Some fighters are shipped to the UFC with “greatness” stamped onto the package.
For example, Anderson Silva immediately made his presence known within the first minute of his UFC debut. Jon Jones ran through every single opponent, regardless of t…
Some fighters are shipped to the UFC with “greatness” stamped onto the package.
For example, Anderson Silva immediately made his presence known within the first minute of his UFC debut. Jon Jones ran through every single opponent, regardless of the name, like a hot knife through butter.
Other fighters don’t have that stamp of domination from the start.
These are the fighters who, for one reason or another, took time to improve and hone their skills before they could be considered atop the crowd of athletes in their division.
With Chris Weidman out of his UFC 181 middleweight title fight against Vitor Belfort on Dec. 6, the UFC has called in its welterweight champion Johny Hendricks, to pick up the slack.
According to MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, UFC President Da…
With Chris Weidman out of his UFC 181 middleweight title fight against Vitor Belfort on Dec. 6, the UFC has called in its welterweight champion Johny Hendricks, to pick up the slack.
According to MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, UFC President Dana White has announced that Hendricks will defend his title in a rematch against Robbie Lawler on Dec. 6, a fight which will presumably take the place of the originally planned Weidman vs. Belfort showdown atop the card.
Hendricks and Lawler previously fought for the then-vacant welterweight strap at UFC 171 in March 2014, where they put on a Fight of the Night, five-round performance for the Dallas crowd in attendance.
After defeating Jake Ellenberger via TKO and Matt Brown via decision since that UFC 171 scrap, Lawler again finds himself challenging for UFC gold, and the bout figures to be just as competitive this time around. While Lawler put in time and got back to the cage twice since his failed title bid, the champ has sat idly by, watching the division sort itself out.
He has yet to defend his title, and prior to the news of Weidman’s injury, nothing had been formally planned. Now, however, the catalyst is in place, and the fight will happen earlier than anticipated on Dec. 6, a fact sure to please fight fans across the globe.
This welterweight main event will be joined on the card by a title fight in the 155-pound division, as lightweight champion Anthony Pettis takes on Gilbert Melendez.
Despite the slight disappointment caused by Weidman’s injury, it’s hard to complain too much about a fight card featuring two intriguing title fights at the top, especially when one is a Fight of the Night rematch between two tried and tested warrior in Hendricks and Lawler.
Stay tuned to Bleacher Report as the UFC 181 fight card continues to develop.
Sequels never live up to their billing.
Jaws 2, Son of the Mask, Evil Dead 2 and so on.
But unlike these cinematic reboots that are incapable of reproducing perfection, mixed martial arts offers pure, unscripted action.
That means that a sequel can be …
Sequels never live up to their billing.
Jaws 2, Son of the Mask, Evil Dead 2 and so on.
But unlike these cinematic reboots that are incapable of reproducing perfection, mixed martial arts offers pure, unscripted action.
That means that a sequel can be better than its original.
So when UFC welterweight-kingpin Johny Hendricks and top-contender Robbie Lawler step inside of the Octagon early next year, it’s possible that their second toe-to-toe installment will surpass their first.
It’s that sort of highly anticipated unpredictability that makes MMA the intriguing entity it is today, from the UFC all the way down to the amateur circuit.
But when you pin two of the very best fighters in the world against one another for five more rounds, the stakes go up.
However, despite the facts that Hendricks should be completely healthy coming into his first title defense and Lawler has arguably been better during this title run compared to his last, this sport never offers certainty.
Things could go awry and the two heavy-handed barbarians could miss with every swing.
But if momentum has shown us anything when it comes to two well-polished objects colliding at full speed it’s that stars are often born from such an imminent explosion.
Simply put, Hendricks vs. Lawler II will more than likely surpass its hair-raising prelude.
On one side of the spectrum you have Hendricks. As a guy who built his entire professional output around winning a world title, he will literally do anything to retain his championship.
That means that we could very well witness an even more dangerous and offensively acute “Bigg Rigg” than we’ve ever seen before.
One who will presumably come into this rematch with health on his side and the motivation to prove that nobody in the 170-pound division can come close to knocking him off his schnide.
On the other side of the spectrum you have Lawler. With arguably more impressive victories under his belt this time around compared to the first time he came into a fight opposite Hendricks, the 32-year-old has never looked better.
