Like most everyone else watching UFC 189, Matt Brown couldn’t help but sit back and marvel at the heart Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald showed in their brutal welterweight title scrap.
After a couple major momentum swings, Lawler continued his late-career resurgence, as he finally stopped his tenacious foe 60 seconds into the fifth round. Both men left with battle scars -- Lawler a badly split lip and MacDonald a busted nose -- and the bout instantly became a frontrunner for best fight of 2015.
“Beautiful fight,” Brown said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference.