Witnessing his hilarious ring entrances, we've seen what a wackjob Tom Lawlor can be just before fights. Little did we know that Lawlor was pushing the limits of sanity with his training camp and prefight partying. That may have been fine during Season 8 of "The Ultimate Fighter" and his run on the minor league circuit, but Lawlor found out it doesn't cut it in the UFC. Now he's facing a must-win fight against Patrick Cote at UFC 121. Winless in 2010, Lawlor had to make some changes.
"I haven't been going wild for the past seven or eight weeks which is kind of a departure from my normal situation," Lawlor told Neil Davidson from The Canadian Press. "It might be hard to believe but I'm being dead honest. There's been times that two weeks before, a week before, I'm out drinking, staying out late, partying. And I got away with it."
Lawlor (6-3, 2-2 UFC) admits MMA came easy when he first started.
"For a while [the drinking and partying] just didn't matter, I didn't care," said Lawlor. "I had such a carefree attitude that I didn't feel like anybody was going to stop me, no matter what I did. After a while I think it just came back to bite me."
Lawlor jumped out to a quick start in his January fight against Aaron Simpson only to wilt down the stretch and laid an egg versus Joe Doerksen at UFC 113, getting choked out in the second.
Lawlor claims he didn't gas out in those losses. It was more a case of overtraining. He prepped for this one in the Boston area with fellow UFC fighter Joe Lauzon, where he cut out the partying and drinking along with managing his workouts more carefully. The 27-year-old can feel the difference.
"In the past it's been hard to kind of walk around, even on a day-to-day basis," said Lawlor. "And I'm not sure if that's just from wear and tear on my body or years of [amateur] wrestling or the couple of years I did of pro wrestling or what it is. But my joints and stuff feel fresher now. I'm sure it has something to do with my body not inflaming up because of massive amounts of alcohol that I've been drinking."
Lawlor has a tough test in Cote, who is also facing what could be a must-win situation. Recovering from a slew of injuries, Cote (13-6, 4-3 UFC) was away from the Octagon for over 20 months, falling way back in the 185-pound pack. Cote lost his comeback fight against Alan Belcher in May.
One bit of bad news from Lawlor. Because he's fighting on the Spike television portion of the card, he can't approach the cage with one of his inventive themes.
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