Mo Lawal, Lucio Linhares Highlight KC M-1 Card Featuring Emelianenko/Mousasi Sparring Exhibition

Light heavyweight über-prospect “King Mo” Muhammed Lawal (3-0) and middleweight Brazilian “Spartan” Lucio Linhares (11-3) highlight Friday’s M-1 Global Breakthrough in Kansas City that features an exhibition sparring match between Fighters.com’s Heavyweight Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (29-1) and Strikeforce light heavyweight champ “Dreamcatcher” Gegard Mousasi (22-2-1).

Breakthrough gets started at 7:30 PM local time at Memorial Hall in KC and the meat of the of the card will be broadcast on HDNet at 10:00 PM EST. Outside of the United States, the entire card will be streamed via the Internet. Details are available at M-1 Global’s website. Tickets starting at $25 can be purchased at Ticketmaster and there’s a buy-one-get-one-free offer.

Fighters.com asked Mousasi to explain the exhibition sparring format last Thursday. “It’s just like a light sparring,” he said, and added that the exhibition won’t turn competitive in front of thousands in Kansas City. “We are not animals. We can control ourselves.”

Coming off a unanimous decision over Pancrase veteran Ryo Kawamura (9-3-2) at Sengoku Seventh Battle in Tokyo last March, Lawal will fight late replacement forty-year old “Smashing Machine” Mark Kerr (14-10).

Kerr replaced Lawal’s original opponent, forty-three year old former UFC champion “Predator” Don Frye (20-7-1).

Frye told MMA Junkie Sunday, “I didn’t drop out; I walked away. Here’s the deal: [The event] didn’t just move from LA. It went from the Staples Center to the LA Convention Center. From the LA convention center to the Hilton in Las Vegas. From the Hilton in Las Vegas to an Indian casino on the Oklahoma-Texas border. From the Indian casino on the Oklahoma-Texas border to an Indian casino up in Tulsa, which is North Oklahoma. And from there up to Kansas City.

“So you know, after four or five times changing the venue, and then we asked [M-1 Global Chief Operating Officer Joost Raimond] ‘Hey, what are you doing for advertising? Are you sending a photographer out to Don’s house?’ He says, ‘No, we’re just going to use stock photos off the Internet.’”

“So at that point we said, ‘You know what? You just ain’t got your shit together. We’re walking away.’”

Raimond had released a statement saying, “Don Frye had a signed contract with M-1 and part of that signed commitment allowed us to change the venue if needed. From our perspective, Don should still be in this fight. However, for reasons that we aren’t exactly sure of, he has backed out. Don still has not provided us with a clear reason as to why he is refusing to fight. It just doesn’t make sense because the old Don Frye was willing to fight anyone, anywhere, and at anytime. Perhaps the fire is gone and he underestimated the challenge that ‘King Mo’ presents?”

Kerr will bring his four-fight losing streak into the ring in Kansas City. He was tapped out in a rear naked choke by “Snowman” Jeff Monson (28-8) at Vengeance Fighting Championship in Concord, North Carolina last September. He’s 2-9 in the last nine years.

Linhares will rematch Red Devil Sport Club’s Mikhail Zayats (8-3). Zayats won the original two-round contest by UD in St. Petersburg at M-1 Challenge 4 in June 2008.

Linhares comes off a 1:25 KO of countryman “BBMonstro” Valdir Araujo (1-1) at M-1 Challenge 16 in Kansas City last June.

Zayats lost a unanimous decision to Alexander Machado (3-1) at M-1 Challenge 15 in Sau Paulo last May.