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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC heavyweight Shane Carwin was handed a spot in a Title shot last November against Brock Lesnar before Lesnar's battle with diverticulitis took that fight off the UFC's schedule. After his performance over Frank Mir at UFC 111 on Saturday night in Newark, N.J., Carwin has now earned that shot at Lesnar.
As with all of Carwin's fights, the fight would not reach the second round, but Mir did survive almost twice as long as any of Carwin's previous opponents.
Carwin pushed Mir to the cage multiple times in the opening minutes, wearing Mir down with short punches and his size against the fence. After a bad separation by referee Dan Miragliotta, Carwin again pushed Mir to one of the corners in the Octagon.
Carwin then landed a short left uppercut that rocked Mir, and he followed with three to four more in quick succession that buckled the legs of the former Champion and sent him to the ground. Carwin continued the brutal assault with punches to the side of Mir's head before Mir, in a last gasp of desperation, tried to roll out to grab one of Carwin's arms.
Carwin, however, shook him off and landed another shot that put him face down with his arms outstretched. Four more punches to the side of the head later, Carwin was the new Interim Heavyweight Champion, with the knockout victory making him a perfect 12-0.
The win sets up a July meeting with Lesnar at UFC 116 in Las Vegas. Lesnar came into the Octagon following the bout to a mixture of boos and cheers, but mostly boos, for the first stare down between the two fighters. Lesnar congratulated Carwin on the victory before letting him know that the belt around his waist was a "make believe" belt and he's still the real Champ. Carwin agreed and said that's why he's going after him.
The bout that was expected in November will finally come to fruition, and the UFC's two biggest heavyweights will battle for the undisputed UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 116.
Penick's Analysis: Carwin's power is damned impressive, but Mir was clearly not the right fighter to challenge Carwin to his limits. Lesnar will be that challenge, as he's a quicker, bigger and more athletic version of Shane Carwin. That said, Carwin has proven to be the more powerful and adept striker, and that matchup between Lesnar's speed, power and wrestling to Carwin's KO power is going to make for one hell of a Heavyweight Title fight.
I just want to know what Mir's gameplan was for this fight. He needed this fight on the ground to avoid what ultimately happened, but instead he was stuck against the cage with Carwin's cinder block-like hands peppering him with shots until he was out cold. Mir's path to a third fight with Lesnar is going to take a bit longer now.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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