Heading into UFC 195 it was easy to visualize an amazing five round brawl between two of the best strikers in the UFC’s welterweight division, but no one would’ve imagined that it’d deliver one of the greatest fights in UFC history. Lawler vs Condit did just that.
With UFC 195 Robbie adds another Fight of the Year to his resume. Robbie vs Hendricks 1 was arguably the best fight of 2014, Lawler vs MacDonald was easily the best fight of 2015 (possibly the best in UFC welterweight history) and by no means is it too early to deem this the fight of 2016.
The fight began with Carlos Condit attacking Robbie Lawler, a notoriously slow starter, and setting the pace for the remainder of the fight. Condit cut off the octagon and bombarded Lawler with strikes. In fact, Condit through 3x as many strikes as Lawler in the 1st round.
In the 2nd round Lawler was able to find his range against the attacking Condit and floored him with a huge right hand. As Condit hit the mat the crowd erupted and everyone rose to their feet to see what would be a KO against any other fighter, but not Carlos. Condit was able to pull guard and trap Robbie long enough to gain his composure.
The 3rd proved to be the championship deciding round.
With both fighters recovering from a tough two opening rounds they began trading strikes and circling the octagon. It was a classic battle of two opposing strategies. Robbie opted for a calculated counter punching approach, while Condit decided that volume would win him the round. Condit threw 100 strikes in the 3rd round but only landed 30%. Lawler threw a little above 30 punches in the round but landed 50% of them. The judges deemed that Lawler’s clean and accurate strikes won out.
The 4th round was pure domination exhibited by Condit. He nearly ended Robbie with a jumping knee as he stalked the champion for 5 minutes. You’d think that momentum would carry over into the 5th round, but that’s Lawler’s round.
Ever since Robbie lost his first title fight against Johnny Hendricks in the last 2 minutes of the 5th round he’s vowed to go down swinging. That he did.
Lawler came out pressuring Condit and landed big right hand after big right hand as he slipped inside Condit’s reach. Carlos threw an unimaginable 140+ punches in that final round but it was Robbie Lawler that was on the brink of knocking out Condit several times in that final round. Condoit survived and the last 2 minutes of that fight is the best end to a fight I’ve ever seen. I’d go as far as saying that 5th round is the greatest round in UFC history. Both fighters swung until their bodies were physically unable to lift their limbs. At one point Condit attempted a jump knee that barely reached his belly button, but neither would concede defeat.
If any fight was deserving of an immediate rematch it’d be this one. Both fighters gave it their all and if the fight was scheduled for 10 rounds tonight they both would’ve kept fighting.
One thing is for sure, the rest of the fights in 2016 will have a lot to live up to because we just witnessed one of the greatest title fights of all-time.
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