by Sol Rayos

Created on: July 26, 2009

All the interest behind the UFC can be summed up in a few words, Tom "The Filthy Mauler" Lawlor. This guy is nuts. I'm not talking Brazil nuts, like Noguiera (sp), and I don't mean nuts like a Georgia pecan like that blonde guy that was on the Ultimate Fighter TV Show was. Lawlor without a doubt is Coco-nuts. I've researched the guy and there are rumors abound about his personal life. You name it, people are writing it about Tom Lawlor. I don't want to slander the man but some of the more tame rumors are that he was a school teacher, he's friends with the Kool-Aid man, he like Brock Lesnar was an accomplished collegiate and professional wrestler, he's a Rhodes scholar and Nobel Laureate, he was once stranded at sea and was rescued by a pelican (this one is particularly crazy, the story goes that he fell off a cruise ship in the Bahamas and a pelican mistook him for a fish, dive bombed, scooped him up in his beak pouch thing and then spit him out over some bar called Irish Kevin's in Key West). The stories are off the charts. And then he fights as an unknown, an under-undercard fight at UFC 100 and wins submission of the night, after one of the more heart touching weigh-in tributes ever to the recently incarcerated UFC super fan, [name redacted due to legal issues], who it is rumored took the fall for a good friend who happens to have the initials TL.

So to finally answer the question, this guy is why there is so much interest in the UFC. He fights, he's a scholar, he's a hero with a tragic past, and a villian with a comedic future. He descended from giants like Borgolf from the Viking sagas. He's got tattoos. A wicked sense of humor and keen insight. He's exciting to watch. And that's why everyone is so interested in him. He is the past, present, and future of UFC. Any overweight loner high school kid or overweight loner middle aged divorcee see's him fight and says, "Man, if that Tom Lawlor guy can do it, so can I." And that's the American dream, thinking that you can do whatever you want because you have no idea what you're talking about. I know that sounds cynical but it's meant to be inspiring. If you think you can be the next "Filthy Mauler" or fight everyone who gives you a mean mug at Buffalo Wild Wings when you're up there watching the real "Filthy Mauler" taking it to guys on Spike or some Zuffa pay-per-view event then be that guy. But only if it's going to make you happy and you're not going to blame it on me for writing this because I've probably used enough trademarked names and written enough to be construed as slanderous libel to warrant the removal of this posting from Helium but it doesn't matter because Tom Lawlor will fight another day. And the rumors will continue to fly about him and what he's really like outside of the octagon. Which is why people love the UFC because it's full of athletes with "Don't Mess with Me Looks" and crazy stories which compliment to these personas.

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