Story by Todd Hester

A terror in the cage who has dominated opponents in EC, IFC, UFC, Superbrawl, Icon, and now EliteXC, the 16-4 Robbie Lawler is the true king of MMA primetime TV!

In just two fights, both against Scott Smith, more people have seen Robbie Lawler fight than nearly any other fighter on the planet. If you take the 7 million viewers from their first fight on CBS and combine it with the 2 million from their second, over 9 million people now know the man simply called “Ruthless.”

But Lawler has not run up his record against “tomato cans” or handpicked opponents, he has taken on the toughest fighters in the sport, not ducking anyone but seeking out the best to prove he is the best. In an MMA world increasingly given to flash instead of form, Lawler is a throwback to the early days of the sport where you fought whoever, whenever, wherever.

Q: What is your family background?

LAWLER: My parents were divorced and my dad was in the Marines. I lived in California until I was 10 then we moved to Bettendorf, Iowa when I was in the fourth grade. I had an older brother so it made it a little easier to adjust to things. I lived in Iowa for pretty much the rest of my life, but I just moved to St. Louis and opened up a gym and MMA training center. A lot of military kids make a lot of moves but I only made the one, so it wasn’t really an issue for me.

Q: Did being around the Marine Corp give you a fighter’s mindset?

LAWLER: I got a little bit of the Marine mentality from my dad, I guess. You can’t but help absorb the culture you’re around. I did takwondo from the time I was pretty young and also played I did taekwondo for martial arts and then also played football, baseball, and basketball against older kids because of my brother being older. So I learned pretty quickly to not be intimidated and to not back down. You don’t really realize the effect those things have on you when you’re growing up but then when you look back you can see how they molded you.

Q: Did you ever wrestle?

LAWLER: I did start wrestling after I moved to Iowa, I think in the seventh grade. It’s really a part of the Iowa culture so it’s hard not to do it if you like sports. Since I’d always done martial arts I was always interested in fighting. In the sixth grade or so, I remember coming across some DVDs of the UFC and so I started watching that and became a fan of it. It was a little boring because of all the grabbing and holding and I fast-forwarded through a lot of it, but I still watched because I like martial arts. But then I also watched boxing all the time and Tuesday Night Fights on USA and just kept hitting my heavy back in the garage.

Q: How did you get into MMA?

LAWLER: I met Pat Militich when I was a junior in high school when I was 16 and just started training and went from there. I went to the same high school that Pat had attended and he would bring some of his fighters out to wrestling practice to work out and I got to know him that way. I immediately like it, of course, since I has always followed it and knew I wanted to do it. Before that I had never thought about being a professional fighter but meeting Pat and the guys just pushed me in that direction. I kept doing my own thing, working out with weights, wrestling, and doing other spots until I graduated from high school. Then I made a conscious decision to pursue MMA seriously and full time.

Q: Was deciding to pursue MMA a big leap of faith for you?

LAWLER: It was because the sport in 2000 wasn’t as big as it is now. The Fertittas hadn’t even bought the UFC yet and so it was still pretty much unknown to the mainstream sports audience. Everyone who fought also had a full-time job. But I just started training with the best fighters in the world trying to get better. I was a pretty good athlete so I did pretty well with the team and that gave me confidence that I would be able to compete with people. I did a lot of smoker fights and fought pretty much every week since Pat wouldn’t let me fight until he was sure I was ready. I was also boxing and so I had 30 unofficial fights or more of those.

Q: What was your first official MMA fight?

LAWLER: My first real competition was in Monty Cox’s Extreme Challenge Amateur Tournament. Jason Black got hurt and I just hopped in there and Pat said to keep it on the feet and that’s what I did and things just kind of took off from there. I had a lot of fights before that, let along training everyday with Pat and his guys, so I was ready to go to war. I would say I knocked out probably 85 or 90 percent of the guys I faced in those smokers, since they were three minute fights and I could go full-blast without worrying about pacing myself.

Q: So after winning the amateur competition you finally went pro?

