Robbie Lawler vs. Tyron Woodley Potentially Headed For UFC 201 Main Event
It appears that welterweight champion Robbie Lawler will be headed for a title tilt with top contender Tyron Woodley in the main event of July 30’s UFC 201 pay-per-view (PPV) as was previously rumored.
Updating a prior statement from UFC President Dana White that said Lawler would ‘probably’ defend his title against Woodley at either UFC 201 or 202, who has been out of action since a closely-contested decision win over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 183 in January 2015, word came on Wednesday’s (May 4, 2016) edition of UFC Tonight that “Ruthless” will potentially headline 201.
Fan favorite slugger Lawler has won five straight bouts in the UFC, including back-to-back “Fight of the Year” candidates against Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit at UFC 189 and UFC 195, respectively, improving his record to an impressive 8-1 since he returned to the promotion in early 2013. Before moving down to welterweight, Lawler had lost five out of eight bouts fighting some of the top middleweight talent on the planet in Strikeforce.
Woodley, meanwhile, was supposed to face former champion and Lawler rival Johny Hendricks in the co-main event of UFC 192, but “Bigg Rigg” was forced out of the bout the day of weigh-ins due to complications with his highly-publicized and drastic weight cut. “The Chosen One” has won four out of his last five UFC matches, with the one defeat in that span an extremely lopsided decision loss to MacDonald at UFC 174.
White promised Woodley a title shot for the strange circumstances, and it looks like he’ll deliver on that promise if “Ruthess” vs. “The Chosen One” does indeed became UFC 201’s headliner.
