Lawler: Loose, fun, and almost goofy
Robbie Lawler has a reputation for being fearsome inside the Octagon, and indifferent in front of media. He didn’t even have a nickname until Dana White suggested one.
“Ruthless” Robbie Lawler has a reputation for being fearsome inside the Octagon, and indifferent in front of media. He didn’t even have a nickname; UFC president Dana White suggested it, and he said “sure.”
The combination has led to the impression that Lawler is a forbidding human being. Try Google imaging – Robbie Lawler smiling.
However, Elias Cepeda, who both fights and writes for FOX Sports, spent some time with Lawler in the gym behind closed doors, and opens a window on the real man.
We asked him if his fight week training has always been like this – loose, fun, and almost goofy, despite the hard work of weight-cutting and mind-racking stress of an impending battle. It has.
“It’s always been like this,” he insisted.
“Back with Team Miletich, Matt Hughes was always joking and messing around. I started training when I was 15 and then went pro when I was 18, so I was with those guys for so long – since I was a kid.”
As far as Lawler showing much more emotion with teammates than he does in public, he points out that it’s only natural to have more openness with friends than with strangers. After all, what is the benefit to letting the world, including your opponent, get insight into your mind’s inner workings?
“It’s a public-private thing,” he explained.
“I appreciate my fans a lot, and I’m enjoying the process of all this more, but I may not want everyone to see me or know me in those moments. Some things are just for your family, your teammates, your friends.”
Goofiness seems to help him ease the building tension, before a fight.
Now, after his final workouts among friends, and after the public intensity of weigh-ins, only waiting remains before Lawler can return to another familiar place, where he feels comfortable expressing himself freely and completely. That place is the UFC’s caged ring, and there’s little doubt that there, the ruthless one will be as quick with punches as he was with a smile and joke just two days prior.
UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler fights Rory MacDonald in the co-main event of UFC 189, tonight!