Woodley takes Lawler’s belt with first-round knockout at UFC 201

UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler said he was tired of being involved in brutal five-round slugfests and wanted to finally have a short night of work.

This wasn’t at all what he had in mind.

Tyron Woodley knocked out Lawler with a looping right hand only 2:12 into the first round of the main event of UFC 201 in Atlanta on Saturday night to take the belt. It was the fastest finish in UFC welterweight title fight history.

“You say ‘And new’ and I say, ‘Thank God,’” Woodley said in the cage after knocking out his part-time training partner. “This isn’t the first fight I would pick. He’s a friend of mine, but I’ve been envisioning that belt around my waist my whole life. My boys, your dad is the world champ!”

The finishing shot was one of the first significant blows of the fight.

“When I saw the opening I went for the right hand,” Woodley said. “Something kept telling me the right hand would be there. He had the belt and that’s what I was going for.”

Lawler had held the belt since December 2014 and had successfully defended it twice. Four of his last six fights had been named fight of the night, with two voted fights of the year.

“It is what it is,” Lawler said after the loss. “He feinted me and my hand went down and he caught me. I expected that kind of stuff but I was sitting back and not moving like I should and he took advantage.”

Also on the main card, Karolina Kowalkiewicz likely earned the next shot at the women’s strawweight title with a split-decision win over Rose Namajunas.

After a successful first round for Namajunas, Kowalkiewicz consistently landed knees to the body in the clinch to take control.

Kowalkiewicz dropped Namajunas in the third round and kept her on her back for much of the final five minutes.

Jake Ellenberger got a much-needed victory by knocking out welterweight Matt Brown in the first round.

Ellenberger dropped Brown with the first punch of the fight. Brown recovered and stunned Ellenberger before a liver kick dropped Brown and led to the end of the fight when Ellenberger landed a series of right hands on the ground.

It was just the second win in the last seven fights for Ellenberger. Brown, who was knocked out for the first time in 35 pro fights, is 1-4 in his last five after a seven-fight winning streak.

Bantamweight Erik Perez rebounded from a slow start in just his second fight in two years, using a huge third round to win a unanimous decision over Francisco Rivera. Flyweight Ryan Benoit won a split decision over Fredy Serrano in a bout that was elevated to the main card after a scheduled fight between Ian McCall and Justin Scoggins was canceled on Thursday when Scoggins ran into difficulty cutting weight .

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.