rankings, and would be on his way to being star within Bellator.