It only took five rounds for the first part of this story to brand itself into an instant classic.
After five close rounds, Johny Hendricks walked away with the title he felt he—along with a good portion of the MMA community—had already won in his previous bout with then-champion Georges St-Pierre. Robbie Lawler walked away the loser.
Even in a losing effort, Lawler managed to take another big step on his resurgent path toward the top of the welterweight heap of contenders.
With only about a week separating their reunion inside of the Octagon, these two heavy hitters are sure to put on a quality outing to challenge their first title fight for Fight of the Year honors as 2014 comes to a close.
Scroll on to see how we break down the UFC 181 main event.