Lawler opened with a kick of his own in this round but Hendricks responded by mixing up his offense, throwing combination punches and kicks that Robbie was ducking and moving to get away from. Plenty of shots landed, but plenty missed too.
Now, though, Lawler was staying committed to firing off kicks.
Hendricks moved in with more combinations. Punch, punch, kick, punch, knee, punch. He was relentless in his attack when he pushed but Lawler was staying in the pocket and doing just fine there.
Then Lawler landed some big shots and Hendricks looked dazed. In fact, his defense droped in a bad way and his punches lost a lot of oopmh. Every punch Robbie threw looked rough and tumble. Hendricks was surviving, and even fired back with punches of his own.
A takedown attempt failed and Hendricks reset in the center. He seemed to be recovering more and more, though, and the two just started trading blow in the center of the cage.
The round came to a close with the two staring at each other, slowed way down from their earlier pace.
Great round for Lawler.
For more on "Hendricks vs. Lawler" click here, and for complete UFC 171 results and blow-by-blow coverage of all the night's action click here.
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