Lawler KOs Trigg to Recapture ICON Title
By James Meinhardt
[4/1/2007] HONOLULU, March 31 — A epic night of fights at Oahu's Neal S. Blaisdell Arena was punctuated by a truly spectacular main event title fight, where Robbie Lawler (Pictures) knocked out Frank Trigg (Pictures) to become the first two-time ICON Sport middleweight champ.
Trigg, who captured the ICON Sport world middleweight title by stopping Jason Miller via a second round technical knockout, put his belt on the line for the first time against "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler (Pictures).
Almost as soon as the fight started Trigg put the strategy that led him to victory against Kazuo Misaki (Pictures) just last month on display, scoring a double-leg takedown and putting Lawler on his back.
But Lawler wasn't worried.
"I let him take me down the first time," Robbie claimed after the fight. "He took me down twice, right to my butterfly [guard]. I expected his ground-and-pound to be a lot better than that."
But this fight was not going to be decided on the mat. After controlling most of the first round, Trigg was knocked down with a big left hand from Lawler in the second.
"I knew it was pretty close to being over [then], but I wasn't going to rush it," the first two-time ICON sport middleweight champion said after the fight.
"When you hit guys with those shots you can go in there for the kill and get tired. I've done that before," Lawler admitted. "I knew all I had to do was keep touching him like that and eventually I'll hit him with the good shots and he's gonna be done."
And that's exactly what happened. Lawler dropped Trigg once more in the second round, and followed up with a knee to the face that bloodied the champion's face.
The third frame was a back-and-forth battle that saw both fighters land heavy punches and knees. Trigg was relentless with his attack, but Lawler scored the cleaner shots, staggering Trigg throughout the round.
The fight moved into championship territory as the fighters exchange combinations in the fourth round. Trigg attempted a takedown but Lawler powered through and got to his feet. The young Iowan moved forward with a viscous combination of right and left hands that found their mark and put Trigg down and out cold.
"I knew I had to catch him with [punches] three, four, and five, not just the one, two, and three," Lawler explained after the fight. "So that's what I did. I caught him with at least four clean, crisp punches, and one good one at the end."
The fallen champion walked out of the ring with the help of his corner men, and was given oxygen in the locker room before leaving the arena in an ambulance.
"I just want to wish Trigg the best," Lawler somberly stated following the fight. "At first I disliked him a lot … but I hope he recovers."
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