Lawler vs. Condit: Welterweight’s Most Exciting Match-Up Ever

In terms of the match-up quality and fan appeal, one fight announcement I cannot argue with at all is Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit. Lawler is scheduled to defend his UFC welterweight champion against “The Natural Born Killer” in Condit later in November at UFC 193. Not only does it finally give Australian UFC fans an exciting UFC title fight, but this is quite possibly one of the best match-ups the division has ever seen in history.

Robbie Lawler’s recent career comeback has been nothing short of outstanding and often gets overlooked. While many were keenly interested in seeing Conor McGregor fight at UFC 189 last month, the one fight that was routinely getting overlooked by both the UFC and the media at large was the title bout between Robbie Lawler and top contender Rory MacDonald. The fight did not disappoint, and both men left it all in the cage for one of the greatest fights and welterweight title bouts in history. In a fight that was very close going into the fifth round, Lawler finally stopped MacDonald in the fifth, but their bodies did not escape undamaged. Lawler’s lip was split, and MacDonald’s nose was nastily broken. One question going into the fight with Condit is if Lawler has a sufficient amount of time off after going through such an all out war.

Carlos Condit as a contender is essentially jumping the line in this fight. Before his last fight, Condit had dropped his last two fights and was facing a debilitating torn ACL injury, which put him on the shelf for over a year. However, the reason I do not mind is because Lawler vs. Condit is a fantastic fight and could arguably be one of the best UFC welterweight fights ever. It is really a dream fight right now. Besides that? The other two top contenders right now are Tyron Woodley and Johny Hendricks; both men Condit has lost to in the past. Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler has already happened twice last year. On both occasions, the fight led to incredibly close and arguable decisions. Myself and the UFC fans were both in no rush to see this fight again so quickly. Plus, he is facing Tyron Woodley, a man who has been challenging him for months. Woodley does own a win over Condit, however, since winning that fight he lost to Rory MacDonald, who instead went on to fight for the title. Woodley has been vocal about wanting to fight for the title for a long time, but an impressive win over Hendricks really sends that message. For Hendricks, he hasn’t put together any of those impressive knockout wins that put him on the run toward contendership in a long time. In short, Hendricks vs. Woodley as a title eliminator fight is sound matchmaking right now.

When you look at Carlos Condit’s history, resume and style, he arguably poses one of the biggest threats to Lawler’s title reign. Since returning to the UFC and dropping back down to welterweight, Lawler’s majorly improved his grappling and takedown defense. That was long one of his Achilles’ heels in his time in Strikeforce. When he was put on his back, he looked absolutely loss and did not know what to do. Like Lawler, Condit is a fighter that matches up very well with Lawler standing up. His UFC run includes knockout wins over perennial top 10 fighters such as Thiago Alves, Martin Kampann, Dong Hyun Kim, Dan Hardy and Rory MacDonald. Of that group, Hardy, Alves, and MacDonald all managed to compete for the UFC title, meaning Condit excels against elite level competition. With his history under the ZUFFA banner, Condit has 12 wins with 10 finishes, he’s held the WEC welterweight championship and is UFC interim welterweight title, and he’s fought for the UFC welterweight title once before against Georges St. Pierre. In short, Condit will most likely be the most decorated and battle-tested athlete Lawler faces in his entire UFC career.

I love this fight because both men have scary amounts of knockout power and can keep a very fast pace for five rounds easily. However, Condit can be technical if he needs to be. Against Nick Diaz, he arguably fought the smarter fight by not standing in front of Diaz and getting into a brawl. What impressed me with Condit’s performance in that fight is that he routinely frustrated Diaz by not doing what a lot of Diaz’s opponents tend to usually do, which would get them into trouble and cause them to lose. In addition, both men have lethal kicks. Condit came up short against GSP, but he gave Rush one of his toughest fights and came very close to stopping GSP with a nasty head kick. With that head kick, Condit became only the second man to ever knock down GSP in his UFC career (second to only Matt Serra when he defeated GSP by knockout to win the title in one of the biggest upsets of all time).

For Condit, a win here cements his greatness and career becoming a welterweight champ with two different promotions under the ZUFFA banner. While he held the interim title, that happened more out of the circumstance that GSP was injured, and it really only made him a de-facto contender to GSP’s title. He never had to defend that interim title. For Lawler, he beats one of the most respected and decorated welterweight contenders ever and quite possibly vanquishes the greatest threat to his welterweight title at the moment. Of the top 5 contenders in the UFC welterweight division, Lawler holds wins over all of them except Condit and Woodley right now. Condit is the only serious threat in the top 5 that I see for Lawler’s title right now. That is why I cannot wait for this fight.