It’s the holiday season, and with the new year quickly approaching, Combat Press is taking a look back at the best of 2014. Throughout the week, Combat Press will announce its award winners in 16 different categories, covering everything from the action in the cage to the biggest stories surrounding the sport.
Fight of the Year – Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler I (UFC 171)
From 2008 through 2013, the UFC’s welterweight division was dominated by a single fighter. Sure, the 170-pound weight class has long been chock-full of extremely talented mixed martial artists, but for more than five years no one could seem to figure out how to get past Georges St-Pierre. Fans repeatedly saw St-Pierre nullify many an elite striker’s dangerous offense by quickly taking them to the mat and beating them up over the course of their fights. GSP enjoyed similar success even when facing wrestlers of a similar caliber to his own, out-pacing and out-maneuvering all of them to maintain superior positions both in the Octagon and in the rankings. Like Anderson Silva during his middleweight reign of terror and Jon Jones in his current light heavyweight title run, it seemed like Georges St-Pierre would sit atop the welterweight division for as long as he wanted.
That well of desire for championship competition had apparently run dry for GSP following his ninth straight successful title defense, however, and the all-time great announced last December that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from fighting. While this did leave the UFC without one of its biggest stars, St-Pierre’s announcement (and subsequent title abdication) did blow the doors wide open for a new welterweight contender to step forth.
Enter: Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler.
For quite a while, Hendricks had been considered one of the best welterweights in the sport, compiling a 10-1 UFC record before earning a fight with and losing a razor-thin decision to St-Pierre in the former champion’s last fight. Many observers actually scored the fight for Hendricks — a fact that surely assisted Hendricks’s continued title prospects after GSP’s departure — and his place in the fight to crown a new welterweight king seemed like a no-brainer. Across the cage from Hendricks would stand Lawler, a man who rebounded marvelously from a 3-5 record in Strikeforce by winning his first three fights after returning to the Octagon. The bout that earned him the shot at the belt was a split-decision win over well-regarded contender Rory MacDonald, which was a victory for Lawler that few expected.
Hendricks and Lawler would square off in March at UFC 171, and boy did they put on a performance that lived up to the importance of the fight. Hendricks took the first two rounds by threatening Lawler with creative striking combinations and more effectively controlling the cage, though Lawler was repeatedly able to defend Hendricks’s takedown attempts. Lawler then captured the momentum over rounds three and four, finding a home for his punches and successfully avoiding taking additional damage from Hendricks. After four frames, many correctly thought that the first welterweight title fight in more than six years not to include Georges St-Pierre would come down to the final round, and it would not be until the final minute that the fight would have its decisive moment.
Hendricks again maneuvered for takedowns during the fifth stanza, but Lawler was again able to stay standing and continued to engage Hendricks with strikes. With just moments left in the contest, Hendricks would seal it by finally dragging Lawler to the mat, where the two would remain for the fight’s final seconds. Absent many other differentiating factors in the round, the judges gave the final frame to Hendricks, earning him a unanimous decision victory by a slim 48-47 margin.
Of course, the epilogue to this fantastic story involves Lawler winning his next two fights before again facing Hendricks in a title rematch. Lawler would prevail in his second championship attempt, defeating Hendricks by decision at UFC 181 earlier this month, but the first explosive showdown between these two elite welterweights was our favorite fight of 2014.
Other Finalists: Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida (UFC 175), Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva (UFC Fight Night 40)
Make sure you check out the rest of the Combat Press 2014 MMA Award winners.