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Robbie Lawler reveals what sparked his coldest line about taking Conor McGregor’s soul

Originally posted on Bloody Elbow
By Christopher De Santiago | Last updated May 4, 2025 3:55 PM ET

Robbie Lawler has revisited his choice words for Conor McGregor after a near-decade.

Weight classes apart for most of their careers, the former UFC Welterweight Champion never had the honor of sharing the Octagon with Conor McGregor but Lawler seemed to know how a fight between them would have gone.

Lawler and McGregor were at the top of their games in 2015 and 2016. McGregor, the biggest superstar the sport’s ever seen, took a two-fight detour at welterweight after winning the featherweight title from Jose Aldo.

There, he’d avenge a submission loss (rear-naked choke) to Nate Diaz at UFC 202 before he became a two-weight world champion with a TKO of Eddie Alvarez in Nov. 2016.

The welterweight champion for the first half of that year, Lawler gave a chilling response when he was asked about a potential fight with the Irishman.

Robbie Lawler said he wasn’t taking Conor McGregor’s neck in viral interview

In June 2016, Lawler was getting ready to defend his title for a third time against Tyron Woodley at UFC 201. ‘Ruthless’ was as violent as ever, coming off two all-time great title fights against Rory Macdonald and Carlos Condit, known for how bloody they were.

On the topic of Conor McGregor, who he had been rumored to fight, Lawler ‘wasn’t too worried’ about the prospect of a super-fight.

“He’s a big draw, but wouldn’t have been good for him,” Lawler said of fighting McGregor in an interview with WSB-TV.

“How so?” the interviewer asked.

“Because if I hurt him, I wasn’t taking his neck,” Lawler said.

“What were you gonna take?” Lawler was asked again.

“His soul,” the UFC Champ answered with a straight face.

Robbie Lawler: ‘I was not in a good mood at the time’ …

Admitting they may have caught him on a bad day, Robbie Lawler, one of the most tenacious fighters in UFC history, was dead serious about how he’d handle Conor McGregor at 170lbs.

“I was not in the good mood at the time,” Lawler said of his 2016 interview about taking McGregor’s soul on the Pound 4 Pound Podcast.

“At that time, when I was fighting, that’s what I was doing. I was trying to, like, make people not wanna fight.

“People laugh [but] I kinda look back on my career now that I’m retired. Not one single submission attempt in the UFC…”

Lawler continued.

“My mindset, now I’m looking at it, I’m like, that’s silly. But, I always thought you get submitted, like, ‘Oh, you tricked me…’ But if you get your ass beat, there’s no trick to that.

“Sometimes you could get whooped in a wrestling match but it’s just slick stuff or somebody just beats the s*** out [of you]. It’s two different ways and mentalities of but that’s kinda my mindset.”

Robbie Lawler had a hall of fame worthy career inside the UFC Octagon, his ‘killed-or-be-killed’ fighting style still praised years after his retirement in 2023.

Lawler won the UFC welterweight title in 2014 after turning a heavy-handed Johny Hendricks back into a wrestler at UFC 181.

This article first appeared on Bloody Elbow and was syndicated with permission.

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