Mighty Mo (kickboxer) - Biography and Career

Biography and Career

Mighty Mo made his K-1 debut on February 15, 2004 at "K-1 Burning" event in Japan against Hiraku Hori. He knocked out Hori at 1:22 in 4th round by right hook. After losing in semifinals at his first 8-man tournament in Las Vegas against fellow American Dewey Cooper, Mighty Mo made a huge comeback four months later at the Battle of Bellagio II, winning his first K-1 GP Championship by knocking out Brecht Wallis in 2nd Round at the tournament finals.

After a year off from K-1, he made his comeback on March 4, 2007 at Yokohama, Japan. His opponent was Choi Hong-man (218 cm) from Korea who had never been knocked out before on his K-1 career until Mighty Mo (185 cm) managed to land his trademark right overhand punch, winning the fight by KO at 0:50 KO in 2nd round. At that time, he held the record for the "Biggest height difference wins (33cm)" resulting in a KO in favor of the shorter in K-1 history and possibly in kick-boxing as well as in boxing in history (Nicolai Valuev, 213 cm, is only 28 cm taller than Ruslan Chagaev - 185 cm). But on December 31, 2007, at the K-1 Dynamite Tournament in Osaka, the record was surpassed by Danish Karate fighter Nicholas Pettas (180 cm), who was able to KO the 217 cm Korean Kim Young-hyun (37 cm height difference).

On April 28, 2007, Mo entered the K-1 World GP 2007 in Hawaii tournament as a heavy favorite. He knocked out all three of his opponents and earned himself a spot in the K-1 World GP 2007 Elimination in Seoul, Korea.

Mighty Mo was originally supposed to face Mu Bae Choi in a MMA match at K-1 Dynamite!! USA on June 2 in Los Angeles, California. But Choi was replaced in the last minute by Ruben Villareal. Mighty Mo dominated Villareal, forcing the referee to stop the fight at 1:33 of the first round.

On June 23, 2007, Mighty Mo lost to defending K-1 Super Heavyweight Champion Semmy Schilt by unanimous decision at the K-1 World GP in Amsterdam. Semmy used his reach to keep Mighty Mo at bay, and Mo was unable to get in close enough to land his devastating overhand right. Rumors surfaced that Mo was nursing a knee and hand injuries from his previous fights. He had fought 7 times in the last 4 months.

At the K-1 Final Eliminations 2007 on September 29, he faced Choi Hong-Man again and lost by unanimous decision. During the fight, he was kicked in the groin and was inexplicably ruled a knock-down by the referee. He was quoted in the post-fight interview: "I feel I was robbed. I should have won. There was a lot of favoritism here. He must have picked up a new technique-a kick below the belt. So next time I'll wear a thicker cup. And next time I want to fight somewhere else."

In his next three fight he went 1-2, losing to Paul Slowinski and Keijiro Maeda before defeating Justice Smith on August 9, 2008.

K-1 kickboxing champion Semmy Schilt and Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga were added to the FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008 event in an MMA bout, in which Schilt defeated Mighty Mo in the first round by triangle choke.

He was set to fight Mirko CroCop at Dream 10 but CroCop pulled out after re-signing with the UFC.

He was defeated by Josh Barnett at Dream 13 on March 21, 2010.

Mighty Mo had replaced Andrei Arlovski at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Seoul Final 16 held in Seoul against Romanian Raul Catinas and won by unanimous decision. As a result, Mo was the only American to make it into to the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final on December, 11th. His quarterfinal opponent was Peter Aerts who beat him via TKO in the first round.

Mighty Mo was knocked out by Russian Sergei Kharitonov at the United Glory World Series Finals in Moscow on May 28, 2011.

As of October 2011 Mighty Mo is currently on a six fight losing streak in Kickboxing, all but one by Knockout.

He was next set to face Rick Roufus in Las Vegas on October 22, 2011. However, he was not medically cleared to compete.

He rematched Raul Cătinaş, the last man he was able to defeat, in a non-tournament bout at the SuperKombat World Grand Prix 2012 Final in Bucharest, Romania on December 22, 2012 and lost on a unanimous decision.