Yes, it’s true, Robbie Lawler is still occasionally being drug tested.
But that’s about as close the soon-to-be two-time UFC Hall of Famer is getting to making a comeback.
During a recent appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Lawler, 43, was asked to verify whether he remains in the UFC’s anti-doping testing pool despite retiring in 2023, and if that means he is considering lacing up the gloves again. Lawler still regularly trains at Kill Cliff FC in Florida, though he insisted his recent tests are simply a formality.
“All that was is like they tested me at a time where there was a whole bunch of people at the gym, so it went out there like, ‘Oh, it looks like Robbie got tested,’” Lawler said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I got tested months ago, too. Months before that.’ Yeah, I’m still there getting tested.
“But I’m retired. I am in the pool.”
That declaration is likely good news for fans of Lawler, the one-time UFC welterweight champion who competed 25 times for the organization across two separate stints that spanned 21 years. Lawler went out with one last highlight-reel knockout at UFC 290 in July 2023, putting Niko Price away in 38 seconds.
He recalls it wasn’t an easy decision to officially retire, but in the end it was his decision and his decision alone.
“It was all on me,” Lawler said. “No one can tell me what to do, it’s just how I am. It was just like no one can tell me, I have to frickin’ decide, don’t nudge me in any direction because I’m going to fight it. But it was hard to coach, recover from training, just a lot of work, and it was like, do I want to keep doing this? The recovery, it’s hard to recover. Can I still do it? Yeah, I can still do it, but do I want to be selfish, really, because that’s what it is. It’s selfish.
“And it would be even more selfish because I have to think a lot harder than when I was 20, when I could recover like, boom. Set up my training camp a little differently, it’s a process, and when you don’t really want to put all that work into doing it at a certain level, then it’s…”
Lawler is set to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame again on June 26 during International Fight Week. He previously made it into the Fight Wing alongside Rory MacDonald for their bloody championship battle at UFC 189. Now, Lawler enters the Modern Wing, honoring his own contributions to the business.
When the announcement was made at UFC 313 this past March, the famously stoic Lawler allowed himself to feel the moment as a tribute video played overhead.
“I definitely enjoyed everything, but what I will say is I never allowed myself until right there at the end when all those kind words, all coming at one time on there,” Lawler said. “I’d seen the highlights before. If you think about it, I’d never allowed myself to have highs or lows. ‘Hey, congratulations. You’re awesome.’ OK, yeah. But to have it, like, oh shit, and then the flash of my career all in, like, a three-minute span, it was a lot to handle. It definitely got me.”
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