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The List: Robert Glenn Lawler's greatest hits

For too long, our writers’ hyper-specific arguments have been confined to the private corridors of the Internet. Welcome to The List, where we take their instant message bickerings, add a little polish, and make them public. Today, in advance of Robbie Lawler’s rematch with welterweight champ Johny Hendricks at UFC 181, we wax about our favorite “Ruthless” moments.

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1. UFC 171, because it was a ‘Fight of the Year’

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Steven Marrocco: First of all: Miss us?

It’s been a while since we got together and hammered out a List; sorry, we were busy. But the band is back (read: it’s a holiday), and we’re ready to get moving again.

When Ben proposed we talk about Robbie Lawler, it was an easy sell for me. I’ve been covering the guy for eight years, a time span in which so many sluggers have come and gone in this business, and he just keeps going and going, bashing in skulls and collecting checks.

A theory for his longevity emerged prior to March’s fight for the vacant title, if you remember. Lawler’s camp said he shied away from gym wars, lessening the damage done to his body over the years. This has always seemed a bit dubious to me. How do you be so good at fighting if you don’t do it a lot? How did he maintain his membership at Miletich Fighting Systems, a slaughterhouse of a team? I can certainly see people not wanting to train with him; a few rounds with him might set you back a grade level. And maybe he did the bulk of his learning in the cage. But whether he saved his best years for his 30s or is a physical anomaly, it’s always been a safe bet that a Robbie Lawler fight will be exciting.

Nowhere was that more evident than in his first meeting with Hendricks at UFC 171, which I was fortunate to catch from the second row of press tables. These days, it’s rare that the violence of a fight stands out. There are thwacks and thumps and sweat jets, but they’re usually in a manageable rhythm. Guys and gals get tired. They circle. The audience quiets. In this fight, the violence just never stopped. Lawler made sure of that. He caught Hendricks. Hendricks fired back. The two chased each other around the ring, playing this vicious game of parry and punch that was so intense I tapped my colleague John Morgan on the shoulder between rounds and said something to the effect of, “(expletive!)”

I haven’t watched the fight since then, but at the time, I remember scoring the fight 3-2 for Lawler, despite Hendricks’ late takedown in the fifth. I just thought the quality of Lawler’s offense was better; when he hit Hendricks, I could see fear the in the now-champ’s eyes. I wasn’t overly upset at the win for Hendricks, and the fact that it was a close fight guaranteed the two were bound to do it again. I’ll be watching that one on TV, or more accurately, on the edge of my seat, waiting for Lawler to drop bombs.

2. UFC 157, because it was the beginning of the new beginning

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Ben Fowlkes: There are so many memorably violent moments in the well-traveled career of one Robert Glenn Lawler, from his thumping of Frank Trigg (complete with totally unnecessary follow-up punch even after Trigg is clearly out) to his totally sweet post-fight interview after polishing off a less than gracious Tiki Ghosn (“… when it came, it came haaaaaaaard”), but if you force me to choose just one I have to go with what may be a slightly unconventional pick: his TKO win over Josh Koscheck at UFC 157.

Why, you ask? It’s all about context, gentlemen.

This wasn’t Lawler’s best highlight or most savage knockout by any means, but it did herald the start of a new age for the “Ruthless” one. He’d just come off a stint as a middleweight in Strikeforce, where he went 3-5 over the course of three up-and-down years. When the UFC brought him back into the fold after the purchase and eventual dissolution of that organization, it did so almost apologetically. It was as if the brass felt the need to explain, as UFC President Dana White is said to have done when he first signed a very lightly experienced Lawler a little over 10 years earlier, that they kind of just liked seeing the guy fight for their own entertainment, regardless of what anyone else thought.

His move back down to welterweight seemed, well, optimistic, like something fighters do when they’re all out of better ideas. Against Koscheck it felt like he’d probably be taken down and smothered for three rounds, and that’s almost how it happened, except this time Lawler had a few new tricks in his ground game. After getting taken down almost immediately, he used a nifty butterfly guard sweep to get up, then fought off successive takedown attempts before landing one of those thumping punches of his – the kind you can hear all the way up at the concessions stand – which froze Koscheck in place like one of those unlucky souls buried forever under the ash in Pompeii. A few more thump, thump, thumps, and then it was over. It marked the beginning of his comeback, and it was a bit of a surprise. Robbie Lawler wasn’t done yet. How about that? It was wonderful news, at least as long as you weren’t a UFC welterweight.

3. ‘Strikeforce: Miami,’ because of the comeback

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Mike Bohn: “I knocked the guy out who knocks everyone else out.”

Those were Lawler’s words minutes after his unforgettable come-from-behind knockout of Melvin Manhoef at “Strikeforce: Miami.” It seems like such a simplistic and obvious assessment of the fight, but Lawler’s always been a man of few words.

At the time of the January 2010 battle, Manhoef was arguably at his most fearsome. He wasn’t far removed from an 18-second knockout of current UFC heavyweight contender Mark Hunt, and had finished all but one of his professional victories with strikes.

That success carried over into the early stage of the fight, as Manhoef used a heavy kicking attack to put Lawler into a defensive shell. Manhoef truly did have “No Mercy” on that night, as he hammered home leg kicks to the point where each impact launched Lawler’s foot toward the sky.

Lawler somehow endured the punishment, though, and waited for his opportunity to pounce. Manhoef went to the well one too many times, and Lawler responded by planting a clean overhand right on his chin for the highlight-reel finish.

It wasn’t a title fight or a career-defining return to the UFC, but Lawler’s comeback against Manheof was a microcosm of the resiliency that allowed him to transform from a middling member of the Strikeforce roster to a multi-time UFC title challenger.

For more on UFC 181, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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