Daniel Cormier explains why Robbie Lawler didn’t make his welterweight Mount Rushmore.
Lawler, a former UFC welterweight champion, defended his belt two times in bonus-winning wars against Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit. His memorable battle with MacDonald from UFC 189, a fifth-round TKO win, will join this year’s UFC Hall of Fame fight wing.
Lawler would go on to lose his belt to Tyron Woodley by first-round knockout in July 2016 and has struggled ever since. Cormier listed his top four welterweights of all time, which included Woodley – but not Lawler.
“Well, here’s the problem: There weren’t many welterweight champions,” Cormier said on his ESPN show “DC & RC.” “It’s been a division that has had so many long-reigning champions that there aren’t many welterweight champions. I got Georges St-Pierre as the head; he’s the George Washington. Then I have Matt Hughes, Kamaru Usman, and I have Tyron Woodley.
“And I get it. (Woodley) and Robbie would seem to have very similar resumes, but you’ve got to remember when Tyron was the champion, the way he beat Robbie to become the champion, the way he beat Darren Till, the way he defended that belt on so many occasions when he was legitimately one of the harder champions to work with, so he got no favors.”
Cormier argues that Woodley’s run and how he beat his opponents in more convincing fashion than Lawler (29-16 MMA, 14-10 UFC) during his title run were more impressive.
“Tyron Woodley was actually fighting always the very best guys, and he complained about it openly how the UFC didn’t always treat him fairly,” Cormier said. “So, he was doing that and defending that belt in circumstances that weren’t ideal. Think about all those fights he had with ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson. He was fighting ‘Wonderboy’ when ‘Wonderboy’ was like the biggest enigma that we had ever seen inside of the octagon.
“For that, I have to put Tyron Woodley. I love Robbie Lawler against Carlos Condit. That was a great fight, but it was very, very competitive. I love Robbie Lawler against Rory, but it was very, very competitive. For me, Robbie Lawler’s story is the guy that came from Strikeforce, he was a bit middle of the road, and then he went to the top and became the champion. But even then, I don’t know if I’d put him in the top four welterweights of all time.”
According to UFC president Dana White, Lawler will step into the cage for the final time July 8 at UFC 290 where he takes on Niko Price (15-6 MMA, 7-6 UFC) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
