Does Robbie Lawler Train For Fights Without Sparring?

Jon Koppenhaver, better known as ‘War Machine’ was on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast (episode #454) recently, and as always when he has a fighter on the show; you’re bound to gain a few new insights into the fight game. A major revelation came when the conversation turned to current UFC welterweight title challenger Robbie Lawler. Lawler was the wrestling coach for Matt Hughes on season six of The Ultimate Fighter that featured ‘War Machine’, and Koppenhaver recounts an exchange they had on the show:

“Baroni would always tell me that Lawler doesn’t spar. I’m like yeah right dude, Lawler, that’s probably all he does is spar, he’s a striker. So I asked him on the show, ‘hey do you spar?’ He’s like, ‘no why would I spar? I know how to fight.’”

Through Twitter, 19-4 former UFC light heavyweight Mike Ciesnolevicz (@Mike Cies) who trained extensively with Lawler also stated Ruthless wasn’t a fan of sparring tweeting:

“@joerogan I was at MFS 2003-2009 and can count on one hand # of times he sparred. He evolved alot at ATT, maybe he added sparring, no clue.”

While Lawler has yet to be questioned whether or not he has reversed this policy (or if it is in fact true), by the end of 2009 Ruthless had amassed a 16-5 record and was the Elite XC MW champion all apparently with almost no sparring. That raises an interesting question to how most fighters are approaching their training camps. How much does sparring truly benefit ones timing if a fighter is able to reach an elite level without it?

Koppenhaver suggested Lawler may have a point and that sparring is only critical in the early stages of one’s career. ‘Once they reach an elite level it loses much of its benefits’. Joe Rogan emphasized the physical benefit from the lack of damage one would take in training camps. Obviously choosing not to spar is a smarter long term health decision but is it the smartest career move?

My personal take is that this may work for a guy who fights like Robbie Lawler but not for everyone. Lawler is a brawler. He shows up to fight not to win a match and as he reportedly said, already knows how to do that. For a technical point styled fighter such as Lyoto Machida this would be problematic as timing is far more critical when you’re less willing to take shot to land a bigger one. If you’re willing to throw caution to the wind and get into a dog fight it seems possible that doing so at full strength could out way the benefits gained from sparring.

What do you think, could we really have a UFC title challenger who doesn’t believe in sparring?