Third straight victory
Rafael dos Anjos beats Robbie Lawler by unanimous decision at UFC Winnipeg
Rafael dos Anjos limped up to the stage and had a line of blood trickling down his neck. And he was the winner.
Dos Anjos claimed his third straight victory as a welterweight with a unanimous decision over Ruthless Robbie Lawler in the headliner UFC Fight Night card in Winnipeg Saturday.
The Brazilian won the fiveround bout with scores of 50-45 by each of the three judges in front of 8,862 fans at Bell MTS Place.
“It was 25 minutes of war,” dos Anjos, 33, told reporters, adding his legs were sore but not injured.
Lawler didn’t seem to fare as well. He was really limping and gingerly lifted his right leg onto the stage.
He said he didn’t have details on the extent of his injuries and wouldn’t reveal when in the fight it happened.
“It doesn’t matter,” Lawler, 35, said. “(Dos Anjos) did a great job out there, just wasn’t my night.”
Dos Anjos (28-9) said he
targeted Lawler’s legs. Late in the second round, the Brazilian also put a flurry of punches on Lawler. He sent Lawler (2812) to the mat in the third and banged his head with his forearm
until the bell rang to end the assault.
Dos Anjos moved up a weight class earlier this year and won his first two fights at the new level. Now he wants a title fight
with welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who was in Winnipeg doing commentary for the Fox TV fights.
Woodley announced earlier this month he’s going to have shoulder surgery. Dos Anjos said he’ll wait for him.
“I told him that I had to tell him face to face that I’m not interested in his Gucci belt. I want the UFC gold belt,” dos Anjos said of his post-win interview with Woodley.
In the other fights on the main card, Josh Emmett sent fellow American Ricardo (The Bully) Lamas crashing to the mat 4:33 into the first round with a knockout left hook to the chin.
Emmett was 2.5 pounds over 146 at the featherweight weigh-in and had to give up 30 per cent of his purse to the No. 3-ranked Lamas (18-6), who hails from Chicago.
The Californian (13-1) was a replacement for the fight and only had three weeks to make weight.
He apologized inside the octagon that he never made the weight and thanked Lamas for taking the fight.
Argentinian Santiago Ponzinibbio (27-3), who fights out of Florida, won a unanimous decision (29-28 in each of the three rounds) over Mike Perry (11-2) from Flint, Mich., in a bloody welterweight clash.