In an early "Fight of the Year" candidate, Robbie Lawler retained the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight title against Carlos Condit via a razor-thin split decision victory.
Lawler and Condit are two of the best strikers in the welterweight division and last Saturday's collision at UFC 195 held at the MGM Grand was a complete slugfest.
In the first round, Condit displayed his kickboxing techniques and even landed a left uppercut-like jab that floored the champion.
But Lawler immediately stood up and continued to exchange with Condit as the round closed.
Condit continually displayed his array of strikes in the second round in which Lawler answered with a powerful punch that stunned the challenger, which was also one of the most significant strikes in the title fight.
Lawler went for the finish but the grounded Condit defended well until the fight returned to a stand-up battle.
In the succeeding rounds, Condit continued to throw a huge volume of strikes, while Lawler stuck to his strategy of controlling the Octagon and was patient with his striking.
Lawler, realizing that Condit had a huge lead when it came to strikes, entered the fifth round with much more aggressiveness but Condit was just throwing punches, kicks, spinning back elbows, and knees.
The defending champion then connected with a huge left hand that hurt Condit and wobbled his knees.
Lawler landed a few more knockout punches in the final round, but Condit displayed his strong chin and was able to engage in another striking exchange before the fight ended.
In the end, two judges scored it 48-47 in favor of Lawler, with one scoring it 48-47 for Condit.
"Carlos is a helluva fighter. He comes from one of the best camps in the world and had a great game plan. We battled it out. There were two winners tonight. Let's do it again," Lawler said, according to ESPN following the fight.
Meanwhile, Condit said following the loss that he believes he bagged three rounds and did enough to win, also adding that one can never leave a fight in the hands of the judges.
In reports after the epic clash, a rematch between the two may not be seen as Condit is considering retirement.
"Tonight was kind of a do-or-die moment for my career. I was all in. If I got that strap I was gonna keep fighting. If I didn't, like I didn't, I have to see if I can continue to do this," Condit said, according to Sherdog.com.
