Tom Lawlor and the 5 Great Walkout Artists in the UFC Right Now

The UFC is not exactly a hotbed of walkout artistry. For the most part, UFC brass seem to prefer a more "businesslike" approach to the cage.

But I ask you: What's better for business than entertainment? Why are people tuning in to consume your product? Why must we suppress freedom of expression? I thought we lived in the United States of America, after all. It seems I was mistaken. Pardon me very much.

Because of this unconscionable blindness, we have to look to the old days of Pride, Dream and, to a lesser extent, the modern days of Bellator—which is embracing a more theatrical approach to stagecraft—for the true pioneers and innovators in this critical area. This would include Genki Sudo, the unquestioned GOAT in this field.

With all that said, though, a few fighters still find a way to let their fun flag fly on the way to the Octagon. It never fails to draw laughs, a few chills and plenty of attention.

Tom Lawlor fights Gian Villante this Saturday at UFC on Fox 16 and in the undercard main event, no less. Will he have a few tricks up his sleeve? One can only hope.

In any case, Lawlor is not the only one with some flair. Here are the five active UFC fighters who do it best.

The actual song is important, but it's not the only metric. There has to be showmanship, or showwomanship. There has to be a mood set. It has to get the crowd lit. Get it? Got it? Great. Here goes.

Honorable Mentions

Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Ronda Rousey

These fighters are listed in no particular order:

• Ronda Rousey
• Clay Guida
• Benson Henderson
• Johny Hendricks
• Urijah Faber
• Erik Perez
• Robbie Lawler
• Carla Esparza
• Cain Velasquez
• Roy Nelson
• Edson Barboza
• Anderson Silva

5. James Te-Huna

Right off the bat, you'd be remiss if you didn't take a look at James Te-Huna's signature walkout, a nifty synchronized dance number performed to the Men In Black theme song.

Te-Huna has done this one at least twice, at UFC Fight Night 43 and UFC on Fuel TV 7. And check out the shades and the suits. Te-Huna loses points for his relatively infrequent schedule (and, thus, performances), but he's still solidly on this list.

4. Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor is No. 4 with a bullet.

I know, who'd have thunk it. The best showman in the biz does it in the cage, on the mic and as he enters the arena.

Anyone who watched UFC 189 can attest to that. His walkout, in which fellow Irish legend Sinead O'Connor sang him out with a live performance of "The Foggy Dew," laid the chicken skin upon many a forearm.

In order to do that, McGregor definitely seemed to receive some kind of special dispensation (which extended to opponent Chad Mendes, who took advantage with the most soporific country song he could find), but still. 

The fact that every Irish person in the building, authentic and otherwise, screamed his or her bloody head off as McGregor walked to the cage draped in the tricolour didn't exactly spoil the mood.

3. Tim Kennedy

Give it up for the best walkout song in the UFC.

Tim Kennedy goes light on the personal dramatics but makes up for it with his regular entrance theme, the war ballad "Rooster" by Alice in Chains. 

Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell wrote the song for his father, a Vietnam War veteran. It's a dark and dramatic imagining of that experience, and it's fitting for Kennedy, a Green Beret, Army sniper and decorated veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kennedy seems to be a reasonably affable person outside of fighting, but when it's time to fight, he's all business. For that, this song appears to put him, and everyone else, in the right state of mind.

2. Yoshihiro Akiyama

Yoshihiro Akiyama doesn't fight much these days; he has only three contests to his name in the past four years.

The 39-year-old is still under the UFC umbrella, though, and when he does compete, he still gets it done on the walkout beat.

Wildly famous in Asia, Sexyama brings high drama to the UFC, reminiscent of the good old days when Pride made a conscious effort to go over the histrionic waterfall at every opportunity. 

Flanked on either side by a voluminous entourage, Akiyama proceeds toward the fighting surface to Andrea Bocelli's operatic "Time to Say Goodbye." But that's not all. Oh, no. Midway through the walk, Akiyama, in full gi, kneels in prayer. And then he prays. And prays. Still praying. Then, he stands and finishes the entrance.

Above is a version from his K-1 days (and before he fought Kazushi Sakuraba, no less). The UFC version is a little less soaring, but you get the idea.

1. Tom Lawlor

Give it up for the man, the myth and, yes indeed, the legend. Tom Lawlor is the greatest MMA walkout artist that the United States has ever borne from its collective bosom. 

Tom Lawlor is there to have a good time. And he's earned a pretty nice following because of it.

And it's not just the humor, which is genuine even when one is not grading on the "for an MMA fighter" curve. It's the breadth as well as the depth.

Who could forget his entrance at UFC 100, when he led Seth Petruzelli to the cage in a collar to the dulcet tones of "Who Let the Dogs Out"? 

How about UFC 113, when he came out impersonating Rocky movie villain Apollo Creed?

And let us not—nay, never—forget the coup de grace, his entrance at UFC Fight Night 20, wherein he used a little song by the name of "Real American," penned by Rick Derringer and immortalized by a professional wrestler you might be familiar with. Hogan. Hulk Hogan.

I mean, it's all so good the UFC put out an official video highlight reel, encompassing weigh-ins as well as walkouts. Watch and enjoy.

Scott Harris writes about walkouts and other MMA topics for Bleacher Report. For more walkout commentary and stuff like that, follow Scott on Twitter.