I want to take you back to January 2010. Robbie Lawler is in the Strikeforce cage and he's being torn apart by the whirlwind of offense that is Melvin Manhoef. Every low kick that Manhoef throws sends one of Lawler’s legs flying up to shoulder level. Lawler is limping around the cage; there's no chance of him shooting a takedown now. The only question is whether Manhoef will step in and finish the fight early or keep it going into the second round.

Suddenly from out of nowhere Lawler connects with what seems like a no-look, Hail Mary swing. The famously chinny Manhoef immediately hits the floor. Lawler raises his arms in celebration and hobbles around the cage in a mix of anguish and jubilation.

That’s the power of Robbie Lawler: Hobbling on one leg and on the arse end of an arse kicking, he can still find his mark and knock you out.

But it wasn’t always that way. Robbie Lawler entered MMA as a young gun and a guy to watch, but over his 13-year professional career, he's hit roadblock after roadblock; he's tried fighting at different weights and he's had as many triumphs and setbacks as anyone active at the highest levels of MMA today.

The Robbie Lawler who gritted his teeth and got through against Melvin Manhoef was just one Robbie Lawler. Today, back in the UFC, on a three-fight win streak, and about to fight for the welterweight championship this Saturday, he’s a totally different fighter.

Back in the early aughts Robbie Lawler was terrifying news during his first run in the UFC, a man who could knock out anyone. But power and speed will only take you so far. Against Nick Diaz in 2004, he showed the kind of emotional immaturity that holds young fighters back and cuts great potential in half. Riled up by the Stockton native's usual smack talk, Lawler got careless, ran into punches, and got himself knocked out. It was the end of his title hopes at 170 pounds, so Lawler moved up to middleweight, where he remained until his return to the Octagon in February 2013.

I haven't written much about Lawler, and with 18 knockouts in 22 wins, I could probably write a whole series on his punching ability, but what I want to talk about is how Lawler has turned from a hard-swinging middleweight also-ran into a top welterweight on the verge of a UFC championship belt.

The New Robbie Lawler

So what's changed? Well a decade of fighting will age you faster than a decade of anything else. Lawler has managed to maintain his health and stay active throughout that time, and there's certainly no substitute for experience.

Furthermore, 170 pounds seems to be a much more advantageous weight class for Lawler. Just watching his earlier performances against middleweights Tim Kennedy, Ronaldo Souza, or Lorenz Larkin and comparing them to his fighting off the takedowns of Josh Koscheck last year should tell you a lot about how much of a role size can play in a fight.

Lawler is never going to stop all the takedowns, though; he certainly didn't against Koscheck or Rory MacDonald. But he showed a creative and active butterfly guard game once they did get him down, nullifying their wrestling advantage. I'm sure most of my readers are familiar with butterfly guard, in which the fighter on the bottom holds the fighter on top off by hooking his own ankles on the inside of the opponent’s thighs, but it's rapidly becoming more important to the MMA game.

Butterfly guard is extremely effective for several reasons. For one, the position makes it difficult for him or her to strike and hold you down. Secondly it can be a real pain to pass, even for a top-position master like Demian Maia. Thirdly, the hooks can be used to create numerous opportunities for sweeping and scrambling out of bottom position.

To understand why the butterfly considered a strong guard for wrestlers, take this example from the Abu Dhabi Combat Club 2013 grappling championships super fight between Braulio Estima and Andre Galvao.

Here Galvao attempts a hook sweep, forcing Estima to base himself, which then allows Galvao to get back to his feet. Galvao tries to grab the front headlock but switches to a single leg as Estima jumps up with him. The butterfly guard allowed him to escape and move straight into a takedown attempt against a world-class jiu-jitsu player.

Of course, the dynamics in an MMA fight are always going to be different. Cain Velasquez famously scrambled out from underneath Brock Lesnar using the butterfly guard during their UFC heavyweight championship fight. It was a simple technical stand-up but one much easier to pull off with your hooks on the inside than from closed guard (where your feet are wrapped around your opponent’s back).

