“I think I show my toughness when the cameras are on it and in front of the big lights and all the fans”.
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Now Lawler will defend his title for the second time, this time against Carlos Condit and his impressive 30-8 record. “‘And still’-but let’s do it again”. Every night’s a different night and anything could happen.
The final five-minute period turned into a wild and reckless brawl with neither fighter content to rest on their laurels – when they were eventually separated by referee John McCarthy they slumped exhausted next to each other.
But as Alexander Gustafsson – a two-time title fight runner up – can attest, sometimes a championship effort isn’t enough to steal the title in the end. The champ did land some big punches, but they were few and far between.
The UFC has another loaded schedule planned for 2016, and during that time, hundreds of fighters will enter and exit the octagon. Either way, Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit exceeded the hype given to tonight’s fight. While Condit has never been finished by strikes, he is prone to getting hit by power punchers as Johny Hendricks and Tyron Woodley were both able to land with decent effect; however, the threat of the takedown isn’t there with Robbie Lawler. Upon his initial entry in the company as a 20-year old fighter back in 2002 at UFC 37, Lawler went on to win the next four of his seven fights. Lawler maintained pressure, but ate a left hand that sent him falling to the floor midway through the frame. He ended up throwing 117 signficant strikes in the round, landing 62. Condit, meanwhile, returned from a lengthy injury absence in May to stop former title challenger Thiago Alves at UFC Fight Night 67.
“I feel pretty good”, he said. “I knew he was going to come out guns-a-blazing”. I did all I could to win, and I got the victory.
Lawler will inevitably one day get beat. Condit got the nod from all the judges in Rounds 1 and 4.
Larkin has been undefeated since dropping to welterweight, most notably defeating John Howard at UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs. Siver. It could have gone either way, though the Vegas crowd booed the decision and cheered Lawler’s mention of a rematch. Tonight was kind of a do-or-die moment for my career.
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A hard right-handed punch by Lawler (27-10) backed up Condit with about two minutes remaining in the fifth, followed by a left hand that forced the challenger to cover before being subjected to an avalanche of blows that sent Condit reeling so severely that referee John McCarthy looked on closely as if considering a stoppage. Lawler is no longer the wild brawler we saw in the UFC a decade ago, but instead a marvelous boxer with bulletproof takedown defense.
