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Five things I’m focusing on for the Brock Lesnar/Shane Carwin UFC 116 fight
By Zach Arnold | July 1, 2010
Dave Meltzer has his list and here is mine.
Will this be the predictable ‘wrestleboxer’ style of match or will we get a swerve?
Notwithstanding what Brock Lesnar has said to tweak everyone regarding having Peter Welch coach him to stand-up and fight like a southpaw, the conventional wisdom is that we’ll have two guys in a five-round fight who will be lucky to make it past the second round.
But what if we get a sluggish fight with two guys who get tired quickly and it drags along? Let’s say that neither man is able to get a KO. I highly doubt we’ll see a submission in this match, though as we’ve seen in the past with Lesnar you can submit him and if Carwin is able to avoid having Brock sit on top of him and wear him out like he did to Frank Mir, I’d love to see Shane test him on the ground.
Pressure.
On every big stage Brock Lesnar has been on his life, he’s thrived under pressure. He loves it. Untouchable. The only time he didn’t care for pressure was when he tried to make the Minnesota Vikings squad, but that was largely a reflection upon Brock’s personality. If he cares about something, he can accomplish it. If he doesn’t want to put the time into doing something, he just moves on.
With Brock Lesnar, his track record says that he won’t wilt under pressure.
I wonder about Shane Carwin being under pressure. Of course, I’m amused by UFC pushing Shane Carwin in TV ads this week as someone who has knocked out all of his opponents in the first round. But, I do wonder what would happen if the fight goes past the second round. I don’t care how great Shane’s training camps are and what altitude he’s training at; he doesn’t have someone who can punch with the power that Brock Lesnar can. Lesnar is a steamroller. He can very well wear out Carwin and sap his energy level through physical punishment.
Speed.
The conventional wisdom is that Carwin will be the faster fighter. He also will, probably, display the better technique during the fight. However, with Brock Lesnar coming off of his illness, I am very curious to see if he’s the same size as he usually is or if he comes into the fight a little lighter. If he comes in a little lighter, that would certainly help increase his speed and agility — which he already had in a freakish manner in the first place.
Can Carwin use his speed and capitalize with better technique to cherry pick Lesnar in the stand-up game?
Brock Lesnar’s chin.
Does he have one? He’s not a fan of taking punches. No one is. But when Shane Carwin tries to keep the fight standing, is he going to be able to withstand some heavy blows to the face? I don’t care how many coaches you bring into a training camp, you can’t teach someone to have a chin and you aren’t going to magically alter their stand-up ability in the course of a couple of months. Bad habits are bad habits. Against someone with real boxing skills, I have a lot of questions about Brock getting knocked out.
Who has the better coaching and who will be more useful corner men during the fight with advice?
Greg Jackson and his affiliate camps are highly-regarded as the best in MMA and the most consistent. Carwin is a disciplined fight who starts slow and then when things start to get shaky kind of ‘wakes up’ and starts motoring fast to finish his opponent. Will Brock be able to capitalize on this tendency or will Shane’s coaches be able to alter the game plan enough to throw a curve ball at Brock and change the pace early in the fight.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
We’ve all seen the kind of power Brock Lesnar has in his freakishly fast striking (case in point, the first shot that connected with Heath Herring sent the guy what can only be describes as ass over tea kettle…I’m shocked Herring even survived that, let alone remained conscious…it shattered his orbital bone is my understanding). Shane Carwin is another guy with freakish striking speed and power. This is going to go one of two ways. It’s either going to be a slugfest or someone will want no part of the striking game after engaging for a few minutes, and it will turn into a wretleboxing match. Either way, as long as they can avoid the usual lay-and-pray of wrestler vs. wrestler, it should be a hell of a fight. Consider that PPV ordered!
I think Lesnar is quicker than Carwin by quite a bit. Carwin is very powerful, but kind of plodding. Lesnar moves extremely well for his size. In fact, if you take into account that increased size has a negative effect on your speed, Lesnar might be the best athlete in MMA.
Lesnar is faster and Carwin hits harder. I think you have it backwards. This fight is going to come down to size/athleticism–Brock is much larger and moves with more explosion and suddenness. I don’t think Carwin will be able to stop Brock’s takedowns and Brock is going to beat him into Bolivian
This will be an exciting as hell 3 minutes.
It better be. No bogging down into two winded behemoths, hopefully. Imagine them both folded over, hands on knees, in the middle of round two. Nah, that ain’t gonna happen. This will be over quickly.
I don’t see the fight going out of the first round. I think the question’s going to be whether Lesnar will be able to use his incredible speed to take Carwin down and pound him out or whether Carwin will be able to tie Lesnar up standing and use his dirty boxing to get the KO. Either way, like Fluyid says, it should be an exciting as hell 3 minutes. The UFC hasn’t had this many pounds of angry beef in the cage since they instituted weight classes.
Brock by L’n’P
I was on the press call for this fight last week…Brock said he was already spot on 265 and didn’t expect to be much bigger come fight time. He said that he purposefully hasn’t put all the weight he lost back on.
[QUOTE]However, with Brock Lesnar coming off of his illness, I am very curious to see if he’s the same size as he usually is or if he comes into the fight a little lighter.[/QUOTE]
Lesnar is definitely coming in lighter for this fight. As Brad mentioned above, Lesnar has claimed that he is already at 265 and will cut no weight for the fight.
http://www.mmamania.com/2010/6/22/1530592/brock-lesnar-ufc-116-will-be-my