MANILA, Philippines – Filipino-American fighter Robbie Lawler is set to defend the world welterweight championship against Tyron Woodley in the headliner of the UFC 201 pay-per-view event on July 30 at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
The fight was announced Wednesday, May 18 (US time) on the UFC's Twitter feed.
{source}<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ICYMI: Lawler. Woodley. ATL. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFC201?src=hash">#UFC201</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFCMinute?src=hash">#UFCMinute</a> <a href="https://t.co/whIP7wVSFB">https://t.co/whIP7wVSFB</a></p>— UFC (@ufc) <a href="https://twitter.com/ufc/status/732760150050672640">May 18, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}
It marks the third UFC title defense of Lawler (27-10, 1 NC), who captured the gold-plated strap by carving out a split decision victory over Johny Hendricks in their December 2014 rematch.
Since his title-winning performance, Lawler has successfully defended the welterweight belt twice, scoring a come-from-behind stoppage of Rory MacDonald in July 2015 before edging out Carlos Condit via split decision this past January.
In the other corner, Woodley (15-3) has been out of action since claiming a split decision triumph over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 183 in January 2015.
The 34-year-old standout from St. Louis, Missouri was scheduled to face Hendricks at UFC 192 in October 2015, but that bout fell through when the latter suffered from medical complications due to his weight cut. – Rappler.com