Lawler can relate to MacDonald
UFC 189: Like his Canadian opponent, champ had to scrap his way to the top, but focus now is to stay there
Robbie Lawler has been in Rory MacDonald’s position before. Much like the B.C.-born-and-bred challenger he’ll face Saturday night in the UFC 189 co-main event, Lawler was once the young upstart climbing the ranks behind an established titleholder. Entering the UFC as part of Pat Miletich’s famed Bettendorf, Iowa, fight team, the powerful twentysomething was viewed as the heir apparent to the team’s biggest star, UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes.
More than a decade later, and after struggling to a 3-5 record as a middleweight under the Strikeforce banner, Lawler returned to the UFC and began writing his comeback story. Last December, he claimed the title everyone anticipated he would win several years ago. Hughes wrapped the belt around his longtime friend’s waist and Lawler walked from the cage repeating one word. “Finally.” Though he took a circuitous route to the top of the UFC welterweight division, and his journey to this point is one of the more interesting stories to emerge in recent years, Lawler isn’t spending time getting caught up in the moment and thinking about everything that took place on the road to the top; he’s focusing on staying there.
“It’s just a lot of hard work finally paying off,” Lawler said about his championship success during a recent media call. “It’s a lot of never-say-die, always-believe-in-myself-and this is hard work by my training partners and my coaches throughout the years. But I’m not really concentrating on that kind of stuff right now. I’m concentrating on today — how I can get better today so I can continue to write my story and beat people up.”
The next person Lawler is intent on beating up is MacDonald, the 25-year-old looking to reach the championship heights that have been forecasted for him since his arrival in the UFC five years ago.
The duo have shared the cage in the past, with Lawler edging MacDonald by split decision in November 2013 to earn a place opposite Johny Hendricks in a bout to crown a new welterweight champion after Georges St-Pierre, the longtime champion and MacDonald’s training partner, relinquished the belt to go on sabbatical from the sport.
It was a close contest, with Lawler controlling the striking early before the Canadian poured it on late, and while some would look back on that encounter to brush up on what to expect when the cage door closes this weekend, Lawler leaves that up to his coaches.
“I don’t spend too much time watching tape and doing those kind of things,” said the welterweight champion, who earned wins over Jake Ellenberger and Matt Brown before beating Hendricks in their UFC 181 rematch. “My coaches do all the breaking down of my opponents and I just go out there and train every day and try to become a better fighter every day.
“I’m just pushing myself; not too worried about who I’m fighting as much as I’m worried about how I can grow and how I can go out there and dominate who I’m going out there and facing.
“So the last fight didn’t really matter; July 11 is the only date that matters.”
One thing Lawler does take away from his previous matchup with MacDonald is a desire to make sure that, this time around, the fight doesn’t go to the scorecards.
“I want to go out there and finish people,” said Lawler, who has 19 stoppages in 25 career victories. “That’s always the plan. I don’t want to go out there and leave it up to the judges; I want to put a stamp on this fight.”
E. Spencer Kyte is the author of Keyboard Kimura, at theprovince.com/ mmablog. He’s in Las Vegas all week, so be sure to check him out on Twitter and Instagram (@spencerkyte) for all your UFC 189 news, information and analysis.