Tyron Woodley stuns Robbie Lawler to win UFC welterweight title

Tyron Woodley is the new UFC welterweight champion. (Getty Images)

 

Apparently the most difficult thing to do in the UFC in 2016 is for a champion to retain a title. Tyron Woodley clocked Robbie Lawler with a crushing right hand Saturday in the main event of Phillips Arena in Atlanta to win the welterweight title at UFC 201.

Woodley is the seventh person to win a full UFC belt in 2016, including bantamweight Dominick Cruz, women’s bantamweight Miesha Tate, heavyweight Stipe Miocic, middleweight Michael Bisping, lightweight Eddie Alvarez and women’s bantamweight Amanda Nunes.

In addition, light heavyweight Jon Jones and featherweight Jose Aldo won interim belts.
The only champions who entered 2016 with a belt who still have one now are light heavyweight Daniel Cormier, featherweight Conor McGregor, flyweight Demetrious Johnson and women’s strawweight Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Woodley threw a feint and then came with the overhand right. Lawler fell backward immediately. Woodley was in hot pursuit and landed five hard shots on the ground before referee Dan Miragliotta jumped in to stop it at 2:12 of the first.

A two-time All-America wrestler at Missouri, Woodley never bothered to attempt a takedown on Saturday.

“We just knew that Robbie would be well prepared for the takedown,” Woodley said. “We knew that he would be hitting me with knees and uppercuts and be aggressive in defending, so I used a little speed and a feint to close the gap.

“I caught him with the right hand. Something told me that right hand was going to be open and I went for it.”

Lawler entered on a huge roll, having won eight of his past nine and winning some of the most exciting fights of modern times.

But he never was able to get untracked on Saturday.

“It is what it is,” Lawler said. “He feinted me, my head went down and he threw a punch over the top and he caught me. I expected that kind of stuff, but I was sitting back a little too much, not moving, and he took advantage.”

On the undercard:

Karolina Kowalkiewicz appeared to earn a shot at Jedrzejczyk’s title by taking a split decision over Rose Namajunas. Scores were 29-28 twice for Kowalkiewicz and 29-28 for Namajunas.

Kowalkiewicz’s Muay Thai skills, particularly her knees to the body, appeared to be the difference. She did good work in the clinch and also landed several kicks that bothered Namajunas.

Though it wasn’t an official title eliminator, it seems almost certain that Kowalkiewicz’s win will set up an all-Polish bout for the title against Jedrzejczyk, her countryman and by far the dominant fighter in the division.

“I know Joanna,” Kowalkiewicz said. “I know her and I respect her very much. She’s the best in the world. But I want to fight the best and I will beat the best.”

Jake Ellenberger scored a massive upset in a welterweight bout, stopping Matt Brown with a kick to the liver just 1:46 into the fight. Ellenberger, who entered the fight having lost two in a row and five of six, decked Brown seconds into the fight with a perfectly placed right hand.

Brown survived that, but couldn’t survive the kick to the liver that crumpled him.

After a slow start, bantamweight Erik Perez rallied for a unanimous decision victory over Francisco Rivera. Judges had it 30-26, 29-28 and 30-26 for Perez.

The third round started with each man standing in front of the other and swinging wildly, for about 45 seconds, until a winded Rivera fell to his knees. It was all Perez from there.

“I got crazy in the third round,” Perez said. “Maybe I wanted a little extra bonus money. I want to have more exciting fights, I’m Mexican, we’re known for that in our boxing fights. Francisco Rivera has very powerful hands so I wanted to make sure to set the pace.”

In the pay-per-view opener, Ryan Benoit survived Fredy Serrano’s takedowns to score a split decision victory. Two judges had it 29-28 in favor of Benoit and the other had it 29-28 for Serrano.