Despite not seeing the finish he expected in the main event at UFC on Fox 12, UFC president Dana White seemed perfectly comfortable admitting that Matt Brown and Robbie Lawler still earned every cent of their "Fight of the Night" bonuses.
I'm taking off my dress shoes and putting on my Adidas and getting ready to walk back to Vegas! I didn't see that coming!!!
— Dana White (@danawhite) July 27, 2014
White couldn't help but revel in watching Brown and Lawler duke it out for the better part of five rounds with a shot at welterweight champ Johny Hendricks on the line.
Statistically speaking, Brown edged Lawler in the striking department, landing 89 total strikes to Lawler's 87, including 82-80 in the significant strikes category.
Lawler scored on each of his two takedown attempts and notched two guard passes. Brown got stuffed on six of his eight shots and didn't muster a pass.
Lawler did just enough to sweep the judges' scorecards, 49-46, 49-46, 48-47, prevailing for the fifth time in his last six fights.
In a post-fight interview with Fox's Ariel Helwani, White explained Lawler's future and the welterweight title picture.
The thing is, Robbie Lawler has been an absolute stud for us. (He's) stepped up (and) kept taking fights. This is the third fight in four months or something like that, and now he's going to have some time off. Time to relax (and) time to focus and just think about Johny Hendricks, and if I was Johny Hendricks, I wouldn't want to be fighting Robbie Lawler coming off a big layoff.
The loss snapped an impressive seven-fight winning streak that Brown began at UFC 143 with a TKO of Chris Cope. During his streak, Brown won by form of KO in every fight but one, his unanimous decision win over Stephen Thompson at UFC 145 a victory he notched just two-and-a-half months after besting Cope.
Lawler's lone loss in his second stint with the UFC came against Hendricks in a unanimous decision at UFC 171.
All stats gathered via Fightmetric.com.
