Twelve years after a 20-year-old Robbie Lawler made his UFC debut against Aaron Riley at UFC 37, the Ruthless one finally added “UFC champion” to his resume at UFC 181.
It wasn’t always pretty. The sequel between Lawler and Johny Hendricks failed to live up to the expectations the original created. The first bout saw a combined 308 signature strikes landed between the two of them.
This one only saw the two welterweights land 227 combined.
It didn‘t come without controversy. In a sport where takedowns are usually the end-all, be-all of judging, Lawler found a way to win the fight on two of the judges’ scorecards despite a 5-0 deficit in the takedown category.
MMAjunkie tweeted out the scores from the judges:
So how did Lawler eke out the victory despite the lopsided takedown total and being outstruck in three of five rounds? Here’s a look at the keys to Lawler‘s career-defining win.
Fast Start
Effective aggression. Those are the two words that could be used to describe Lawler‘s start to the fight. As Ben Fowlkes of MMAjunkie noted, the challenger didn‘t even waste time touching gloves before going right at the champion:
It’s cliche, but in order to take the belt, the challenger needs to bring the fight to the champion. Lawler‘s early flurry of strikes didn‘t necessarily have Hendricks in any kind of trouble, but it established an early lead in the round for Lawler.
As Mike Johnston of Sportsnet tweets, every judge agreed that Lawler was the winner of Round 1:
Much of that is owed to the hot start from Lawler. He outstruck Hendricks 34-14 in the opening frame, according to the FightMetric numbers.
Weathered the Storm
After throwing caution to the wind in the opening frame, Lawler clearly started Round 2 with his gas tank on empty. After throwing 52 significant strikes in Round 1, his output was nearly cut in half. He only threw 29 and was far less effective, only landing 13.
However, a look at where the strikes were landing tells how one judge may have seen Round 2 for the new champion. Hendricks opened up a 35-13 significant strikes advantage, but 18 of those were leg kicks. That means that Hendricks only landed three more significant strikes to the head than Lawler in the second frame.
Obviously, leg kicks should count for something. By most accounts, that’s still a win for Bigg Rigg. But Lawler was able to maintain distance, stay out of serious harm’s way and survive the inevitable dip in production after a busy Round 1.
Took Advantage of Hendricks’ Coasting
Round 3 was the most lopsided of the fight. With Hendricks landing two takedowns and opening a wide disparity in strikes between Lawler and himself, there’s no disputing who was the better fighter for those five minutes.
With Round 2 appearing to go his way and a dominant Round 3, the momentum of the fight was definitely swung in Bigg Rigg‘s favor.
But Lawler wasn’t ready to concede defeat quite yet. He upped his output from eight significant strikes landed in Round 3 to 19 in Round 4. With a slight advantage in headhunting efficiency in the fourth frame, it’s not quite so egregious to think that Lawler got the nod from one judge.
With four rounds in the books, Hendricks did something that fans have seen him do before—attempt to coast his way though Round 5. The same crucial mistake that led to his loss to Georges St-Pierre once again reared it’s ugly head.
“I didn’t fight. Look at the fourth and fifth round…I just didn’t fight,” Hendricks said after the fight (via Sherdog). “I didn’t come out the fourth and fifth like I normally do. It is what it is. I’m gonna be my worst critic. … That’s what it was. I didn’t stay light on my feet like I should’ve. You get lost in the moment. That happened to me and I’ll be back.”
With Hendricks using his wrestling to do nothing more than stall for the vast majority of Round 5, it opened up the opportunity for Lawler to steal the round with a late flurry. When the final buzzer sounded, Lawler had effectively taken the belt from the champion.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com