Robbie Lawler Feels He Could’ve Beaten Johny Hendricks if He Had Just Punched More

Robbie Lawler wanted to finish Johny Hendricks at UFC 171, but he couldn’t quite get to that point.

The fighter commonly known as “Ruthless” wasn’t as merciless as he wanted to be, admitting at the post-fight press conference that he didn’t throw his punches in the volume he had hoped for.

“The thing is, when you leave it up to the judges, those things happen,” Lawler said of his unanimous-decision loss to Hendricks. “I just didn’t do enough tonight, they thought, and I need to go back to work, obviously work on some things. Maybe work on throwing some more punches.”

Lawler traded punches with Hendricks for 25 minutes, going the distance, and winning two out of five rounds before Hendricks was announced the winner. The third and fourth rounds were the ones where Lawler shined the most, rocking his opponent multiple times in the 10-minute stretch.

Although he lost the first two rounds on all the judges’ scorecards, Lawler kept the fight on the feet, stopping all takedown attempts by Hendricks in the first 10 minutes. His takedown defense was something that told Lawler he fought with a good game plan.

“I thought I fought a pretty good fight, defended some takedowns,” he said. “It was a helluva fight and he brought it and he was in shape and he got the victory.”

But it wasn’t enough, Lawler explained. If he had just thrown more of what he’s used to throwing, things might have ended up differently on Saturday night in Dallas. And maybe he could have gotten the finish if he just raised the volume of strikes he was sending Hendricks’ way.

But a loss is a loss and it’s back to the drawing board, Lawler said.

“I should have done more in the fight, thrown more punches, thrown more kicks, and took him out,” he said. “I didn’t do it tonight and he fought a helluva fight.

“I wanted to stop him. I was looking to finish and I didn’t.”