This weekend Robbie Lawler faces Tyron Woodley for the UFC Welterweight Championship in a bout that has “Fight of the Year” potential.
Lawler is no stranger to being in “Fight of the Year” type contests either, as UFC.com gave his bout against Johnny Hendricks at UFC 171 that moniker in 2014, and his gory bloodbath with Rory MacDonald at UFC 189 earned the same prestige in 2015. Nothing is stopping the main event of UFC 201 from receiving the same honors this year.
There are a few notable omissions to this list that could use some explaining. It should be noted that Robbie Lawler has been fighting professionally for over 15 years, leading to a large selection of victories. In that time, Lawler has a 27W-10L record, with 20 KOs and 1 submission victory. That is a large resume, and Lawler has eaten a lot of souls in that time.
Not listed here is when Lawler defeated Johny Hendricks for the Welterweight Championship at UFC 181. While Lawler really was ruthless in that fight, he only earned a decision victory. He took his title but he didn’t take Johny Hendricks’ soul, though USADA would do that shortly after. Also not listed here is Robbie Lawler’s knockout out of Josh Koscheck at UFC 157. While Lawler dominated him in the fight he didn’t take his soul, but only because Kos never had one to begin with.
Here are five times “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler ate his opponent’s soul…
5. Matt Lindland
When Robbie Lawler met Matt Lindland on a Strikeforce event in December of 2010, he had dropped 2 of his previous 3 fights. He had dropped a decision loss to Renato Sobral his previous fight, and two fights before that were submitted by Jake Shields.
As for Lindland, he was coming into this fight after defeating Kevin Casey on a Strikeforce Challengers event but had dropped 3 of his previous 4 fights. It’s not as though Lindland was losing to nobody, however, as the 3 fighters who had beaten him were named Vitor Belfort, Jacare Souza, and some guy named Fedor Emelianenko.
After getting KO’ed in under a minute by Lawler in this fight, Lindland would drop his next fight as well and promptly call it a career.
4. Bobby Voelker
This was Lawler’s 2nd fight back in the UFC, having returned to the promotion when Zuffa bought Strikeforce. Lawler was not coming into the UFC on a winning note however, as he only managed a 3W-5L record in Strikeforce while he was there from 2009 to 2012.
As for Voelker, he had gone 3W-1L in the Strikeforce Challengers circuit before dropping his UFC debut to Patrick Cote via decision at UFC 158. Following his knockout loss to Lawler, Voelker would drop his next 2 fights in the UFC and was cut from the promotion.
3. Jake Ellenberger
When Lawler met Jake Ellenberger at UFC 173 it was just 2 months after Lawler dropped a heart-breaking decision to Johny Hendricks for the vacated UFC Welterweight Championship.
As for Ellenberger he was ranked at #5 in the WW division at the time, and a win would put him right in the mix for a title shot even though he had dropped his last fight to Rory MacDonald. Unfortunately for Ellenberger his career after this fight has turned to shambles, having dropped 5 out of his last 6 fights.
2. Melvin Manhoef
This was an important fight for Lawler. Coming into this fight Lawler had lost his 1st fight in Strikeforce via submission to Jake Shields, and another loss could really impact his standing in the organization.
Lawler had sort of bounced around organizations after originally leaving the UFC following UFC 50 having lost 3 of his last 4 fights. Lawler would fight once in Pride and pick up a couple of victories in EliteXC before signing with Strikeforce.
As for Melvin Manhoef, the marketable kickboxer (who still fights in Bellator) had dropped 2 of his last 4, losing to Gegard Mousasi and Paulo Filho but defeating current President of the UFC Fighter’s Association Mark Hunt and Kazuo Misaki. Before that run Manhoef had been on a 5 fight winning streak and a win against Lawler and a victory would put him near the top of the Strikeforce rankings. Too bad he got KO’d in the 1st round.
1. Rory MacDonald
Lawler defeated “Red King” Rory MacDonald by split-decision at UFC 167, but with the title on the line at UFC 189 these two elite level fighters had a complete bloodbath.
At one point Lawler was in real trouble but he battled back to knock out Rory in the 5th round. The beating was so savage that many were unsure if Rory would ever return, and in fact it was almost a year before he did. When Rory did finally return last month he dropped a unanimous decision to the man who could possibly meet the winner of Lawler vs Woodley, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.
