There were many firsts during Shane Carwin's title shot against Brock Lesner at UFC 116. It was the first time anyone had survived a barrage of punches from the The Engineer. It was the first time we'd even seen Carwin in a 2nd round! And most importantly it was the first loss of his career, a loss where he made a few mistakes, ones he won't be willing to make again.
As he stood ready for the 2nd round you could see the exhaustion in his face, and so could Brock. He knew he had nothing left, he'd left everything in round one. When he saw Brock was hurt in the 1st he went for the finish throwing everything he had at the champ, but it wasn't enough. When Lesner tightened up the arm triangle on Carwin in the 2nd it was game over.
If Carwin had picked his shots a little better on the grounded champ it may have ended a little different. Apparently we all learn from our mistakes (ok, maybe not ALL of us) and Shane Carwin will likely have learned from his loss against Brock, and he wasn't the only one that learned something that night. Cain Velasquez watched that fight and didn't make the same mistakes, his shots on Lesner were more methodical, more precise, and more effective. Carwin knows he could have beaten Brock, and so do we.
After the loss Carwin new it might be a long road to get back into title contention as it usually is. But it seems he just found a short cut, courteous of the man that gave him his first loss. With Lesner now out of his #1 contender bout against Brazilian power house Junior Dos Santos, Carwin has agreed to step in to earn a shot at Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez.
Has Carwins cardio improved? Has his back healed after surgery? Has he learnt from his costly mistakes? We'll find out June 11th.
The matchup between Dos Santos and Carwin is far more appealing to me than Lesner vs Dos Santos. These two heavy hitters will go in there to KTFO each other with extreme prejudice. Anyone that sees this thing going into the second round is nuts! But to be fair, that's what I said when he fought Lesner....
If Carwin had picked his shots a little better on the grounded champ it may have ended a little different. Apparently we all learn from our mistakes (ok, maybe not ALL of us) and Shane Carwin will likely have learned from his loss against Brock, and he wasn't the only one that learned something that night. Cain Velasquez watched that fight and didn't make the same mistakes, his shots on Lesner were more methodical, more precise, and more effective. Carwin knows he could have beaten Brock, and so do we.
After the loss Carwin new it might be a long road to get back into title contention as it usually is. But it seems he just found a short cut, courteous of the man that gave him his first loss. With Lesner now out of his #1 contender bout against Brazilian power house Junior Dos Santos, Carwin has agreed to step in to earn a shot at Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez.
Has Carwins cardio improved? Has his back healed after surgery? Has he learnt from his costly mistakes? We'll find out June 11th.
The matchup between Dos Santos and Carwin is far more appealing to me than Lesner vs Dos Santos. These two heavy hitters will go in there to KTFO each other with extreme prejudice. Anyone that sees this thing going into the second round is nuts! But to be fair, that's what I said when he fought Lesner....
We know that Carwin can take a punch, and I see him wanting to take it in close and use the clinch to wear down Dos Santos and deliver the same type of big shots he hit Mir with. Dos Santos needs to keep it on the outside to use his speed. If he lunges in with his uppercut leaving his face wide open (see many of his previous fights), he eats a big one from Carwin.
ReplyDeleteJust ask Werdum about that uppercut!! I see Carwin taking this one with power over the Brazilians speed...
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