UFC 181: Hendricks vs Lawler 2 live blog, round-by-round updates

Roar Guru

6th December, 2014

Date: 7th December 2014
Time: (All times in AEDT) 11:00am FIGHT PASS Prelims 12:00pm, Under-card on FOX SPORTS, 14:00pm Main card on Pay-Per-View
Venue: Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

SCHEDULED BOUTS:
FIGHT PASS Prelims (3x 5 minute rounds):
Featherweight: Alex 'The Spartan' White (10-1) vs Clay 'Cassius' Collard (13-5)
Bantamweight: Sergio 'The Phenom' Pettis (11-1) vs Matt 'The Crowbar' Hobar (9-2)

FOX SPORTS Card (3x 5 minute rounds):
Women's Bantamweight: Raquel 'Rocky' Pennington (4-5) vs Ashlee Evans-Smith (3-0)
Light Heavyweight: Corey 'Beastin 25/8' Anderson (5-0) vs Justin 'Lazybones' Jones (3-0)
Middleweight: Eddie 'Truck' Gordon (8-1) vs Josh Samman (10-3)
Bantamweight: Urijah 'The California Kid' Faber (31-7) vs Francisco 'Cisco' Rivera (10-3)

MAIN CARD (3x 5 minute rounds, co-main and main events 5x 5 minute rounds)
Lightweight: Tony 'El Cucuy' Ferguson (17-3) vs Abel 'Killa' Trujillo (12-5)
Heavyweight: Todd Duffee (8-2) vs Anthony 'Freight Train' Hamilton (13-3)
Heavyweight: Travis 'Hapa' Browne (16-2-1) vs Brendan 'Big Brown' Schaub (11-4)
CO-MAIN EVENT- Lightweight championship bout: Anthony 'Showtime' Pettis (17-2) vs Gilbert 'El Nino' Melendez (22-3)
MAIN EVENT- Welterweight championship bout: Johny 'Bigg Rigg' Hendricks (16-2) vs 'Ruthless' Robbie Lawler (24-10)

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Hendricks and Lawler size each other up before UFC 181. (Photo: UFC)

Isaac Nowroozi

Roar Guru

6th December, 2014

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UFC 181: Hendricks vs Lawler 2, sees two titles go on the line, the co-main event sees Lightweight champion Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis (17-2) take on Gilbert ‘El Nino’ Melendez (22-3) in a highly anticipated match-up between two Ultimate Fighter coaches. Join The Roar for live coverage of UFC 181 from 11:00am (AEDT).

The main event today will be a rematch of the Welterweight title fight at UFC 171, where Johny ‘Bigg Rigg’ Hendricks (16-2) defeated ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler (24-10) in a close decision in what was a highly competitive contest.

We last saw Hendricks winning the vacant belt over Robbie Lawler at UFC 171 earlier this year, but the champion has been out of action ever since nursing a hand injury.

Since being disappointing at UFC 171, ‘Ruthless’ Robbie has been on a tear with dominant victories over Jake ‘The Juggernaut’ Ellenberger (29-9) and Matt ‘The Immortal’ Brown (19-2). UFC veteran Lawler believes he will add Hendricks to that streak, and earn himself the Welterweight belt.

Known widely as the flashiest fighter in the UFC, and the main responsible for the ‘Showtime kick’, Anthony Pettis won the belt last year in a first round submission win over the dominant champion Benson ‘Smooth’ Henderson (21-4).

His opponent Gilbert Melendez bounced back from a tough split decision loss against then-champion Benson Henderson with a incredible victory over Diego ‘The Dream’ Sanchez (25-7), the UFC 166 bout was dubbed as one of the greatest fights in mixed martial arts history.

Melendez believes believes he should already be holding the belt.

“I think I’m the uncrowned champ, and I’m coming for that belt” he told Joe Rogan at his UFC 166 post fight interview.

Pettis says he has the ability to finish Melendez in the first round, and that we are going to see the best he has ever been.

This card has all the ingredients to be one of the greatest in UFC history. With exciting fighters and lots of knock-out power throughout the card, there will be fireworks for sure.

Join The Roar from 11:00 AEDT for live commentary and round-by-round updates of all the action.

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