Robbie Lawler's guard game is noticeably stronger at welterweight than it was at middleweight. During his middleweight fight with Tim Kennedy in 2011, Kennedy was able to repeatedly take Lawler down, get straight into side mount or half guard, then mount and grind away at Lawler. Part of this is the size thing, of course--Kennedy is a big middleweight, Lawler now comfortable at welterweight--but Lawler also wasn’t using defensive maneuvers to get free or to sweep. Whenever Lawler successfully advanced his position from the bottom he always went back towards closed guard. And since Kennedy was happy to lie on Lawler and just smack away at him, Lawler gained no advantage from getting him back into his full guard. In fact, Kennedy landed better blows from inside Lawler's guard than he did from the mount position.

Flash forward two years to his UFC return against Josh Koscheck, and you’ll see Lawler using the butterfly guard to keep Koscheck in control. Koscheck got a takedown almost immediately and Lawler moved to butterfly guard. From here Lawler underhooked a leg, took Koscheck overhead, and scrambled back up. Again, if he had just been looking to sweep, he would have still been on his back, but because he created space and used it to get up, the butterfly worked perfectly.

Throughout the fight Lawler kept his hooks on the inside of Koscheck’s legs to keep Koscheck's weight off of him and force him to play a passing game rather than a stalling-and-mauling game. As soon as Koscheck tried to punch, space was created and Lawler worked his way back up.

By the end of the first round Koscheck's takedown attempts were becoming less effective and Lawler was able to leap up off of a sprawl and land hard blows on Koscheck, which prompted a stoppage. Lawler's improved guard, and his new home in a lighter weight class, enabled him to dominate a fight that looked, on paper, like a wash.

Lawler's next performance was a stand up clinic against Bobby Voelker that really showed us how sharp “The Ruthless One” has become on the feet. It used to be that Lawler leaped in with the lead right hook and he’d either get the knockout or he'd try it again. Against Voelker, Lawler showed every wrinkle of his striking game.

Here's a neat little moment from the fight: Lawler fakes a left straight, Voelker flinches, and Lawler nails him with an actual left straight. Just beautiful.

The fight ended when Lawler moved his punishing body kicks a little higher.

Lawler's most recent fight, and the one that earned him his upcoming title fight, was a spectacular performance against someone who is considered to be the “new breed” of MMA fighter, Rory MacDonald. Lawler showed his complete mixed martial arts skill set en route to the win.

From his butterfly guard he was able to stifle MacDonald's usually horrifying ground and pound and even threaten with sweeps. Here he elevates MacDonald then attempts a variation on the classic double ankle pick.

Lawler’s ability to function on the ground and fight his way back up allowed him to do what he does best: beat people up on the feet. MacDonald is famous for his precision jab, so Lawler took it away from him. As a southpaw, Lawler's lead hand was always in the path of MacDonald's. The only time that Lawler's lead hand wasn't jamming MacDonald's jab was when he was throwing his beautiful right hook. Most of the time it ended up landing over the top of MacDonald's jab, which is one of Lawler's favourite counters.

Here are some of those right hooks in slow motion.

And here is Lawler putting it all together--wobbling MacDonald with punches and using his inside hooks to turn MacDonald over during a takedown attempt.

The MacDonald fight proved the point that Lawler hadn't gotten lucky against Josh Koscheck, that he’s now capable of fighting off guys who want to put him on his back and grind him down. And so far, he's managed to hurt each of them with his strikes and pick up the win.

At UFC 171, Robbie Lawler meets Johny Hendricks for the vacant welterweight title. We’ll see if all his new skills and all his experience will help him against a two-time Division I wrestler.

Check out these earlier breakdowns from Jack Slack:

How Alexander Gustafsson Shut My Big Yap

The Stun Gun vs. the Hitman

Daniel Cormier Does Wrestling Right