Sure, it’s true, Robbie Lawler remains to be often being drug examined.
However that’s about as shut the soon-to-be two-time UFC Corridor of Famer is getting to creating a comeback.
Throughout a current look on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Lawler, 43, was requested to confirm whether or not he stays within the UFC’s anti-doping testing pool regardless of retiring in 2023, and if meaning he’s contemplating lacing up the gloves once more. Lawler nonetheless commonly trains at Kill Cliff FC in Florida, although he insisted his current checks are merely a formality.
“All that was is like they examined me at a time the place there was a complete bunch of individuals on the fitness center, so it went on the market like, ‘Oh, it seems to be like Robbie obtained examined,’” Lawler mentioned. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, however I obtained examined months in the past, too. Months earlier than that.’ Yeah, I’m nonetheless there getting examined.
“However I’m retired. I’m within the pool.”
That declaration is probably going excellent news for followers of Lawler, the one-time UFC welterweight champion who competed 25 occasions for the group throughout two separate stints that spanned 21 years. Lawler went out with one final highlight-reel knockout at UFC 290 in July 2023, placing Niko Worth away in 38 seconds.
He recollects it wasn’t a simple determination to formally retire, however in the long run it was his determination and his determination alone.
“It was all on me,” Lawler mentioned. “Nobody can inform me what to do, it’s simply how I’m. It was identical to nobody can inform me, I’ve to frickin’ determine, don’t nudge me in any path as a result of I’m going to battle it. But it surely was onerous to teach, get well from coaching, simply lots of work, and it was like, do I wish to maintain doing this? The restoration, it’s onerous to get well. Can I nonetheless do it? Yeah, I can nonetheless do it, however do I wish to be egocentric, actually, as a result of that’s what it’s. It’s egocentric.
“And it might be much more egocentric as a result of I’ve to assume loads tougher than once I was 20, once I might get well like, increase. Arrange my coaching camp just a little in another way, it’s a course of, and whenever you don’t actually wish to put all that work into doing it at a sure degree, then it’s…”
Lawler is about to be inducted into the UFC Corridor of Fame once more on June 26 throughout Worldwide Battle Week. He beforehand made it into the Battle Wing alongside Rory MacDonald for his or her bloody championship battle at UFC 189. Now, Lawler enters the Fashionable Wing, honoring his personal contributions to the enterprise.
When the announcement was made at UFC 313 this previous March, the famously stoic Lawler allowed himself to really feel the second as a tribute video performed overhead.
“I undoubtedly loved all the things, however what I’ll say is I by no means allowed myself till proper there on the finish when all these variety phrases, all coming at one time on there,” Lawler mentioned. “I’d seen the highlights earlier than. If you concentrate on it, I’d by no means allowed myself to have highs or lows. ‘Hey, congratulations. You’re superior.’ OK, yeah. However to have it, like, oh shit, after which the flash of my profession all in, like, a three-minute span, it was loads to deal with. It undoubtedly obtained me.”
