UFC 201 emanates from Atlanta with a welterweight title tilt atop the card.
UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler welcomes his latest challenger, Tyron Woodley, in the main event. The two standouts have trained together, and now they will fight again…
UFC 201 emanates from Atlanta with a welterweight title tilt atop the card.
UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler welcomes his latest challenger, TyronWoodley, in the main event. The two standouts have trained together, and now they will fight against one another. American Top Team will keep the belt in its camp, but will it go back to HQ in Coconut Creek, Florida, or Woodley‘s affiliate gym in Missouri?
The co-main event looks to be a strawweight title eliminator as contenders Rose Namajunas and Karolina Kowalkiewicz square off in a three-round affair.
Nine other bouts line the card with action, and Bleacher Report will be here all evening to break down the action for you. The first bout of the evening is at 7 p.m. ET on UFC Fight Pass. Televised prelims begin at 8 p.m ET on Fox Sports 2, and the pay-pay-view main card begins at 10 p.m. ET.
Robbie Lawler vs. Tyron Woodley: Mike Drahota: It’s an easy to see that the UFC 201 main event promises fireworks, and for good reason. Lawler has delivered three “Fight of the Year” winners and/or candidates during the last three years, and while many are legitimately picking the wear and tear of those epic five-round wars to […]
It’s an easy to see that the UFC 201 main event promises fireworks, and for good reason. Lawler has delivered three “Fight of the Year” winners and/or candidates during the last three years, and while many are legitimately picking the wear and tear of those epic five-round wars to finally catch up to him tonight, I’m not as sure.
The champion cannot afford to start slow as he did against Carlos Condit, Rory MacDonald, and Johny Hendricks. Woodley definitely possesses perhaps the most threatening one-round skills due to his massive power and speed, but that athletic prowess could begin to wane if the fight lasts more than five minutes.
It’s hard to predict if the absolutely massive amount of strikes Lawler has absorbed lately will finally affect him, but while it could, I think he should have the gameplan to come out firing and use his height and reach advantage to back “The Chosen One” against the cage for a barrage of strikes. Woodley has been out of the cage for a year-and-a-half, and in my mind he lost his last fight to Kelvin Gastelum. He may have added new wrinkles to his game, but it might not be enough to knock Lawler off his throne.
Lawler by second round TKO is my pick.
Rory Kernaghan:
Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley are an intriguing pair explosive athletes. Woodley likes to go very hard early on, but has shown signs of wavering late in fights. This could be a problem against ‘Ruthless,’ who tends to have his best rounds in the final half of the fight.
This in turn could be a problem for Lawler if he comes out too slow, but he also has a wide experience gap on ‘The Chosen One,’ and here is where I feel the key for victory lies. Lawler knows Woodley is going to come out explosive, and rather than take that risk of playing rope-a-dope in to the later rounds, I predict a ruthless finish early on.
Look for a well-timed counter shot to put the lights out, as Robbie Lawler knocks out Tyron Woodley in round one.
Mike Henken:
In my opinion, Woodley’s long layoff, as well as his questionable gas tank, will give him problems in this fight. “The Chosen One” hasn’t competed since earning a lackluster decision win over Kelvin Gastelum in January 2015. Woodley, a former NCAA Division I wrestler, possess explosive power and finishing ability, but he’s also been known to fade as fights go on while Lawler only gets stronger in the later rounds.
I feel as if the “Ruthless” is the superior technical striker, and if he can keep this fight on the feet, which I expect him to be able to do, he should be able to batter Woodley. Lawler via unanimous decision.
Read on to the next page to see our predictions for the pivotal women’s strawweight co-main event.
Robbie Lawler’s third welterweight title defense headlines the card for UFC 201 at Atlanta’s Philips Arena on Saturday night. The champion has endured some gruelling recent bouts and faces a skilled challenger who has had to wait for his big chance: Ty…
Robbie Lawler‘s third welterweight title defense headlines the card for UFC 201 at Atlanta’s Philips Arena on Saturday night. The champion has endured some gruelling recent bouts and faces a skilled challenger who has had to wait for his big chance: TyronWoodley.
