...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Shane Carwin retired on Tuesday after spending the last two years on the shelf due to a series of injuries. Today, we're flashing back to what was both Carwin's career high and low at UFC 116. Taking on Brock Lesnar that July night in 2010, Carwin nearly captured the UFC Heavyweight Championship in a shocking first round. Unfortunately for him, he didn't force a stoppage from referee Josh Rosenthal, and his body shutdown on him into the second round. Here we go back to that night, and our initial round by round report and reaction from one of the craziest Heavyweight Title fights in the history of the UFC:
MAIN EVENT: BROCK LESNAR VS. SHANE CARWIN (UFC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP)
ROUND ONE: Lesnar takes the center and slowly circles. Carwin gets in with a left jab early. Lesnar popped in with the jab and clipped Carwin with a big right and tried to get the takedown. Carwin fought it off and got to his feet, landing a knee as they separated. Carwin rocked Brock and pushed him back to the cage. Lesnar tried to get away but Carwin stayed on him. Lesnar pushed him off after eating a ton of punches. Lesnar is surviving, but he is in a bad spot here. Brock is trying to cover up and Carwin drops down with some more big punches. Lesnar gets it to half guard and has recovered. Lesnar landed a right from the bottom. Carwin postured up and dropped down with a couple of big elbows. He lands a big pucnh and Brock covers up. Carwin is still landing shots and Lesnar pushes him off and he's cut over the left eye. Carwin drops back into his half guard. The right eye is cut open now as well. Lesnar landed a couple of punches and Brock tried to scramble. He got a body lock and got Carwin to the cage. Carwin landed a knee to the body. Lesnar landed one of his own. He pushed Carwin's back on the cage. And we're getting to the second somehow. Wow. Well, we know Lesnar can take a punch.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-8 Carwin. That was a crazy round. Lesnar took a ton of shots in that round, but Carwin may have punched himself out.
ROUND TWO: Lesnar is definitely tentative here. He landed a big right and Carwin countered. Lesnar shot in and got the takedown into half guard. Lesnar landed a couple of hammerfists and a short forearm. He threw some punches to the body and tried to set up for an arm triangle. He sets it up and moves to side control and has the arm triangle. Shane is holding this off, though. Lesnar tightens it up and forces Carwin to tap. That was incredible!
WINNER: Lesnar via submission (arm triangle) at 2:19 of the second round
POST FIGHT: Lesnar said this isn't about him tonight. He said it's about his family, his doctors, his training partners, his training staff. He said he is blessed. He said he stands before the fans as a humble Champion, and he's still the toughest s.o.b. around. He said he just needed to weather the storm. He said each shot was less dramatic than the other. Carwin was then interviewed, he said Brock was a tough son of a bitch and took those shots like no one else.
STAR RATING: (****) That lived up to the hype in every way. Lesnar proved he can take punches, and he came back and showed why he's a great wrestler and a great fighter. That was a great transition to the arm triangle and then he tightened it up even further. That was incredible.
[Shane Carwin art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
(Attention MMATorch app users: Make sure to upgrade to the latest edition of the MMATorch app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device!)
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
