Former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler will step foot inside of the Octagon for the first time in over one year next weekend at UFC 235 live on pay-per-view (PPV) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Lawler, who is coming off a tough decision loss to Rafael dos Anjos at UFC on FOX 26 back in December 2017, will be welcoming newly-acquired contender Ben Askren to the welterweight ranks.
Some may consider “Ruthless” a hired gun who is going to test the resolve of Askren in his UFC debut, but the veteran isn’t paying attention to those notions on the heels of his own comeback.
“I don’t think and play those games,” Lawler told MMAjunkie Radio. “I don’t really care. I don’t spend much time on he said she said, what you think about why and how.
“Really, I’ve just been trying to grind and get better every day and spend time with my family. I don’t really dabble into why Dana did this, why Askren said that. But I do see stuff that Askren says that I think is funny. Other than that, I don’t pay much attention to it.”
Lawler, who will be making his 20th trip to the Octagon at UFC 235, is in desperate need of a victory to stay afloat in a jam-packed welterweight division. Having already been knocked out by current champion Tyron Woodley, “Ruthless” needs to impress in his return and solidify his position at 170 pounds moving forward.
Luckily for Lawler, he’s had enough time off since his loss to RDA to recapture the appetite for destruction that made him such a dangerous fighter in the past.
“I feel damn frickin’ good right now,” Lawler said. “I don’t know when it clicked that, holy (expletive), I’m a beast again. But I am.
“But that was always the goal – just get back to work and everything will fall into place. I just believed in myself that it was going to happen at the right time. I can’t wait to show everybody how hard I’ve been working.”
Should Lawler hand Askren his first professional loss and get back into the welterweight win column, the veteran should re-enter the title mix entering this summer. But if “Ruthless” is unable to ward off Askren next weekend at UFC 235, he’ll be in a very tough spot at 170 pounds.
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