Of the three welterweight fights set for the main card of UFC 167, the one many fans are most looking forward to is an exciting matchup between young Canadian Rory MacDonald and Octagon veteran Robbie Lawler.
It’s a fight that obviously has huge stakes for each man as far as the divisional pecking order is concerned as the winner may very well get the next UFC welterweight title shot, but it’s an especially important fight for Lawler because it would allow him to complete an unbelievable career turnaround in the same organization he began his big-league career with 11 years ago.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Watch UFC 167 preliminary fights on Sportsnet 360 Saturday starting at 8 p.m. EST and catch three bonus prelims on sportsnet.ca at 6:45 p.m. EST
After racking up a quick 4-0 record in his first year as a pro back in 2001, the 20-year-old Miletich Fighting Systems prodigy was quickly noticed by UFC scouts for his heavy hands and wrestling skills, and he was soon scooped up by Zuffa, where he made his debut in 2002 at UFC 37 against veteran Aaron Riley. He won the fight via decision (one of only two career decision wins for Lawler to this day).
Lawler would follow that up with knockout wins over Steve Berger and Tiki Ghosn, before losing via injury to Pete Spratt to set his stock back a bit. But a win over Chris Lytle at UFC 45 got him back in the good graces of the UFC and he was then matched up against Nick Diaz at UFC 47 in a fight between top prospects. Unfortunately for Lawler, he would lose that fight after Diaz hit him with a jab that he never saw coming that knocked him out in what is still one of the most memorable KOs in UFC history.
After the Diaz loss, the California-born, Iowa-bred fighter would make the move up to middleweight but he was submitted by Evan Tanner at UFC 50 and, after going 4-3 overall in the UFC, was cut despite the fact he was just 22 years old with tons of untapped potential.
With an 8-3 record, Lawler exited the UFC and fought in SuperBrawl, King of the Cage and Icon Sport, where he would win the middleweight championship with a huge KO over Niko Vitale before dropping the title in his next fight to Jason “Mayhem” Miller.
But his run outside the UFC was enough to get him noticed by PRIDE, and after knocking out Joey Villasenor with a flying knee at PRIDE 32, Lawler then went on a magical run that saw him win five straight fights by knockout and pick up the EliteXC middleweight championship with a brutal knockout over Murilo “Ninja” Rua in 2007. Lawler defended the belt once against Scott Smith, and then when EliteXC collapsed he joined Strikeforce as one of the best fighters in the world not in the UFC.
Although he entered the Strikeforce hexagon with a ton of momentum, Lawler would do very poor there and lose to Jake Shields, Lorenz Larkin, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. He did pick up wins over Melvin Manhoef, Adlan Amagov, and Matt Lindland (the 2010 KO of the year), but it really looked for a time that Lawler was a shell of his former self and, dare I say, washed up at only 30 years old.
After Strikeforce was bought out by Zuffa, the UFC absorbed Lawler’s old contract – where he was making over $100,000 per fight even though he wasn’t performing at his best – and they matched him up against Josh Koscheck at UFC 157 earlier this year in what was Lawler’s return to welterweight after about 10 years of fighting at middleweight in catchweight bouts.
Lawler entered the fight against Koscheck as a huge underdog, but he was able to overcome the odds and knocked Koscheck out in brutal fashion to claim the evening’s “Knockout of the Night” award and make a statement that he was back. And then he knocked out Bobby Voelker with a head kick at UFC on FOX 7 this summer to prove the Koscheck win wasn’t a fluke, as he upped his career record to a solid 21-9, 1 NC (18 wins by KO/TKO and one via submission).
After those two huge victories in his Octagon return, the UFC is giving Lawler the chance to complete his career turnaround on the biggest card of the year against one of the best welterweights in the world, MacDonald. The young Canadian enters the fight as a justifiable favorite and with a ton of hype behind him, but after a very inactive performance against Jake Ellenberger at UFC on FOX 7, there are many sharps minds out there who are picking Lawler for the upset next weekend.
If Lawler beats MacDonald – especially in impressive fashion — and if UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre can defend his belt against Johny Hendricks, then Lawler would have a clear path to a title shot at 170 pounds, with only Matt Brown as the other top contender on a win streak out there who hasn’t fought St-Pierre yet. And to me, that would be amazing because this is a guy that the UFC brought back solely because they owed him fights on his old Strikeforce contract, similar to Mark Hunt’s situation a few years ago. And despite leaving the UFC all those years ago, it’s 2013 now and Lawler has the chance to earn a world title shot. Unbelievable, and not bad for the guy who was knocked out by Diaz’ jab all those years ago.
