Robbie Lawler Reacts To Controversial UFC 235 Submission Loss

Ben Askren won his UFC debut against former UFC titleholder Robbie Lawler on the main card of last night’s (Sat., March 2, 2019) UFC 235 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, it wasn’t without a ton of controversy because of longtime ref Herb Dean. It’s time Lawler reacts to the controversy of his loss.

“Ruthless” came out and dropped Askren on his head early on. He poured on a ruthless assault on the ground and it looked like “Funky’s” night was bound to a be a short one. Yet Dean let him continue and he bounced back with incredible quickness. From there, Askren used his smothering grappling as expected.

He locked on a bulldog choke. It was tight to the point it appeared Lawler’s arm went limp. Dean came in to call off the fight. “Ruthless” jumped to his feet immediately, protesting the stoppage with Dean. Upon slow-motion review, it appeared Lawler may not have been out. Social media was on fire throughout the entire sport.

‘Ruthless’ Sounds Off

Lawler spoke up about the stoppage at the post-fight presser via MMAjunkie, noting that he respected Dean but he had made a mistake:

“Sh** happens in there sometimes. Sometimes there’s mistakes being made. Herb checked on me, and when he checked on me, I gave the thumbs up, and he came in there.

“I couldn’t hear him talking because how the choke was on. I’m not going to just dangle a hand there, so I just put it down, and then when he checked, I gave him the thumbs up. Looked right at him and I was like, ‘Hey man, f***. I’m good. It happens. He’s a hell of a ref. He just made a mistake.”

Even though he looked like he had the fight early, Lawler was all class. He didn’t want to make excuses. But he still wanted a rematch with “Funky”:

“I just kind of roll with the punches and try to be positive about the situation,” he said. “I’d like to run it back. I just don’t like making excuses.”

“Ruthless” was asked if he would file an appeal of the loss. He said that wasn’t really his thing and he had people who handled it:

“It’s not really my thing, I have handlers who do that (expletive) for me,” he said. “People make mistakes, and I’m not one to whine about s***.”