Prior to his bout with teammate Tyron Woodley, “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler spent an accumulated 96 minutes of action inside the octagon in his last four bouts. But in a sport as cruel as mixed martial arts, no fighter can afford to let his or her guard down even for just a split second.
The 34-year-old Filipino-American welterweight (27-11) suffered his second career knockout loss Sunday afternoon (Philippine time) against fellow American Top Team teammate Tyron Woodley and in the process lost the UFC World Welterweight Championship. It was a stinging defeat for Lawler as the shot that rocked him was as solid as it was clean.
Photo from UFC.com
“I feel alright,” the former UFC Champion said during the post-fight press conference of UFC 201. “Obviously he caught me with old T-Wood bomb and I was just sitting back a little too much.”
“He just took advantage of it. It was his night.”
Prior to the bout, stats have shown that Lawler has absorbed an insane number of significant strikes in his last five bouts. In a report by Fightmetric, the 34-year-old has received an accumulated 531 significant strikes – the most in UFC history. Breaking it down further, the Florida-resident has soaked up 5.5 strikes for every minute he has been in the cage.
Even if fans and pundits on social media are saying that the punishment has already caught up with him, the Ruthless One offered no excuse for this painful loss.
“No. I think it’s just a guy who took advantage of a big punch, rocked me, jumped on, and finish the job,” he said.
“I’m not going to speculate. I felt great going into the fight and no excuses.”
“In hindsight, maybe I would’ve circle over the way and he would not have been able to touch me. There’s a whole lot of stuff that I could have done,” he furthered.
Looking forward, Lawler plans to spend some time with his family before lacing up his boots to train for the next battle.
“They will decide that but I will kind of sit back and spend some time with my family and figure out what I’m going to do next,” he concluded. “I’m sure Dana will decide on what’s next.”