The Lawler and Woodley tussle isn’t the only notable bout on the main card, though. Rose Namajunas‘ meeting with fellow contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz deservedly has co-main event billing.
Here are the schedule details for the pay-per-view event:
Here’s the full fight card information, along with odds:
Predictions
Choosing a winner between Lawler and Woodley is no easy task, but at least two experts agree about how the headline fight will play out. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto is going for a fourth-round TKO for the defending champion, while Jonathan Bradley of Fox Sports also fancies a Lawler knockout in the fourth.
A common theme for each writer is punching power, both in terms of each fighter’s chops as strikers, along with their ability to absorb shots.
The latter is a consideration Okamoto is unable to ignore. He’s cited telling statistics that suggest Lawler will be under pressure if Woodley can land consistently up top: “According to FightMetric, Lawler has absorbed 642 strikes since the start of 2014. He’s gone five hellacious rounds, back-to-back-to-back. When do these wars catch up? Lawler is 34 in human years—and probably something like 112 in fighter years.”
In order for Woodley to exploit those concerns, though, he’ll need to connect with significant strikes. It’s an area in which he’s inferior to the champion, however, according to Bradley: “Lawler and Woodley have virtually identical striking statistics, with both fighters landing over three strikes per minute at a 46-percent clip. Where they differ, however, is in significant strikes, as Lawler lands 3.51 significant strikes per minute compared to 2.56 for Woodley.”
Assessing Woodley‘s punching power is a common theme ahead of this fight. UFC Europe also asked whether the 34-year-old challenger can pack enough into his fists to put Lawler down decisively:
Counting on Woodley to land a knockout blow is a risky bet, since he’s more at home as a grappler. Unfortunately for the challenger, that’s an area where Lawler is rarely troubled.
So count on Lawler making good on these predictions and using his own skill as a striker to wear down and eventually knock Woodley out.
When Namajunas meets Kowalkiewicz, she’ll have to be mindful of the latter’s ferocity as a hitter. FightMetric detailed how Kowalkiewicz lands 6.17 significant strikes per minute.
Countering those fast and tough hands will demand keeping things on the mat. Fortunately for Namajunas, her 3.49 takedowns average, along with 66 percent takedowns accuracy, per FightMetric, means she’s well-equipped to take her opponent out of her comfort zone.
If Namajunas can break down Kowalkiewicz‘s underrated defense and keep her grounded, she’s more likely to lock on the submission hold that can end this intriguing fight.
If a Robbie Lawler opponent falls but no one is watching, does he make a sound?
If you’re one of the ones who has been watching the past few years, you’d probably say so. They tend to grunt or groan as they’re wailed on, produce unnat…
If a Robbie Lawler opponent falls but no one is watching, does he make a sound?
If you’re one of the ones who has been watching the past few years, you’d probably say so. They tend to grunt or groan as they’re wailed on, produce unnatural thuds and smacks from their body cavities as various shots land or maybe offer a weird smush as their nose gives way to be replaced by a gaping crater.
Once more on Saturday night, the UFC will seek to answer the question as it pits it meanest, most savage champion against TyronWoodley, a challenger most people know as much for briefly being silent muscle in Straight Outta Compton as they do for his road to a title shot.
As a result, UFC 201 enters the promotion’s busy summer schedule with all the pomp and circumstance of a church mouse, even if the champion on its poster is likely going to produce something incredibly GIF-worthy while nobody is watching.
In as much as those remarkable happenings have become a hallmark of Lawler as a resurgent UFC talent and indefatigable champion—his 600-plus-day reign the longest at 170 pounds since the legendary Georges St-Pierre vacated the title after more than 2,000 days in 2013—so too has the decided lack of notice he’s gotten.
Yes, the hardcore fan loves him because they know he’s going to give them their money’s worth or go out on his shield trying, but his continued lack of exposure to broader audiences is doing little to make him a true superstar.
It’s strange in a way, given Lawler is easily the most compelling career story on the roster and the type of intense, muted firebrand who comes off as bizarrely charismatic. He was a prospect while his sport was still prospective, he spent a decade in purgatory fighting people you’ve never heard of in places you didn’t know existed for amounts you wouldn’t believe were available, and he returned to the UFC under cover of darkness on the whim of Dana White.
