Daniel Cormier explains why he scratched Robbie Lawler in favor of Tyron Woodley for his top four greatest welterweights of all time

UFC commentator Daniel Cormier has explained why Robbie Lawler hasn’t made his list of the four greatest UFC welterweights ever.

Next weekend, Robbie Lawler is set to make his final walk to the UFC’s Octagon. He’ll be going head-to-head with Niko Price, attempting to ride off into the sunset with a big win to his name. His last outing came in July 2022, when he lost to Bryan Barberena.

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His swansong has many people talking about his legacy and what he’s done for the sport of mixed martial arts. In a recent episode of his podcast, Daniel Cormier praised ‘Ruthless’, but also didn’t include him in his list of the four best welterweights of all time.

“Well, here’s the problem: There weren’t many welterweight champions,” Cormier said. “It’s been a division that has had so many long-reigning champions that there aren’t many welterweight champions. I got Georges St-Pierre as the head; he’s the George Washington. Then I have Matt Hughes, Kamaru Usman, and I have Tyron Woodley.

“And I get it. (Woodley) and Robbie would seem to have very similar resumes, but you’ve got to remember when Tyron was the champion, the way he beat Robbie to become the champion, the way he beat Darren Till, the way he defended that belt on so many occasions when he was legitimately one of the harder champions to work with, so he got no favors.”

Cormier ousts Lawler

“Tyron Woodley was actually fighting always the very best guys, and he complained about it openly how the UFC didn’t always treat him fairly,” Cormier said. “So, he was doing that and defending that belt in circumstances that weren’t ideal. Think about all those fights he had with ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson. He was fighting ‘Wonderboy’ when ‘Wonderboy’ was like the biggest enigma that we had ever seen inside of the octagon.

“For that, I have to put Tyron Woodley. I love Robbie Lawler against Carlos Condit. That was a great fight, but it was very, very competitive. I love Robbie Lawler against Rory, but it was very, very competitive. For me, Robbie Lawler’s story is the guy that came from Strikeforce, he was a bit middle of the road, and then he went to the top and became the champion. But even then, I don’t know if I’d put him in the top four welterweights of all time.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie

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