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This weekend sees the return to UFC action of former Welterweight Champion ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler, and while he’s currently on a two-fight skid, the majority of UFC fans are clamoring to see him step into the Octagon again. Why? Because simply put, few fighters live up to their nickname quite so much as Robbie Lawler.
Lawler, who debuted in the UFC way back in 2002, has stepped inside the Octagon on 20 occasions, and practically every time, incredible levels of violence have ensued. The only fighter to have won three consecutive ‘Fight of the Year’ awards from both Sherdog.com and MMAFighting.com, it’s not easy to count the number of times we’ve seen him in crazy wars – nor the number of times we’ve seen him destroy an opponent.
Here are 5 of Robbie Lawler’s most ‘Ruthless’ moments.
#5 Destroying Tiki Ghosn at UFC 40
Fans of the modern-day – read post-TUF boom – UFC will recognize Lawler for his run to the Welterweight title following his return from StrikeForce in 2013, but longer-term fans will remember the wild kid who debuted in the Octagon as a wild, ultra-violent 20-year old back in 2002. Lawler won his first two UFC outings – a war with Aaron Riley and an odd fight with Steve Berger that ended in an early stoppage – but it was his fight at UFC 40 with Tiki Ghosn that really sticks in the memory.
Tiki – a training partner of then-Light-Heavyweight champ Tito Ortiz – was a hardened kickboxer with more fights and almost 4 years more experience in the game than Lawler, and was expected to really push the youngster, particularly on the feet. That wasn’t the case, though.
Tiki did land some sharp leg kicks on ‘Ruthless Robbie’, calling into question his defense there, but nobody could call into question his punching power. As Tiki closed in with a flurry, Lawler caught him with a clean right hook counter, dropping him, and before he could even begin to recover, a follow-up diving right hand knocked him out, forcing referee Nelson Hamilton to have to tackle Lawler off him.
Post-fight, Tiki claimed the fight had been stopped due to “a cut” – one of the more laughable moments in promotional history – but everyone else who watched knew the truth: that Robbie Lawler had some incredible knockout power and the violent finishing ability to put it to great use.
#4 Returning to the UFC by smashing Josh Koscheck
After nearly a decade away from the UFC, competing in promotions such as Elite XC and the IFL, Lawler made his return to the Octagon in February 2013 – one of many fighters to be brought to the promotion following the folding of StrikeForce.
Despite the nostalgia kick, few fans expected him to pull up many trees; he’d won just 1 of 4 fights since the start of 2011 and he was faced with a dangerous opponent in former Welterweight title challenger Josh Koscheck. But this was a different Robbie Lawler, more honed and more focused than the youngster UFC fans had been introduced to in 2002.
Koscheck attempted to impose his powerful wrestling game on Lawler, who had struggled against stifling grapplers like Babalu Sobral and Tim Kennedy in StrikeForce, but surprisingly enough despite giving up some early takedowns, Lawler stayed calm. Eventually, he reversed Koscheck, pinning him into the fence on all fours, and from there, Lawler unleashed hell.
A hard left hand stunned Koscheck, and Lawler immediately – ‘Ruthlessly’ – began to nail the wrestler with brutal right hands, literally bouncing his head off the ground and into the fence. Despite Koscheck still being conscious, referee Herb Dean was quickly forced to intervene before more damage was done.
Lawler was back in the UFC in the most violent way possible, but even then, few people could’ve expected how good a run he’d go on to have.
#3 Winning the title in his rematch with Johny Hendricks
Lawler had managed to secure an unlikely UFC Welterweight title shot by defeating Rory MacDonald in November of 2013, but when he came up against top contender Johny Hendricks in the fight for the title vacated by Georges St-Pierre, he was a little short. Lawler and Hendricks put on a great fight with some tremendous exchanges, but in the end, Hendricks’ superior wrestling was enough to edge him the decision.
After the fight was over, Hendricks took time off to heal an injured biceps, but Lawler refused to rest on his laurels. Two months later he was back, TKOing Jake Ellenberger, and two months after that he stopped the red-hot run of Matt Brown in another hellacious brawl. The UFC had no choice but to book a Lawler/Hendricks rematch, and ‘The Ruthless One’ seemed determined to change the outcome.
This time Lawler wasted no time, coming out in the first round like a house on fire. He took the fight to Hendricks, hammering him with combinations and hard knees to the body from the clinch. It was a wonder Hendricks survived the assault, but he did, and in fact, won the next two rounds. For a moment at least, it looked like Lawler had exhausted himself in the opener.
That wasn’t the case though; instead, the challenger had seemingly lulled Hendricks into a false sense of security. Lawler became the aggressor again in the championship rounds and clearly took the 4th with his combinations and forward movement, and when Hendricks took him down in the fifth, he simply wasn’t willing to allow himself to lose the fight as he’d done 9 months prior.
