Yesterday brought with it a very exciting announcement for fans of “action fights,” as Dana White tweeted out that Robbie Lawler would face Matt Brown in the main event of UFC on Fox 12. Shortly after, White tweeted that the bout would serve as a number one contender fight for the UFC welterweight title, currently held by Johny Hendricks.
Dana White was featured in a UFC.com column called “The Download”where he explained the reasoning behind the #1 contender status:
“We got Robbie Lawler who just came off a controversial loss to the champion, and number one (Lawler) is facing number five (Brown),” White said. “Robbie just beat the number five and number six guys in his wins, right? And he was in a controversial fight with the champ, so he deserves this fight. If Matt Brown beats Robbie Lawler then he just beat the number one contender and he gets the fight.”
The knock against Brown as title challenger has always been that he lacks “the big win” needed to fight for the strap. A win over Lawler certainly would cure that as Lawler has truly made himself into an absolute championship level fighter.
For Lawler, a win here (where he should enter as a favorite) gets him another crack against Hendricks, a man he was minutes away from defeating in their first meeting.