Robbie Lawler On Tyron Woodley: ‘He’s Part Of The Team, But He’s Not My Teammate’
Robbie Lawler appeared on the latest edition of the UFC Unfiltered podcast to discuss his upcoming fight against Tyron Woodley, a man who trained with the same camp, but “Ruthless” wanted one thing to be known.
“He’s not my teammate.”
Lawler, the welterweight champion, blossomed later in his career after having started martial arts as a kid.
A veteran from the early days of the UFC — first appearance was at 37 in 2002 — his early run was only average with him managing to escape with a 4-3 record.
During that time, he was knocked out once by Nick Diaz and submitted twice (Pete Spratt, Evan Tanner).
It wasn’t until EliteXC and Strikeforce that Robbie Lawler would start coming into his own. While there, he held the EliteXC Middleweight Championship and came close to capturing the same weight class’ belt at Strikeforce.
Lawler came back to the UFC at 157, scoring the Knockout of the Night over Josh Koscheck. His latest tenure has been mostly positive (8-1) and in his last three fights he has won and defended the welterweight crown.
RT if you’re w/ the champ @Ruthless_RL this Saturday, July 30 at #UFC201 LIVE on Pay-Per-View @MetroPCS pic.twitter.com/BKpOi6JD4D
— #UFC201 (@ufc) July 28, 2016
Of Tyron Woodley, who appeared on the podcast earlier this week, Robbie Lawler said he would be unaffected by the close proximity of his training. “I’m going out there and looking at him as just another opponent,” Lawler said when co-host Jim Norton asked if he would be affected by his link to Woodley.
He continued, “I’m just going to go out there and do my thing. It’s not a big deal to me. I’m going to go out there and be ruthless.”
While Robbie Lawler admitted that it would be nice to score a quick knockout, that’s unlikely to happen at UFC 201 considering his recent history — three of his last four fights have ended in decisions.
That said, Woodley’s fighting style is a bit more reckless, and Lawler is expecting him to “mix it up and shoot for takedowns.”
But back to the teammate comment. It was difficult for Norton and co-host Matt Serra, a former fighter himself, to get a read on Robbie Lawler’s attitude heading into the fight.
Some of his responses were snippy and “no-nonsense,” especially this response.
“He’s (Woodley) not really my teammate. He’s affiliated with the gym, but I worked out with him one day. He’s part of the team, but he’s not part of my team. The gym is huge, and he doesn’t even live there, so it’s not worth talking about.”
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In another part of the interview, Robbie Lawler insisted that he “sleeps fine” the week of the fight when asked if he gets nervous during the buildup.
Other parts of the interview were more at ease with Robbie Lawler discussing his early days as an MMA fighter, doing what he called “smokers,” or quick three-round boxing matches for little money.
But when Norton asked him if he did well, he slipped back into that cocky persona.
“Sure I did well. I’m one of the best fighters in the world right now,” he said. “I was beating people up and knocking people out even then.”
The champ, @Ruthless_RL is ready for #UFC201!???? pic.twitter.com/TSy9qc80az
— #UFC201 (@btsportufc) July 29, 2016
Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley square off in the main event at UFC 201 this Saturday (July 30). Will you be watching?
[Image via UFC]
