UFC 181: Hendricks vs. Lawler II took place on December 6, 2014 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In the final pay-per-view of the year, Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler would main event the card in what was their second fight against each other this year. The co-main event pitted the returning UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis against the former WEC and Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez.
Check out our biggest winners and losers from UFC 181 below.
Winners:
(Esther Lin/MMA Fighting)
Robbie Lawler:
Robbie Lawler came into his rematch with UFC Welterweight Champion Johny Hendricks on two huge victories against Jake Ellenberger and Matt Brown. In the time that Lawler was picking up two victories, Hendricks was rehabbing a torn bicep. In another back-and-forth fight, Lawler was able to pull off the split-decision victory. Lawler was just the more active fighter in the latter rounds and was able to capture his first UFC Championship 12 years after his UFC debut all the way back in 2002. Since dropping back down to welterweight, ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler has seen a huge resurgence in his career. No one would ever believe that Robbie Lawler would be the fighter of the year in 2014, but that may very well be the case.
(Esther Lin/MMA Fighting)
Anthony Pettis:
Anthony Pettis made his UFC return at UFC 181 as he defended his UFC Lightweight Championship against Gilbert ‘El Niño’ Melendez. Pettis was sidelined for over a year and had not fought since he won the championship against Benson Henderson back in August of 2013. ‘Showtime’ has taking a bunch of criticism for his inability to stay healthy, but he once again proved that he is the best lightweight on the planet. After having a tough first round and a half, Pettis was able to hurt Melendez on the feet and eventually picked up the submission victory via guillotine choke at 1:53 of Round 2. Hopefully Pettis will be able to remain healthy and continue to defend to his title because he truly is one of the most dynamic strikers in all of MMA.
(Esther Lin/MMA Fighting)
Tony Ferguson:
Tony Ferguson entered UFC 181 on a three-fight win streak as he took on Abel ‘Killa’ Trujillo. Ferguson has long been one of the dark horses in the lightweight division, but once again he proved that he is very skilled and can compete with some of the best in the division. After taking some hard shots in the first round, Ferguson was able to bounce back in the second round and completely control the fight from there on. Ferguson was able to pick up the rear-naked choke victory at 4:19 of Round 2. Ferguson has now won his last four and will surely crack the top 15 with all signs pointing to his next bout being against a ranked opponent.
Losers:
(Esther Lin/MMA Fighting)
Johny Hendricks:
Johny Hendricks entered UFC 181 as the UFC Welterweight Champion and was set to take on Robbie Lawler for the second straight time. Hendricks got off to a slow start and was able to survive the early onslaught from Lawler and the first round ended with Hendricks on top. After a very close first round, Hendricks was able to take over the next two. The last two rounds were very similar to the Georges St-Pierre fight as Hendricks was not very active and looked as if he may have been coasting. Hendricks lost the last two rounds and ultimately lost the fight. After finally capturing the UFC Welterweight Championship back in March, ‘Bigg Rigg’ was unsuccessful in his first defense after a second very tough fight against Robbie Lawler.
(Esther Lin/MMA Fighting)
Brendan Schaub:
Brendan Schaub entered UFC 181 coming off of a controversial loss to Andrei Arlovski. Schaub was taking a big step up in competition as he took on the #3 ranked heavyweight in the world in Travis Browne. As many expected, ‘Big Brown’ looked very outmatched and was finished at 4:50 of Round 1. After back-to-back losses and not being ranked in the top 15, Schaub’s next opponent will surely not be as high profile as this one was.
(Esther Lin/MMA Fighting)
Eddie Gordon:
Eddie Gordon came into UFC 181 exactly five months removed from winning the middleweight tournament of ‘TUF 19’. Gordon was set to take on the returning Josh Samman. Gordon was successful early with a few takedowns, but the fight would come to a dramatic stop when Gordon was knocked out by a head kick at 3:08 of Round 2. It was the first time he was stopped in an MMA fight and it was his first UFC loss. The Serra-Longo Fight Team middleweight still has potential having only been fighting since 2011, but this was surely a step back in his career.