LAWLER: Yep, in 2001 against John Reed in EC 39. I believed in myself and I was ready to go and I just wanted to take it to him. What really helped to put me on the map quickly was that Pat had a lot of top-level fighters at the time and I was training with them and doing well. So all those guys were out there talking to promoters for me. Jens Pulver got a fight for me in IFC in Hawaii and told Dana White about me. So Dana went to watch me and right after that he said, “welcome to the UFC.” So I went from my first fight to fighting in the UFC in the same year − 2001 − my fourth fight. But I had paid my dues from all the smokers I had fought and all the training with Pat’s guys. So I was very experienced at the time.

Q: Was it mentally hard to make that instant adjustment to the UFC?

LAWLER: Not really. I always believed in myself and I knew what I was capable of doing and I just went out there and went to war. I wasn’t any more nervous in my fifth fight than I was in my first fight. My first UFC fight was against Aaron Riley and it was the first time anyone has lasted through the first round with me. I went 15 minutes against a guy who just wouldn’t quit and it was definitely a hard fight cardio-wise.

Q: Did you ever have any doubts that you could go the distance?

LAWLER: I never thought about it. I just thought that I was going to knock him out in the first and then it’d be over. But then when it went into the second you just have to step it up. I’m a warrior and my only thought was “Let’s get down.” There was no mental letdown because wherever the fight goes you have to keep trying to win it. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first round or the third round.

Q: After reeling off a string of wins you finally lost to Pete Spratt in the UFC, beat Chris Lytle, then lost consecutively to Nick Diaz and Evan Tanner. Did you get down on yourself and start to lose confidence?

LAWLER: When you lose it does no good to get down on yourself. You just have to figure out what happened and learn from it and come back stronger and get the job done. So I just kept working out and kept believing that I was the best. The way I’ve learned to fight is to beat you up and knock you out. So that is my natural tendency. It isn’t anything against anyone, its just my style that I’ve developed. I don’t want a fight to go the distance. So that’s why TKO/KO rating is over 80 percent. People think that’s where my nickname “Ruthless” came from but I actually got it from Dana. He called me one day and told me I needed a nickname and suggested “Ruthless.” So I said, “Yeah, whatever. Pick what you want.” So it wasn’t a big deal to me. It was more of a UFC marketing thing. It could have been anything.

Q: You were one of the UFC’s most popular fighters because of how you went after everyone. But your last fight for them was against the late Evan Tanner. What happened?

LAWLER: I don’t know for sure. Maybe them, maybe me, maybe a combination. They might have been looking for a nice way to drop me. Who knows? I don’t really talk to Dana and the UFC anymore so I can’t really say. But since that time I’ve had 10 fights and only lost once so maybe that motivated me. I tried to look at it as a good opportunity to prove myself in other shows and that’s what I did. I had some great opportunities with Icon and then with EliteXC when they bought Icon. I actually ended up getting more exposure, numbers-wise, from fighting for EliteXC on CBS that I got from UFC. So maybe that was a positive thing for me. You just have to take whatever negative thing happens and make a positive out of it.

Q: Have you noticed a talent difference between fighting in the UFC and outside it?

LAWLER: There are a lot of tough guys who fight in all the shows. I don’t think the UFC has a monopoly on tough guys by any means. UFC draws their fighters from those other shows, so those other shows are the UFC. The overall level in the UFC is better, but you’ll find really good guys everywhere. You can’t take anyone lightly. You just have to focus on yourself and work on your own skills. The biggest thing that helped me after the UFC was slowing myself down and not pressing as much and trying to relax more. That made me a lot more effective and helped my skills to really take off.

Q: How is the new gym you opened with Matt Hughes, Matt Pena and Marc Fiore in St. Louis doing?

LAWLER: Really great. We’re all on the same page and I think people will really like it. Its called the H.I.T. Squad, which stands for Hughes Intensive Training, and I think you’ll see some top level athletes start to come out of the gym in the future. It has new locker rooms, a boxing ring, 3,000 square feet of new Hammer Strength weight lifting and fitness equipment, 1,000 square feet of cardio equipment, 5,000 square feet of matted wrestling/grappling area surrounded by octagon fencing, and a member's lounge. Memberships are available to the public, and H.I.T. Squad will sign and manage fighters who compete in mixed martial arts competitions. In addition to daily classes, customers can participate in bi-monthly seminars and camps for mixed martial arts, boxing and wrestling. I’d to encourage everybody to check it out.