{"id":2587,"date":"2014-12-19T00:01:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T00:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2014\/12\/19\/the-training-of-a-champion-the-road-to-lawler-s-title\/"},"modified":"2014-12-19T00:01:54","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T00:01:54","slug":"the-training-of-a-champion-the-road-to-lawler-s-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/the-training-of-a-champion-the-road-to-lawler-s-title\/","title":{"rendered":"The Training of a Champion: The Road to Lawler\u2019s Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dust has finally settled from UFC 181, where Robbie Lawler and Johny Hendricks met for the second time for the UFC welterweight title. \u00a0In their first meeting back in March, Hendricks squeaked out a win, some saying because of a last minute takedown that sealed the deal. \u00a0It was Lawler this time around that would get that last minute surge of energy to put an exclamation point on the fight, thus getting the split decision win becoming the new UFC welter weight champion. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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So much talk will go into how Lawler trained for this fight and his thoughts going into the championship fight. \u00a0But the journey to becoming the best in the world in his division started thirteen years ago under the tutelage of Pat Miletich and striking coach Matt Pe\u00f1a, both of whom knew someday he would have that belt around his waist. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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\u201cEven after the first fight between Rob and Johny, there was no doubt in my mind that he would be champion,\u201d said Pe\u00f1a.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would be under the banner of American Top Team in Florida that Lawler would become champion, but for many fans watching, Robbie will always be a product of the Miletich Fighting Team. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could see it pretty early on that he was something special,\u201d said UFC Hall of Fame member and the UFC\u2019s first welterweight champion, Pat Miletich. \u00a0\u201cHe was beating up world champions in the gym when he was 17.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

After his years in Elite XC and Strikeforce, Lawler was re-signed by the UFC, dropping from middleweight to welterweight and went back to Miletich and asked him to train him again, but due to Miletich\u2019s busy commentating schedule and not being around MFS as much, Miletich along with a few other people around Robbie recommended that he go to American Top Team in Florida. \u00a0It was there that he would finally find a home and a similar family-like atmosphere that would eventually catapult him to becoming a champion. \u00a0<\/p>

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\u201cThe moment he stepped into ATT,\u201d said Pe\u00f1a. \u00a0\u201cWas the first time he felt like he had found a complete home for fighting again.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

With dominant wins over Josh Koscheck, Bobbie Voelker, Rory McDonald, Jake Ellenberger and Matt Brown, the Hendricks loss was the only one he wanted to avenge, and he did just that at UFC 181. \u00a0For Pe\u00f1a, it was when he and Robbie were in the corner of then UFC welterweight champion, Matt Hughes that he would see more champion-like qualities in Lawler. \u00a0\u201cRobbie has always helped me train these guys,\u201d said Pe\u00f1a. \u00a0\u201cAnd after years of watching me train Spencer Fisher and Matt Hughes, Robbies also always viewed himself as the best in the world.\u201d \u00a0But it was in the locker room only minutes after Lawler had walked out of the cage with the belt around his waist that it set in fully for Miletich and Pe\u00f1a just how much Robbie had grown as a fighter and as a man over the many years the three had been together. \u00a0<\/p>

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\u201cWhat you are seeing now is the same way Robbie trained at the gym at 17,\u201d said Miletch. \u00a0 \u201cMaturity tends to make you grow up and if you are going to do your job, you do it damn well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0And for Pe\u00f1a backstage, his words for Lawler and his team were short but sincere. \u00a0And being the elite coach that he is, Pe\u00f1a is already looking to the future for his new champ. \u00a0\u201cI said, \u201cWe did it boys,\u201d said Pe\u00f1a. \u00a0\u201cRobs done everything now, he can say that he is a potential Hall of Famer.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>

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The dust has finally settled from UFC 181, where Robbie Lawler and Johny Hendricks met for the second time for the UFC welterweight title. \u00a0In their first meeting back in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}