His skills have never been called into question, but Lawler seems to have entered his professional pinnacle, which is scary considering how good he’s been throughout the years.
You also have to take into account that “Ruthless” now knows what he has to do different in order to push Hendricks even further up the tree in their rematch.
He came so close the first time around, stunning the champ in succession, that it’s plausible that a few tweaks here and there could even the score at 1-1.
But when it comes down to it, after all the assumptions, predictions and potential fixes have been discussed breath-by-breath, the raw power that each welterweight enslaves their opponents with is really all that’s needed to enshrine their first meeting as a distant memory.
Hendricks may in fact opt to shoot more than he did the first time around, but there’s zero chance he doesn’t test the waters on the feet once again with Lawler.
Either way, whoever wins, the UFC welterweight division has seemed to find respectable draws between the two, which was a top promotional priority after Georges St-Pierre’s departure.
Whether Hendricks is able to outlast Lawler again or Lawler is able to strong-arm his way to UFC gold will be settled in early 2015.
And just like that, July is coming to an end.
We were greeted with a highly anticipated title bout between the new middleweight emperor Chris Weidman and a valiant challenger in Lyoto Machida at UFC 176, only to be sent off toward August with an …
And just like that, July is coming to an end.
We were greeted with a highly anticipated title bout between the new middleweight emperor Chris Weidman and a valiant challenger in Lyoto Machida at UFC 176, only to be sent off toward August with an equally anticipated bout between Robbie Lawler and Matt Brown to determine the first man who will contest Johny Hendricks’ reign as the welterweight champion.
But, before we get to another action-packed month of ultimate fighting, it’s important we look back on the great month that was and acknowledge the great performances that were. Scroll on to see who receives performance bonuses for July.
Robbie Lawler and Matt Brown put on a show at UFC on FOX 12. It wasn’t the 5-star epic poem many were expecting, but it was still a fun, entertaining fight that made spending a night in front of the TV worth it.
But was it worth it for the fighters?
Heading into the card, media pundits discussed the potential paydays for the card’s fighters. They noted four fighters could earn six figures. Friend of CagePotato Trent Reinsmith summed up our thoughts on the issue:
Three fighters earned six figures. And only five fighters made fewer than $10,000 (this excludes “of the night” bonuses and the mythical locker room bonuses as well).
Lawler earned $210,000, the highest pay of the night. Matt Brown received $46,000.
Anthony Johnson made the easiest $106,000 of his life in a 44-second drubbing of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who took home $114,000 to act as a human punching bag–not bad!
Here are the figures for the entire card (all via MMAJunkie):
(Photo via Getty)
Robbie Lawler and Matt Brown put on a show at UFC on FOX 12. It wasn’t the 5-star epic poem many were expecting, but it was still a fun, entertaining fight that made spending a night in front of the TV worth it.
But was it worth it for the fighters?
Heading into the card, media pundits discussed the potential paydays for the card’s fighters. They noted four fighters could earn six figures. Friend of CagePotato Trent Reinsmith summed up our thoughts on the issue:
Three fighters earned six figures. And only five fighters made fewer than $10,000 (this excludes “of the night” bonuses and the mythical locker room bonuses as well).
Lawler earned $210,000, the highest pay of the night. Matt Brown received $46,000.
Anthony Johnson made the easiest $106,000 of his life in a 44-second drubbing of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who took home $114,000 to act as a human punching bag–not bad!
Noad Lahat: $16,000 ($8,000 win bonus)
Steven Siler: $15,000
And again: These numbers don’t account for magic locker room bonuses or “of the night” bonuses. Speaking of the latter: Lawler and Brown earned an extra $50,000 for “Fight of the Night.” Both Dennis Bermudez and Anthony Johnson got $50,000 for “Performance of the Night.”
Robbie Lawler’s slow burn toward the UFC welterweight title smolders on.
After pulling the plug on Matt Brown’s Cinderella story via unanimous decision Saturday in the main event of UFC on Fox 12, Lawler once again finds himself the top contender for t…
Robbie Lawler‘s slow burn toward the UFC welterweight title smolders on.
After pulling the plug on Matt Brown’s Cinderella story via unanimous decision Saturday in the main event of UFC on Fox 12, Lawler once again finds himself the top contender for the company’s 170-pound title.