He’s gone 8-1 since that that return in February 2013, narrowly losing a Fight of the Year title bout to Johny Hendricks in 2014 before avenging the defeat a few fights later and never looking back. He’s defended the welterweight title twice, once against Rory MacDonald in the 2015 Fight of the Year and once against Carlos Condit in a fight that’s likely to be named Fight of the Year for 2016.
That Lawler renaissance, born of his role as MMA’s foremost purveyor of poetic viciousness and buoyed by just enough good feeling from those who watched him meet his potential, suggests the man who’s been Ruthless for 15 years deserves better than he’s gotten on the attention front.
Saturday night, he’ll headline an event jammed between UFC 200 and the Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz rematch, a card that practically screams “save your money” to the casual fan. The Condit fight happened when as many people were in airports heading home from breaks as there were in bars or on couches waiting to see him in action. He also fought MacDonald on a McGregor undercard, so you can imagine how much attention he received there.
This is not to suggest the UFC has buried Lawler intentionally. He’s fought on Fox a couple of times and was heavily featured in ads during the most recent show on the network. There’s even an argument to be made that his appearance on that McGregor show last summer—when he acquitted himself more than admirably and perhaps legendarily—did more to help him than to hurt him.
Yet the fact remains there doesn’t seem to be a hype commensurate with what Lawler is guaranteed to provide come fight night, and that’s something of a shame.
Should Lawler best Woodley at UFC 201, he’ll have defended his welterweight title three times. Only Pat Miletich, Matt Hughes and St-Pierre have done it more, and none did it with the ferocity and bombast of the reigning champion.
Lawler is the best thing going in MMA, the man who proves success can be found by being exciting, provided you have the willpower and guts to find it.
If he could only find a little more attention for that fact, things would truly be perfect for him.
Reigning 170-pound kingpin “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler will look to make the third defense of his welterweight title when he meets No. 4-ranked Tyron “The Chosen One” Woodley in the main event of tomorrow night’s (July 30, 2016) UFC 201 from Atlanta, Georgia. If Lawler can indeed get by the former NCAA wrestler, he may have […]
Reigning 170-pound kingpin “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler will look to make the third defense of his welterweight title when he meets No. 4-ranked Tyron “The Chosen One” Woodley in the main event of tomorrow night’s (July 30, 2016) UFC 201 from Atlanta, Georgia. If Lawler can indeed get by the former NCAA wrestler, he may have some lucrative fights waiting for him including a bout with all-time welterweight great and former longtime champion Georges “Rush” St. Pierre.
St. Pierre defended his title a divisional record nine straight times before vacating it in 2013 and going into a semi-retirement. Since leaving the sport, questions and rumors have swirled nonstop regarding a potential return for the Canadian superstar, but it has never become a reality, although that could change in the near future. Last month, St. Pierre told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani that he was ready to make his return to competitive fighting.
If GSP does indeed return, a fight between him and Lawler would be massive, although the “Ruthless” one doesn’t feel as if it would be a smart move for “Rush”:
“I don’t really get too excited (about a St-Pierre bout),” Lawler recently told MMAJunkie. “It’d be nice to beat him and showcase my skills against him, but I don’t think he’s coming back. It wouldn’t be a smart move for him. He’s done a lot for the sport and won a lot of fights. I’m not the guy I think he wants to come back against.”
At this point in each fighters’ career, who would you see winning this potential scrap?
Kelvin Gastelum, Julianna Pena, Amanda Nunes and others offer up their fight predictions for Saturday night’s main and co-main events at UFC 201.
In the penultimate bout, Rose Namajunas…
Kelvin Gastelum, Julianna Pena, Amanda Nunes and others offer up their fight predictions for Saturday night’s main and co-main events at UFC 201.
In the penultimate bout, Rose Namajunas and Karolina Kowalkiewicz square off in a key strawweight contest. The winner could likely be the next title challenger in the 115-pound division.
The main event for the night is for the welterweight title, as Robbie Lawler defends his belt against Tyron Woodley.
