Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit Gave Us the Greatest Welterweight Fight of All

At UFC 189, Robbie Lawler defeated Rory MacDonald in what was described as one of the best ever fights.

Per Okamoto, Condit landed more strikes than his opponent over the course of the bout, but Lawler tended to do more damage, even briefly knocking Condit down in the second round.

Condit (30-8-0), meanwhile, is deserving of a title shot after making his return from a 15-month injury lay-off with a second-round stoppage of Brazil’s Thiago Alves in May.

Condit knows that when it’s all said and done, he’s going to give Lawler everything he can handle and the real winners will be the people in attendance and the millions watching around the world as he predicts an instant classic when these two welterweight icons finally go to war. Those guys put together a great game plan. With a win, Arlovski would extend his win streak to six fights and get another UFC title shot, according to The Bloody Elbow.

“I felt like I had three rounds in the bag, but that’s why you don’t leave things to the judges”, he was quoted as saying.

There was no doubt who won the fourth round though, as Condit opened up on Lawler shortly before the bell, meaning the champion would need to take the final round to retain his belt.

Condit threw 198 total strikes to Lawler’s 78 but the latter was more efficient, landing 44% of his strikes (78 of 177) to the former’s 39% (198/504).

He clashed with champion Robbie Lawler and put on a memorable display of mixed martial arts, while making a strong case to be the man lifting the belt at the end of the bout. Any elite wrestler he has faced has figured that one out easily but it does not seem likely that Lawler would try to take advantage of that. Now that we’re here, I feel most of those thoughts have transformed to thoughts of shear anticipation for what should be an epic main event.

Condit’s biggest weakness as a fighter is his lack of takedown defense.

“I don’t even remember much about what happened in the third”, Lawler said. “It didn’t go my way tonight but I left it all in there and fought my ass off. I’m disappointed but proud of my performance”. “I think there’s enough competitors”.

“I just really want to have my shot and I know I deserve it”, Miocic reflected after a histrionic postfight call for a title shot.

The 33-year-old champion is a reclamation project of the highest order.

“It’s definitely, 15 years after I started, it’s nice to have the sport growing in the Quad-Cities and have other up-and-coming fighters from that area”, Lawler said. “It didn’t go my way tonight, but I left it all in there and fought my ass off”. He’s still undeniably a heavyweight contender, but I’m not sure he can contend with the best of the best anymore.