#4 Robbie Lawler
Robbie Lawler has been fighting for over a better part of two decades now. Lawler’s late resurgence in the UFC has been one of the more feel-good stories, in the unforgiving fight game. After getting knocked out by Nick Diaz early in his career, Lawler moved from one organization to another, eventually, ending up in the Middleweight division in Strikeforce.
He had a so-so run there, but then dropped down to Welterweight, to test himself, once again, at 170 pounds. He went on to win UFC 170 pound gold and successfully defended it twice, before getting flash-KOd, in his most recent fight against current UFC 170 pound champion, Tyron Woodley.
Nevertheless, Lawler remains one of the toughest fighters to have ever step foot, inside the Octagon. Lawler is mainly a stand-up fighter, who uses his wrestling, mainly, in reverse. He still employs the Chuck Lidell-style sprawl-and-brawl approach to MMA.
He has decent BJJ defence, however, most of all, Lawler is a guy who just wants to get in the cage and beat you up. He is an ardent boxing fan and has based his stance around that of the Cuban boxing legends.
Moving forward toward understanding Lawler’s toughness, one thing that stands out, is Lawler’s sheer tenacity, in the pocket. Now, MMA is a game of distance. In other forms of combat, such as Muay Thai, fighters exchange with each other in the pocket, resembling a phone-booth fight.
However, in MMA every fight varies, and most MMA fighters refrain from phone-booth fighting. They either prefer the clinch or trading at long range. However, Lawler is an anomaly. His head movement and bobbing and weaving abilities are something to behold. This is one of the main reasons behind his ability to endure insane amounts of strikes.
When he is struck on the head, he’ll roll; strike him on the body, he’ll angle away and let the shots roll off the body. Target his legs, and he’ll catch you on the chin like he did Melvin Manhoef.
Lawler doesn’t have much of a ground game to threaten opponents off of his back, however, his ability to gauge distance and time his opponents, even when he is badly hurt; is other-worldly. The biggest example of this is Lawler’s rematch against Rory Macdonald. Lawler was outworking Macdonald, however, Macdonald caught him with a well-timed head kick. He went on to throw a multitude of strikes on Lawler, including knees , elbows, punches and more kicks.
However, Lawler moved in the pocket, on pure instinct, smiled, and then, came back to TKO Macdonald. That, my friends, is the ‘Ruthless’ one. Lawler has a bad habit of staying too long in the pocket, at times.
However, his durability is enhanced by his excellent hand-fighting abilities and technical parrying game, that diverts his opponents intended strikes.
Regardless, of people criticizing his high-risk style of fighting, Lawler, time and again, silences his critics, with his iron chin and iron will.
