Lawson’s emergence and re-introduction to the world has given Penn State wrestling fans the excitement of seeing a long, lost cousin unexpectedly re-appear in a Hollywood blockbuster.
He’s gone from a football player who never panned out to a wrestler who was comfortable living in the shadow of some of the pillars of the sport to a man on the verge of injecting electricity in the heavyweight division that hasn’t been there since Daniel Cormier retired.
There are certainly heavyweights worth getting excited for, but, for the most part, it’s been a while since seeing heavyweights on the ground has raised anybody’s heartrate, and Hritsko feels Lawson is the perfect guy to bring back excitement to heavyweight wrestling in MMA.
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“It’s no offense to him but there were some other Penn Staters at the time that kind of overshadowed him with their success,” Hritsko said. “I remember him, at the time, being a tough heavyweight and they were talking about NFL scouts coming to look at him because that was a path he was considering, so I remember some of that vaguely. Obviously, he didn’t end up going to the NFL, he ended up fighting MMA, which was a better path for him.”