This time Lawler began to punish the body of Hendricks with some brutal elbows, and with less than a minute remaining, he exploded to his feet and began to destroy the champion with vicious combinations, putting him on the run. When the buzzer sounded to end the fight, Lawler continued to stalk his prey, seemingly not ready to stop.
It was just the exclamation point needed, and minutes later, Lawler was awarded the UFC Welterweight title by split decision. Some fans actually scored the fight for Hendricks, but it was impossible not to be happy for Lawler; few fighters had reached the top of the UFC mountain by following a tougher path.
#2 His crazy war with Carlos Condit
After defeating Hendricks for the Welterweight crown, Lawler defended his title against Rory MacDonald in a war for the ages – more on that later – before taking a few months off. When he returned in January 2016, he was faced with a challenger known for being just as aggressive – and ‘Ruthless’ – as he was: the man known as ‘The Natural Born Killer’, Carlos Condit.
Fans came into the fight expecting a crazy amount of violence and they weren’t disappointed. The two men threw everything they had at one another for the full 25 minutes, and when the final buzzer sounded at the end of the fifth round, it was a wonder how either man was still standing. The lasting image of both men slumped on the Octagon fence in exhaustion remains jaw-dropping to this day.
But it was Lawler who came away with his hand raised, despite some sticky moments. He was actually dropped in the first round by a short left hand from Condit, but came back in the second with the best moment of the fight; an incredible right hook counterpunch that dropped the challenger and came close to putting him out. The third and fourth rounds were almost too close to call; Lawler doing more damage with his shots but Condit putting together more volume. Essentially, the fight was going to the wire.
And it was in the fifth round that Lawler largely pulled out the win. Despite Condit pouring it on with combinations that appeared to have come straight from Mortal Kombat at times, Lawler hung tough and then began to hit the challenger with insanely hard shots that literally knocked him from pillar to post, making it anyone’s guess what exactly was keeping Condit vertical.
When all was said and done, most fans couldn’t quite believe the quality of the war they’d just witnessed – another instant classic from Lawler – and it was no surprise that most people declared it likely to be the best fight of 2016 – despite the year being just 2 days old.
#1 The greatest war of them all against Rory MacDonald
Lawler’s fight with top contender Rory MacDonald in November of 2013 had been a good one – a back-and-forth fight that saw Lawler pull away late in the fight to make a decision – but nothing could’ve prepared UFC fans for how good their rematch would be. Booked at arguably the biggest UFC show to that point – UFC 189 – Lawler was now the UFC Welterweight champion while MacDonald had re-established himself as the #1 contender after three straight wins.
Strangely enough, the fight had a relatively slow start; the first round was fought at a tepid pace with both men seemingly not wanting to take any risks. In the second though, Lawler began to find his range and busted MacDonald up largely with his left hand. By midway through the third MacDonald’s nose was a mess, and it appeared to be Lawler’s fight to lose. Somehow though, he almost did.
MacDonald caught him with a head kick towards the end of the round, sending him stumbling back, and suddenly Lawler was in trouble, with the challenger swarming on him with elbows and punches, sensing a finish. Somehow Lawler survived the round despite looking out on his feet, but the fourth started in the same way; MacDonald hurting him with another head kick and then swarming for the finish. Again Lawler survived, but not without taking damage – his face was covered in blood and his lip appeared to be hanging off.
How the Ruthless one ever came back remains a mystery – but he did, and midway through the fourth round he somehow began to turn the tide, seemingly with nothing else but pure, primal aggression. He appeared to be snarling at MacDonald and began to land the better strikes on the challenger, who seemed almost amazed that Lawler was still coming at him. When the round ended, Lawler spat blood onto the floor before staring at MacDonald wildly. The Canadian stared right back, but it was clear that in the final round, something had to give.
That ‘something’ turned out to be MacDonald’s tolerance for sheer pain. Both men came out swinging, but just one minute into the round, Lawler hurt Rory with a couple of left hands before landing one directly to the nose. MacDonald collapsed in a heap, simply unable to take any more, and a few punches on the ground sealed the deal.
The Las Vegas crowd erupted at the sight of a bloody Lawler, lip hanging off, roaring in celebration; they knew they’d just witnessed one of the greatest fights in UFC history. Even four years on, it’s one of those fights that’s so good, it’s quite hard to explain it in words. Anyone who considers themselves a UFC fan has surely seen it.
But more to the point, it still encapsulates the best parts of Robbie Lawler – a fighter who simply doesn’t know how to quit, who lives and dies by sheer primal violence inside the cage. A fighter who always lives up to that ‘Ruthless’ nickname. And hopefully this weekend, he’ll live up to it again.
