The ruthless reign of Robbie Lawler over the UFC's welterweight division continued at UFC 195. The 33-year-old claimed victory over challenger Carlos Condit in Saturday's main event via split decision.
Bleacher Report MMA tweeted the final scorecards:
When the UFC announced the matchup between Condit and Lawler, the buzzword for the fight was "violence." It delivered from the outset. Both fighters had success in exchanges, and the challenger sent the champion to the mat with an overhand right in the first round, per the UFC:
The second stanza belonged to Lawler, though. The champion countered with a precise right hook that sent Condit to the canvas, although he was able to tie Lawler up in his guard before standing up. Although the Natural Born Killer recovered, it was still Lawler's round thanks to his continued success countering Condit's looping strikes, as the UFC showed:
With the rounds knotted up at one apiece, Condit avoided the pocket early in Round 3, opting to attack with leg kicks. The approach had some success early in the round, but Lawler again connected with heavy punches to muddy up the scoring of the round.
MMA Fighting favored Lawler's damage over Condit's volume:
Condit's high-volume approach began paying off in the fourth round, though. Condit was able to control the pace of the round with his long-range kicks while still winning exchanges in closer quarters.
Of course, a strong fourth round for the challenger meant a fifth round of urgency from the champion. Lawler came out in the fifth with reckless abandon and was bent on scoring a knockout, leading to the type of slugfest fans expected.
As he has proved in recent bouts, few fighters are better at straight-up slugging it out than Lawler. Ruthless came as close as possible to getting the finish without putting his opponent away, but Condit was able to survive the last-minute onslaught.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports noted the Las Vegas crowd's reaction:
The win for Lawler marked his second consecutive title defense in an unlikely run as the champion. Even with multiple title defenses to his name, it's hard to believe that the man who once went 3-5 in an eight-fight run with Strikeforce is now the baddest man on the planet at 170 pounds.
Lawler's title run is the culmination of a career-long evolution, though. First fighting in the UFC back in 2002 at UFC 37, he's one of the UFC's most battle-tested veterans, and he has learned a lot along the way.
With the win over Condit, Lawler now has wins over four of the top six contenders in the UFC's rankings. Still, Lawler attributes his growth as a fighter to focusing on self-improvement rather than on whoever happens to be standing across from him in the cage, per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com.
"I could see how the list of challengers could become motivation for a champion, but what I'm focusing on is me," Lawler said. "I don't necessarily worry about who I'm fighting or what's on the line. I know Carlos is going to be gearing up to get me, but what I'm gearing up for is being the best I've been."
That list of challengers isn't going away anytime soon. The welterweight division has plenty of talent, and Lawler's exciting style makes any matchup intriguing. Both Tyron Woodley and Matt Brown have clamored for their shots at Lawler on Twitter:
Regardless of who gets the next shot, one thing is clear: Lawler has earned the right to be the favorite. With wins over Johny Hendricks, Rory MacDonald and now Condit, there's no doubting the legitimacy of his title.
Whoever eventually takes the strap from him will have defeated a worthy champion.
For Condit, this is a devastating blow to his chances of ever winning a UFC title. He's now 0-2 in UFC championship fights, with an interim belt he won against Nick Diaz representing his only UFC gold.
The former WEC champion is now just 2-4 in his last six fights.
Of course, considering how closely he fought the champion Saturday, it would be difficult for the UFC to count that as a true loss. Both fighters delivered a great bout.
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