Note to potential Robbie Lawler opponents: Mind your manners.

Lawler knocked out Frank Trigg in the fourth round of the main event of the Icon "Epic" card Saturday night at Blaisdell Arena.

It was Trigg's first attempt at defending the title he won from Jason "Mayhem" Miller last year. With the victory, Lawler became Icon's first two-time middleweight champion.

Lawler said he was determined to knock out Trigg — even delivering a skull-rocking final right hook over the referee's arm as Trigg lay prone on the canvas at the end of the fight — because Trigg "never had respect for me or my teammates."

"He's a warrior, I'll give him that," Lawler said. "But he didn't show me any respect. He kissed my cheek (before the match). When I was on top of him, he even gouged my eye."

Trigg appeared to be in control in the first round, avoiding Lawler's attempts to lure him into a stand-up fight and taking Lawler to the mat at will.

That, Lawler said, was part of his plan. He said he knew Trigg wanted a ground-and-pound fight, and so he let Trigg waste his energy on take-down moves.

Straddled by Trigg on the canvas, Lawler effectively used his butterfly defense to block most of Trigg's blows.

In the second round, Lawler rocked Trigg with a right hook and pressed his advantage with a straight left, a left upper cut and a right hook. Lawler continued the assault on the mat until a timeout was called so Trigg's corner could clean the blood from his face.

Both fighters returned for the third round clearly exhausted. Trigg pressed the action, landing several unanswered shots as Lawler retreated.

"I would have hit back, but he was hitting like a bitch and I knew he couldn't hurt me," Lawler said. "I just rolled with him. If he was a good guy, he probably would have caught me with a hard one."

A minute and 40 seconds into the fourth round, Lawler floored Trigg with a devastating left hook-right hook-left upper cut combination. Then came the extra shot as a message.

"If it was Niko (Vitale), I wouldn't have done that, because Niko's the man and he has respect," Lawler said. "Trigg has no respect."

In the undercard, Miller made short work of Hector Urbina with a knockout 1:11 into the first round, and Charuto Verrissimo pummeled Lars Haven en route to another first-round knockout.

Also, former "The Contender" participant Jeremy Williams scored a third-round TKO over Charles Jones, who was beaten, and exhausted and couldn't continue, and Po'ai Suganuma took a close third-round decision over Nate Carey.

RESULTS

Dwayne Haney def. Devon Damo (2nd rd. submission-choke)

Ryan Lee def. Jay Bolos (3rd rd. dec)

Scott Anderson def. PJ Dean (3rd rd. dec)

Kimo Woelfel def. Derrick Keasley (3rd rd. dec)

Kala Hose def. Ron Verdadero (1st rd. KO)

Justin Buchholz def. Marshall Harvest (1st rd. KO)

Jeremy Williams def. Charles Jones (3rd rd. TKO)

Po'ai Suganuma def. Nate Carey (3rd rd. dec)

Jason "Mayhem" Miller def. Hector Urbina (1st rd. KO)

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.