But - the fact remains, that Lawler couldn't PREVENT that from happening...so what does that say about him???
It says that he was fighting one of the best in the world. He couldn't prevent every takedown, but Hendricks couldn't exploit those takedowns either. It's not like he didn't want to. Lawler was too good to let it happen.
Judges have scored for takedowns too much in recent UFC history. In my opinion. I've seen fights where the guy who does literally no damage wins a decision over a guy who hurt him and almost knocked him out. Like with Randy Couture and Brandon Vera. I think the fighter who does the most damage should win the fight. Not the one who contolled more minutes of the fight without doing damage.
Hendricks looked like a beaten man at the end of this fight. Scoring each round separately like in boxing is another problem in this sport. Lawler clearly got the better of Hendricks overall. The score went his way, unexpectedly. There has to be a better way of scoring fights, though. Getting a 10 / 9 score in a virtually even round shouldn't count as much as what Robbie did in the 5th.