UFC 195 Lawler vs Condit

The main event and Miocic vs Arlovski aside not much to get excited about on this card. The main event should be a decent fight, both fighters are stand up fighters with Lawler having the edge in strength and the wrestling background whilst i think Condit has the better skill set. How does this pan out? For me I think Lawler has to go out and dominate, out muscle and hurt Condit early otherwise I can see Condit out striking him, hitting and moving, in and out landing combinations to a points win. Condit is a very durable fighter who can fight at tempo for five rounds, Lawler who is also durable can seem to let fighters back in after having good opening 2 rounds, both the Rory Mac fights, even though he won them, come to mind. Lawler by stoppage Condit points. Thoughts?

I was on holiday so I missed this. Fight of the year decided already though?

Pr4wn wrote:I was on holiday so I missed this. Fight of the year decided already though?

Hahahaha bit early for that! But it was a very good fight, Lawler down in the 1st Condit down in the 2nd. An evenly matched fight, power vs workrate, both fighters hurting the other but Lawler landed the bigger punches which basically gave him the nod. The only contentious round was round 3, lawler landed a couple of really hard shots but it was Condit that controlled the round and landed 3 times the amount of punches, kicks and knees, two judges awarded it to Lawler the other to Condit. Round 5 was probably the best round, first 3 minutes all condit then Lawler exploded landing huge punches which had Condit almost out on his feet how he kept standing I don't know. The fight to some extent panned out as I expected with Lawler seeming to run out of ideas, getting outworked and relying on his power but in the end it paid off and fair play to the guy, showed the heart & will of a champion. I think Condit outlanded him close to 3 to 1 definitely going in to the 5th round. Some talk of a possible rematch, Lawler i think mentioned about it being a fight for the fans but Condit may well retire now.

I've watched it, why on earth didn't Lawler even attempt one takedown? Condit is massively vulnerable there.

[quote="Pr4wn"]I've watched it, why on earth didn't Lawler even attempt one takedown? Condit is massively vulnerable there.[/quote]

I disagree with you there, Condit is good defensively & offensively on the ground, he has decent juijitsu and is rarely in any real trouble on the ground, we hear this constantly from the various commentators as well as seeing this. maybe this was why Lawler didn't want to take it to the ground? One time Lawler was on top he stood the fight up. In fact Condit i think went for more takedowns than lawler.

Lawler is basically a stand up fighter with a wrestling background who has power. In some respects I see him as a little one dimensional albiet a very good one dimensional. Condit for me has a better skill set.

What did you think of the decision? How did you score round 3?

I didn't mean Condit was vulnerable on the ground, he's VERY vulnerable to the takedown and that would have been easy points for Lawler when he needed them.

I can see why Condit felt aggrieved at the result but, in my opinion, to be the best you have to beat the best. A tight decision should always go the way of the champ. See Gusto vs Jones.

Yeah you'd think so, definitely points wise it would've made sense but as i said before Lawler prefers to fight standing, he's very confident in his striking & power but not really the best tactics to employ against a high level striker like Condit who also has great durability & conditioning.

I have no problem with the decision nor would I have if it had gone the other way. All 3 judges had it 1 & 4 Condit 2 & 5 Lawler as did I, it was only 3 that was difficult to score, strikes landed vs damaging strikes. Maybe a draw would've been the fairest result.

Gus vs Jones was very similar, again workrate/strikes landed vs damage done. I did feel Gus was harder done by than Condit, but its like people have said before, when a challenger does much better than expected we seem to reward them higher than we really should. I've not watched that fight a 2nd time, maybe if I did I'd see it differently.