Behind closed doors, another side of UFC champion 'Ruthless' Robbie Lawler on display
Few fighters lighter than heavyweight cast the type of fearsome visage that UFC welterweight Robbie Lawler does. After nearly 15 years of a devastatingly violent fight career, the 33 year-old's name conjurs up the same images over and over.
On the one hand, there's the familiar image of Lawler raging inside the ring, attacking opponents with heavy strikes, and then screaming in victorious celebration over their prone bodies. On the other, there's the image of a typically emotionless Lawler, bored, guarded, or both, going through the motions when it comes to press conferences and the like.
Though Lawler has become much more lively during these types of stiff media engagements in recent years, the stereotype of Robbie as either "Ruthless" in the cage, or listless and monotone outside of it, persists.
Even with the stress of a nearing fight, and the physical pain of an even sooner weigh-in, that wasn't the Robbie Lawler we observed late Thursday night in the bowels of the MGM Grand Garden Arena as he broke a sweat with American Top Team teammates and coaches. Lawler entered the practice room silently, and then put red ear buds in and began to stretch out.
Sitting alongside the room's walls were his teammates and coaches. Lawler appeared first to have them all cut out, mentally, with the assistance of his earphones.
The champion looked every bit the stoic as he began to bounce around the black mats, dressed in custom black Adidas gear. UFC 189 headliner Chad Mendes likes to think of himself as the Mike Tyson of the UFC, but Lawler looked the part in all-black as he got one of his final workouts in before having to defend his title against Rory MacDonald, Saturday night, in the same arena - just a few hundred feet away from where he moved on Thursday.
Lawler's black Adidas wrestling shoes twisted and turned as he pivoted to shadow box and shuffle. Above, a black pair of sweatpants, and black hoodie.
Underneath all that, a set of black "plastics" meant to accelerate Lawler's sweating and help him continue to drop water weight for Friday's weigh-ins. Lawler switched from shadowboxing to jogging around the black mats while teammate Muhammed Lawal employed a gym trick of guessing others' weights by lifting and dropping one of their arms from their shoulders to their legs.
The nearby scale verified or disputed Lawal's estimates. He apparently missed coach Conan Silveira's weight, but accurately guessed former NCAA Division I wrestling national champion Steve Mocco's weight, and others', within a few pounds.
As his ATT teammates roared with laughter, and teasing, Lawler smiled, then pulled out an ear bud, and began to chat them up as he jogged. A coach plugged in, then flipped on a speaker and Gangstarr's rap classic, "Above the clouds" began to fill the room.
Lawler continued to jog, pulled out the remaining ear bud and began to sing along to the song's apt lyrics. "Therefore as we set sail, we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked," the sampled intro quoted President John F. Kennedy, preaching about a literal quest to reach the moon."
Lawler shuffled another lap around the mats.
"Unto the earth from the sun through triple darkness to blast ya - With a force that can't be compared - To any firepower...Infinite skills create miracles."
Lawler stopped jogging to do crunches, some dynamic stretching, and sprawl drills. The work wasn't high-paced, but rather constant - likely with the intent of simply keeping the champion's body loose, and producing sweat as a part of the all-important weight-cutting fight that always precedes the televised fight.
After creating and sustaining a steady sweat, Lawler, kept his plastics, sweat shirt, sweatpants, and glossy black wrestling shoes on. So, the heat he'd just created, stayed on his body, and he kept cooking, sweating, losing weight, even as he sat with his back against a wall and his legs extended and feet crossed.
Lawler watched with great amusement and more than occasional pot-stirring, as Lawal and another teammate go from technique work to pretty heated submission grappling sparring. Robbie smiled and laughed through it all, while watching intently.
The banter was free, fun and constant. And, it included Lawler smiling to a degree that outsiders may be surprised to have seen.
Certainly, Lawler's intense all-business promises of violence the next day at the UFC 189 weigh-ins ("I'm going to knock this guy out!") were a contrast to this scene. If outsiders don't ever get to know every bit of Robbie Lawler, he's perfectly fine with that.
We asked him if his fight week training has always been like this - loose, fun, and almost goofy, despite the hard work of weight-cutting and mind-racking stress of an impending battle. It has.
"It's always been like this," he insisted.
"Back with Team Miletich, Matt Hughes was always joking and messing around. I started training when I was 15 and then went pro when I was 18, so I was with those guys for so long - since I was a kid."
As far as Lawler showing much more emotion with teammates than he does in public, he points out that it's only natural to have more openness with friends than with strangers. After all, what is the benefit to letting the world, including your opponent, get insight into your mind's inner workings?
"It's a public-private thing," he explained.
"I appreciate my fans a lot, and I'm enjoying the process of all this more, but I may not want everyone to see me or know me in those moments. Some things are just for your family, your teammates, your friends."
Lawler learned how to get through a training camp and fight camp, early, at Miletich. Goofiness seems to help him ease the building tension, before a fight.
It didn't take long for Lawler to find the same type of comfort with American Top Team - that they were his friends - after he moved there, however. "Not long," he said.
"There's a great group of guys here at ATT. They welcomed me in right away."
Now, after his final workouts among friends, and after the public intensity of weigh-ins, only waiting remains before Lawler can return to another familiar place, where he feels comfortable expressing himself freely and completely. That place is the UFC's caged ring, and there's little doubt that there, the ruthless one will be as quick with punches as he was with a smile and joke just two days prior.
In public UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler can seem quiet and closed off, but in private, among teammates, "Ruthless" is lively, talkative and easy with a smile or booming laugh
Robbie Lawler (R) switches gear from friendly to fearsome once he steps into the cage.
