I'm not a betting man, but sometimes I think I should be. This weekend's upcoming UFC heavyweight title-unification bout between former WWE star Brock Lesnar (yeah... he's never living that one down) and the world's most fightingest engineer Shane Carwin looks pretty clear cut to me.
Both fighters cut down to 265 and are jacked; these are true heavyweights. They're probably going to want to reinforce the cage for this one.
Anyways, I have a hard time imagining anything aside from a first round stoppage with Carwin getting his hand raised when it's all said and done. Let's look at a couple factors:
Anyways, that`s my take on things. With Fedor Emelianenko losing to Fabricio Werdum last weekend this title match should provide a clear cut number 1 pound-for-pound heavyweight.
I don't know. I understand Carwin punches hard (that may be an understatement) but Brock's chin is granite. And I think he has the edge on the ground based on his superior wrestling pedigree and size advantage (I know they're techinically the same height and weight, but to me Brock is the bigger man). I think both your guys' reasoning is sound, but I can still see this fight going either way.
I'm curious to get an MMA fan's take on the Fedor situation. Is Fedor washed up? Was he overrated to begin with? Does strikeforce have better heavys than UFC? I heard that some people are speculating that Fedor got mixed up with the Russian mob and threw the fight. I don't think that's outside the realm of possibilities, seeing as he didn't appear to want to get out of the initial triangle/armbar. He looked content to just wait for the right moment to tap. And then in the post-figh presser, he looked like he didn't care. It all seems odd to me.
And what's up with that guy who got killed last week. A 6'9" lightweight? I heard he actually weighed in at 150lb. How could someone that skinny possibly pass the physical?
I don't think we can definitively say much about Lesnar's chin aside from it's never really been tested. He did look a little wobbly against Mir though, Lesnar was losing that fight on the feet. And with that being the case Carwin's not the kind of guy you want testing your jaw. Also, while I'd give the speed advantage to Lesnar I'd say that Carwin is, at the very least, just as strong, so I don't see a real size advantage there.
And with Fedor, I don't buy that he's washed up, he got caught and that's about it. He may not be the best p4p out there anymore, but he did have a pretty long reign at the top (he riding a 28 fight win streak [32 if you don't count the first questionable loss] before losing to Werdum).
fedor got caught, and everyone gets caught eventually. it was a case of him being over confident and thinking he could over power werdum's guard (like he's done with nogueria and everyone else in the past) and he just couldn't this time.
that being said, even though fedor goes down as the greatest mma fighter of all time so far, his time has past. he got by on unbelievable skill/toughness, but he never had world class athleticism. plus, when you look at carwin and lesnar, fedor would have been giving up 30 pounds. he's a cruiser in a world of heavies, and that was going to get him eventually too (see Holyfield vs. Lennox)
soooo... first round went pretty much as i expected it to. second round not so much. at least brock was a gracious winner this time around.
carwin by knock out. i don't think it'll even be close.