The UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler will tonight step into the Octagon for the thirty-ninth time of his professional career when he faces Tyron Woodley in Atlanta.While the fight between Lawler and Woodley may be contested under the bright lights of UFC 201 with millions watching all around the world, there once a time when Lawler would fight in unsanctioned 'smoker' amateur fights in smokey clubs up and down the west coast of America.Lawler's story is one that has seen him go from rags to riches and this week on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, he went into more detail about his crazy amateur days."I fought a lot of those ['smoker' fights], like thirty of them before I went pro--it was fun," Lawler said. "When I was fighting those I wasn't getting paid anything, I was just doing it because I loved to fight. Most the time it was boxing matches and little one minute rounds, three, one minute rounds but yeah I used to fight every week.Lawler put his success in his early bouts down to the fact he began training many different disciplines at an early age and that he started training with coach Pat Miletich at just the age of 16."I used to do really well. I'm one of the best fighters in the world right now and I didn't just pop up on the scene all of a sudden," Lawler said. "I didn't just start knocking people out and beating them up. I started martial arts at a young age and got to a high level and then I went and trained wrestling and got to a high level."I'm pretty athletic and I'm pretty strong. I always watched boxing and I was always hitting the bag. I was also training with Pat [Miletich] for two years before I started doing my 'smokers' so I was pretty well tuned"The welterweight champion then described how his training camps have changed over the years and how his preparation for a fight is completely different now."My training is definitely smarter now," Lawler said. "back then, it was just work hard and put yourself in the worst positions and try and figure out a way to keep going. That's something you can do when you are really young but as you get older no."All my coaches now do a really good job of putting me in situations and working more on technique and then my strength and conditioning coach now knows how to push me and when to peak. It's not as crazy and strenuous on my body as it used to be."Of course, one of the training partners Lawler would've worked with recently at American Top Team is Tyron Woodley. Suffice to say, the champion didn't seem to be concerned whatsoever that he facing a man he called call a teammate."Whatever," Lawler bluntly replied when asked about it. "I'm just going out there and looking at him as an opponent. I've trained hard for this and my coaches have put together a good gameplan and I'm just going to go out there and to do my thing."