Two days after his hard-fought victory over now former champion Johny Hendricks, Robbie Lawler is already looking at the near foreseeable future.
Lawler and Hendricks treated all mixed martial arts fans around the world to a sensational dogfight on Saturday night. Pretty much like how they fought during their first encounter at UFC 171 in March, "Ruthless" and "Bigg Rigg" banged it out for the entire 25 minutes of action, leaving everything behind in the Octagon.
Both known as heavy-handed fighters, during the both times that Lawler and Hendricks squared off against each other, the fight remained standing up for the most part. Hard shots were thrown and were landing, but neither man went down. During the first fight, Hendricks managed to pull out all the stops to grab the then vacant belt, albeit fighting with an injured bicep.
Saturday night featured the same intensity and fireworks. This time, Hendricks was mixing up his shots, throwing leg kicks from time to time, hoping to hinder Lawler's movement. His intensity, however, dropped a few notches lower during the championship rounds, in which Lawler capitalized on. Rightfully, the nod off the split decision verdict was given to him.
Given that the scorecards once again featured a razor thin difference, it was not long before a potential third fight between Lawler and Hendricks was brought up. For the newly crowned champion, a third fight would be more than welcome.
"Johny is a hell of a fighter, a hell of a competitor, and I look forward to meeting him again," Hendricks said in an interview with Sherdog.com's Beatdown Radio. "Now that we have each won one apiece -- and they were close fights -- I think we need to figure this one out."
Lawler seemed to have forgotten one little detail: another top contender Rory MacDonald was guaranteed a title shot after his dominant win over Tarec Saffiedine in October. Technically, "Red King" is now the next in line.
But when asked about the possibility of facing the protégé of former long-time champion Georges St-Pierre, Lawler had this to say.
"If the bosses think [fighting MacDonald] makes sense and that's the fight everyone wants to see I'm sure they will make it happen, but I'm just relaxing right now. I'm not even thinking about that."
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