He’s now assured a second bite at the apple against champion Johny Hendricks, but as is often the case for UFC title hopefuls these days, he’ll have to wait a bit to get it.
Hendricks is still healing from a torn bicep suffered while claiming the vacant championship with a decision win over Lawler at UFC 171. Though it was initially believed he’d return in the fall, reports now indicate the UFC may push the rematch back until 2015:
“I want to get back to work and go after Hendricks,” Lawler told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in the cage after his victory over Brown. “He’s nursing some injuries, but I’m going to be the one waiting for him, and that’s nice.”
Whenever it happens, another meeting with Hendricks will provide Lawler’s latest—and potentially last—chance to add an exclamation point to his career’s unexpectedly stellar third act.
Most observers likely thought they’d already seen the best of him when he returned to the Octagon after the Strikeforce purchase in 2013.
Lawler had been absent from Zuffa since back-to-back losses in 2004. In the interim, he’d become EliteXC middleweight champion and once fought for Strikeforce gold, but had also been dogged by inconsistency. He was perennially winning a few fights and then losing one, usually by either letting a decision get away from him or by getting caught in a submission on the ground.
A drop to welterweight to begin his UFC return seemed like an intriguing twist, but that sort of last resort seldom cures everything that ails a struggling fighter. Simply finding a new weight class rarely makes a whole new man.
For Lawler, it has amounted to a rebirth. He’s now 5-1 at 170 pounds, his only loss coming via that razor-thin judges’ verdict to Hendricks five months ago. As the welterweight class staggers forward amid Georges St-Pierre’s extended hiatus, the 32-year-old Lawler—suddenly all grown up and in control of his potential—figures to continue being a major player.
But first, with Hendricks finishing up his rehab for the duration of 2014, Lawler will get a necessary (albeit perhaps unrequested) break.
The victory over Brown capped a stretch where he fought five times during the last 12 months. Their bout won Fight of the Night but fell just short of the sky-high expectations we’d set during the lead-up.
It would have been hard to exceed the prefight hyperbole, and given that the night’s two championship stanzas essentially amounted to rounds 16 and 17 for Lawler, dating back to July 27, 2013, it feels like he’s earned a short vacation.
For much of their peak-and-valley slugfest, he was in full control of Brown with his tighter, more technical counterpunching style. Lawler scored with uppercuts and kicks to the body, and he stunned Brown with a shot to the midsection in the third round that referee John McCarthy mistakenly ruled a low blow.
He might’ve pitched a shutout had Brown not stung him with a right hand in the first. For a few seconds there, it appeared we might be in for another Lawler letdown, but he maintained his composure and weathered Brown’s best offense—mostly in the form of elbows in the clinch as well as the occasional takedown try and submission attempt.
The pace slowed in the middle rounds, and even as Lawler took full control on the scorecards, it dawned on us this wasn’t going to be the epic, Fight of the Year-caliber brawl we’d hoped to see. Perhaps our hopes had been unfairly raised, and as MMA Mania.com’s Jesse Holland and many others noted on Friday, it would have been nearly impossible for this bout to live up to the hype.
Still, it was pretty good.
The ever-game Brown appeared to injure his hand when he came out firing in the final round, but he continued to throw jabs, kicks and elbows until the final horn. Lawler stumbled him with one last left 10 seconds before the end, sealing the final round and a clear-cut unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47) when the final scores were announced.
The loss snapped Brown’s seven-fight win streak, and the 33-year-old underdog went to the hospital instead of the post-fight press conference. UFC President Dana Whiteattended the media event, however, and said that even in defeat Brown’s stock was on the rise with the fight company.
Lawler seemed to agree, as the two fighters exchanged encouraging words inside the cage immediately following the decision.
“I said there’s two champions in this ring tonight,” Lawler explained to Rogan when asked what he said to Brown. “He’s a hell of a fighter and we put on a great show for these guys. He came toe-to-toe with me and not too many people will do that.”
Hendricks also didn’t shy away from Lawler during their first meeting back in March.
Once the champion’s arm is good to go, the UFC will have yet another highly anticipated donnybrook on its hands. When that finally happens, Lawler will get another chance to set his hot-and-cold career on fire for good.
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