Lawlor: Fighters need to borrow from pro wrestling
‘Filthy’ Tom Lawlor argues intelligently that mixed martial arts has a lot to learn from pro wrestling, and that some fighters like Chael Sonnen and Conor McGregor get it.
“Filthy Tom Lawlor returns to the Octagon at UFC on FOX 16 on Saturday, after nearly two years. Lawlor will fight Gian Villante at light heavyweight, a division up from where he last fought.
Roxanne Modafferi recently caught him with ‘Filthy’ for MMASucka. Lawlor has been vocal in voicing criticism of some aspects of the Reebok Deal, but was pleasantly surprised when within 48 hours they corrected his name on the jersey from Thomas Lawlor to Filthy Tom Lawlor. And he said the compensation tiers are more complex than simply good or bad – there are cases where it would have been good for him, and some where it probably is not.
Lawlor is known for bringing a pro wrestling flair to the cage, most notably in his epic, epic, epic walkouts.
‘Filthy’ argues intelligently that MMA needs more of it.
According to him, Pro Wrestling is the next evolution of MMA.
There’ve been people who’ve straight up stolen personas. Like Chael Sonnen kind of patterned himself after a guy called Super Star Billy Graham, who was a big time pro wrestler back in the 70’s. Conor McGregor I think stole Ric Flair’s braggadocios fancy persona. As far as interview styles go, people can definitely learn a lot from pro wrestling.
Success for a fighter is to not only win, but be remembered and talked about after the fight. Many fighters just thank their coaches, fans, and deity and that’s the end.
A month ago Ben Rothwell had a big win. He got on the mic and I forgot what he said but he had some demonic laugh. For a couple of days afterwards, even if people were making fun of it, they were still talking about it. Even if you’re not going to use a different persona or display yourself with a character, you gotta have something that you’re planning to say.
Pro wrestling is something he wants to get more involved with in the future. He has worked with Ring of Honor and a tag team called Red Dragon that uses lots of mixed martial arts moves.
Eventually it’ll get to a point where no matter how much I love it, my body’s not going to be able to take fighting anymore at the level I want. Then I’ll step away a little bit, continue to train, and see if I can get back into to pro wrestling and make some money.
Filthy was adamant that at $95, the Reebok jerseys were too expensive. The price has dropped to $79.
Check out Filthy’s podcasts:
The FRB Show… (Co-host with Front Row Brian)
Figure Four Online… (Every Monday)
