Tyron Woodley KO’s Lawler at UFC 201, wants Nick Diaz at UFC 202

The “Ruthless” reign of Robbie Lawler is officially over – for now anyways.

Lawler’s rule atop of the 170 lbs division came to an end last night in Atlanta after 5 consecutive victories and 2 successful title defenses. And it came to an end with a quickness.

After being away from the cage for 17 months, Ferguson, Missouri’s own Tyron Woodley brought the hammer down on Lawler in the form of an overhand right that would separate the now former champ from consciousness.

T-Wood would follow with 5 more shots after dropping Lawler to become the 9th champion in the history of the UFC welterweight division.

So, who’s next for the champ. After dropping the title via a brutal KO such as this, Lawler won’t exactly have to go to the back of the line – but he’ll certainly have to win one or two fights to get back to the front.

The correct answer is Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. With 7 straights wins, his last 3 coming over a former champ in Johny Hendricks, former #1 contender Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger, Thompson is the hottest fighter in the division right now.

If the UFC decides to ignore Thompson as the obvious choice, an impressive win for either Carlos Condit or Demain Maia in Vancouver could sway the UFC brass into giving them the next title shot. Condit versus Maia will headline UFC on FOX 21 at the end of August.

Then there’s Nick Diaz. His 18 month suspension from a failed drug test back at UFC 183 ends tomorrow and Woodley has already stated that he’d like to defend the belt against him at UFC 202 in a few weeks. He even had the nerve to say it to the true #1 contender himself. Check out the video below and let us know who you want to see Woodley make his first title defense against in the comments.