Sherdog’s Top 10: Five-Round Fights

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7. Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler
UFC 171
March 15, 2014 | Dallas
When Georges St. Pierre vacated the welterweight title he had held in some form for six years, the UFC quickly put together a matchup between the man who had taken him to the brink -- Hendricks -- and the suddenly resurgent Lawler. The San Diego native had finally put together his skills and his tremendous physical gifts into a package that fulfilled his seemingly limitless potential, and the matchup of two brick-fisted punchers promised fireworks.

The fight did not disappoint. Lawler and Hendricks contested almost the entire fight in the pocket and were happy to exchange, a real rarity in MMA in 2014 or any year. Unlike most exchanges in MMA, however, which generally consist of eating a punch to give a punch, Hendricks and Lawler rolled, slipped, parried and blocked and came back with their own single shots and combinations. The two fighters combined to land 308 significant strikes, many of them enormous power shots. As a testament to their ability to absorb damage, however, neither iron-jawed fighter ever really came close to going out.

Hendricks came out strong and landed big shots in the first, but Lawler stormed back in the middle rounds, and it took a Herculean effort from the former Oklahoma State University wrestler to finally grind Lawler against the cage to secure a hard-earned victory in the fifth. In the end, it was Hendricks’ commitment to attrition -- he landed more than 40 knees and kicks to Lawler’s legs -- that finally wore down the American Top Team rep. A great fight is a conversation in which the participants learn to read each other, anticipate the next statement and reply in kind, and few scraps have ever embodied that kind of relationship better than the first meeting between Hendricks and Lawler.

Number 6 » Pettis vs. Henderson