Lawler retains title in knockdown, drag-out battle with Condit

Robbie Lawler, left, held up the hands of Carlos Condit after their MMA match in Las Vegas.

WHAT is it about two men beating each other bloody that others see poetry and beauty. Living up to its advance publicity, Robbie Lawler kept his welterweight title crown by beating Carlos Condit in a split decision yesterday (Jan. 2, 2016) in UFC 195 held in Las Vegas.

For the second time in his one-year reign as the welterweight champion in the UFC, the Filipino/American mixed martial arts fighter was part of the "fight of the year." 

Last year, Lawler's defense of his crown vs. Rory MacDonald was judged to be one of the best fights of all time, certainly a lock for Fight of the Year.

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Two days into 2016 and he could very well have been in this year's Fight of the Year.

He needed all five rounds to finally beat his challenger, a game and aggressive Condit. Condit gave Lawler all that he could, delivering more strikes and even winning the favor of two of the three judges. But Lawler's connected more power punches that seemed to hurt Condit. The third judge gave Lawler the nod, depriving Condit of an upset.

The match inspired Bleacher Report's Jeremy Botter to write: 

Every so often, when we are very lucky and when the gods and goddesses who created fighting decide we all need a little bit of light in our lives, they send us something that warms our hardened hearts and reminds us why we fell in love with the mixing of martial arts in the first place.

In 2015, those moments came along more than we probably deserved. They came in the form of ... Rory MacDonald vs. Robbie Lawler, the fight that changed two men permanently over the course of 25 minutes in Las Vegas. And for having witnessed it, we were all changed, some for the better and some for the worse. 

Those gods and goddesses, despite working overtime last year, decided to kick off the year of our Lord 2016 by sending us another gift. This time, it was in the form of Lawler, the incredibly regenerated man, stepping back in the Octagon with Carlos Condit.

Read more about the UFC 195 match between Lawler and Condit. 

After the fight, Lawler praised his opponent and said, "There were no losers tonight ... let's do it again!"