Robbie Lawler’s career resurgence and memorable run as UFC welterweight champion coincided with his years training at American Top Team in Florida. Now several months removed from losing his title to Tyron Woodley, Lawler’s days at ATT are now over.
Following reports from ENT Imports and Jason Coles, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani confirmed on Wednesday that Lawler has indeed left the Coconut Creek-based gym. The 34-year-old has yet to release any statement on his departure.
Lawler joined American Top Team in 2012 following a loss to Lorenz Larkin in his final Strikeforce fight. The 34-year-old had previously trained for more than a decade with Miletich Fighting Systems, where he began his MMA career. The move to ATT paid massive dividends for Lawler, whose results under the Strikeforce banner were an uninspiring 3-5. Lawler dropped back down to welterweight and embarked on an incredible run towards the UFC title, which he narrowly lost in his first meeting with Johny Hendricks in March 2014. Following two impressive wins over Jake Ellenberger and Matt Brown, Lawler captured UFC gold with a split decision nod over Hendricks later that December, marking ATT’s first ever UFC champion. He would successfully defend the belt twice with dramatic wins over Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit, before the aforementioned KO loss to Tyron Woodley at UFC 201.
As of this writing, Lawler does not have a fight booked, but he did withdraw from a UFC 205 contest vs. Donald Cerrone, citing more time to recover from only the 2nd knockout loss of his career. Whenever his next fight does happen, we know his training camp will be conducted at a different gym.
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