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Rare champion who survived tumultuous 2015 gets tested at UFC 195

Robbie Lawler must fend off Carlos Condit to avoid joining long list

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Steve Marcus

Welterweight challenger Carlos Condit bows after a workout for UFC 195 fighters at the MGM Grand Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015. UFC 195 takes place Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Fri, Jan 1, 2016 (2 a.m.)

UFC 195 Workouts at MGM

Welterweight challenger Carlos Condit gets ready for a workout at the MGM Grand Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015. UFC 195 takes place Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Launch slideshow »

If the recent fate of his fellow class of UFC champions is any indication, then Robbie Lawler’s title reign is endangered.

A record seven of 10 UFC championship belts changed owners in 2015, with the 33-year-old Lawler’s welterweight strap one of the only exceptions. Despite a single successful title defense, Lawler comes into the main event of UFC 195 Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena against Carlos Condit as one of the longest tenured current champions in mixed martial arts’ premier promotion.

“I don’t really pay attention to that,” Lawler said. “Other people tell me, ‘Hey, you’re this and that.’ And I’m like, ‘Really? I’m just a guy trying to get better.’ That’s what I concentrate on.”

But it’s been impossible to entirely ignore the changing of the guard at the top of the UFC. The blue corner, or challenger, won nine of 20 title fights last year culminating with a 3-1 run at a pair of events that enabled the UFC to have the most profitable year in the history of the company.

The top-ranked male pound-for-pound fighter, Jose Aldo, and his female counterpart, Ronda Rousey, were dethroned at UFC 194 and UFC 193, respectively. The latter event also saw the walloping of previously undefeated middleweight champion Chris Weidman.

Condit, who says he naturally pulls for the underdog if he has no other rooting interest in a fight, wasn’t surprised by the upheaval.

“I think the nature of the sport lends itself to chaos sometimes,” Condit said. “There are so many variables with fighters, so many different ways to win, so many new strategies. I think the sport and technique is evolving. That’s part of it.”

Condit suggests the parity in 2015 might end up being more than a random blip. Instability might be the new normal.

He’s not alone in seeing himself as the one to continue the trend by joining the new championship fraternity. There’s no consensus over who’s the favorite between Lawler and Condit, with sports books listing the fight as a pick’em.

Condit’s career arc fits next to several fighters who broke through last year. More than half of the new champions came back from previous disappointment in the UFC to realize their dream.

Condit has lost three of his last five fights starting with a failed bid at the title against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 154.

“That was four years ago, I’ve grown quite a bit since then,” Condit said. “I think I lost my composure a little bit in the lead-up and during the fight. This time around, I’m just enjoying the process and staying poised.”

Condit is not the only one with an opportunity to infiltrate the top of the ranks early in 2016. Neither of the next two scheduled title fights — a bantamweight bout between T.J. Dillashaw and Dominick Cruz at UFC Fight Night 81 in Boston on Jan. 18 or a heavyweight rematch pitting Fabricio Wedum and Cain Velasquez at UFC 196 in Las Vegas on Feb. 6 — have a favorite of more than 2-to-1.

Imminent bookings for women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm, a rematch with Rousey, and featherweight champion Conor McGregor, against either Frankie Edgar or Rafael dos Anjos, are similarly evenly matched on paper. The only belt holder who seems safe is flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson, who has seven consecutive title defenses.

But at this time last year, Rousey and light heavyweight Jon Jones would have topped that list. Jones was the one fighter to lose his belt out of the cage, but it was another reminder of how fleeting a reign can end up.

Unlike Condit, Lawler chooses not to make much out of it.

“I don’t try to dabble too much in other people,” Lawler said. “Guys are doing certain things, and I watch it but I concentrate on myself. I’m not everyone; everyone is not me.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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