Tag: Shane Carwin

White Makes Bad Decision on TUF16, "The Smashes" Coaching Choices

Before the UFC on Fuel TV card helmed by Mark Munoz vs. Chris Weidman, I was talking to the “Big Bosswald”, Brian Oswald. The news was that Dana White was going to announce the coaches for both “The Smashes” season of The Ultima…

Before the UFC on Fuel TV card helmed by Mark Munoz vs. Chris Weidman, I was talking to the “Big Bosswald”, Brian Oswald. The news was that Dana White was going to announce the coaches for both “The Smashes” season of The Ultimate Fighter, which will have the UK face off against Australia, á la TUF9, as well as the next season of TUF for FX.

Naturally, the two of us were discussing our picks and came up with plenty of strong possibilities.

“Smashes” was definitely the tougher of the two. There are, after all, only a few fighters from the UK, and even fewer from Australia. Finding matchups that both fit together schedule-wise and have realistic weight pairings is quite difficult. My guess was Dan Hardy vs. Brian Ebersole. Hardy needs no introduction. Ebersole, meanwhile, is not actually an Australian, but became a staple fighter in their MMA scene, with fourteen matches from 2006-2011 and is 4-0 in the UFC so far.

The UFC opted for Ross Pearson vs. George Sotiropoulos. The logic behind this is somewhat perplexing. Pearson, the lightweight winner of TUF9, has not been especially great since the hot start to his UFC career. He is 2-3 in his last five fights and, for most fighters, another loss would be grounds for termination.

Sotiropoulos is in a similar boat. After winning his first seven fights in the UFC, he lost to Dennis Siver and Rafael dos Anjos. While a 7-2 record is great, a three-fight losing streak is rarely forgiven in the UFC. What makes this more awkward is that Sotiropoulos is a lightweight, while Pearson dropped to featherweight last year.

These two fighters should, technically, be fighting for their jobs. Instead, they are in position for an enormous bump in fame. This ends up being a lose-lose situation for the UFC, as they will have to do a political limbo when it comes to possibly ending up in a position where they must cut one of their hottest fighters. Most seasons of TUF offer a trampoline for already-established fighters to raise their profile by coaching. This is not the case here.

Why they went with this instead of Ebersole vs. Hardy or Lombard vs. Bisping is a mystery. Still, this actually ends up as less of a missed opportunity than the primary season of TUF that will be coming up.

Slated to start this fall, with a coaches fight likely to land in late November, there were plenty of pairs that could make for sparks during the show, and dynamite for their fight. Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez, Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos, Brian Stann vs. Mark Munoz and my own pick, Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit, all made sense from PR, scheduling, matchmaking and ratings perspectives.

For reasons that do not actually seem to exist, the UFC recruited TUF10 winner Roy Nelson and former top contender Shane Carwin to become the centerpieces of the season. The two heavyweights are well past their primes and are on bumpy roads in their careers at this point after coming very close to the belt.

Roy Nelson, along with other TUF10 castmates, exploded into the UFC’s heavyweight scene. After knocking out Brendan Schaub with his now-trademark overhand right to become The Ultimate Fighter, Nelson floored Stefan Struve in under a minute and earned himself a top-contender match with phenom Junior dos Santos.

In this fight, Nelson wowed UFC fans worldwide with his ability to take a beating, but did not take a single round as dos Santos pummeled him for the full 15 minutes and took a unanimous decision win. Unfortunately, two of Nelson’s next three fights were very similar, with Frank Mir and Fabricio Werdum hitting him with every manner of strike imaginable from start to finish and walking away with unanimous decision victories.

Nelson has peppered in a pair of knockouts, beating Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 137 and, most recently, Dave Herman at UFC 146. Still, Nelson’s stardom has faded amidst his numerous lopsided losses, making one wonder why he would be called upon to coach. Never mind being called upon to coach a season that is absolutely desperate for ratings.

Shane Carwin rose to the top of the UFC’s heavyweight division very quickly. After scoring his third first-round knockout in a row, Carwin was tasked with fighting Frank Mir for the interim belt. Again, Carwin won another fight in the first round and was then set up against Brock Lesnar for a title unification bout.

Carwin lost that bout, gassing out in the second round and falling prey to an arm triangle. From there, thanks to a flare-up in Lesnar’s diverticulitis after taping concluded for The Ultimate Fighter season 13, Carwin ended up in a top-contender bout with Junior dos Santos. Carwin channeled his inner Roy Nelson and was beaten thoroughly by dos Santos, losing by decision after being punched in the face for a full 15 minutes.

That loss, his latest fight, came over a year ago. In that time, Daniel Cormier has become one of the hottest heavyweights in the world. Alistair Overeem joined the UFC. Mark Hunt turned his career around. Travis Browne flew in under the radars and joined the heavyweight top 10. Fabricio Werdum cemented himself as a top-five heavyweight in the UFC.

The heavyweight division has changed more than anything else in the UFC during that time and Carwin, in many ways, has been left behind. Likewise, as with most fighters who sit out for a year, fans have forgotten him. Those that remember him would simply remember him as the man who got choked out by Brock Lesnar and beaten down by Junior dos Santos. This does not even get into the steroids scandal that came after his loss to Brock Lesnar.

The Ultimate Fighter: Live had roundly disappointing ratings, rarely hitting one million viewers per episode. Even its finale had only half the viewers of the previous season. With another season set for FX, the UFC needed to turn around the sagging ratings and the first step towards this is picking coaches. Again, there were a dozen pairings that could have been made to put the next season of The Ultimate Fighter in a better position to succeed.

Whether or not this will prove fruitful for the UFC remains to be seen. Regardless, there is no getting around the fact that both of the coming seasons of The Ultimate Fighter are starting off with a handicap, and that the UFC is wasting an opportunity to promote fighters with stronger footing and brighter futures than these four.

This does not instantly spell doom for the entire TUF series. But the executives over at FX and Fox cannot be happy about this turn of events.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

TUF 16: Shane Carwin Calls Roy Nelson Average and Plans on Knocking Him Out

According to MMAMania.com, Shane Carwin, who has assumed the mantle of coach in The Ultimate Fighter 16, is on a collision course with opposing coach Roy Nelson.The former UFC interim heavyweight champion believes “Big Country” is an averag…

According to MMAMania.com, Shane Carwin, who has assumed the mantle of coach in The Ultimate Fighter 16, is on a collision course with opposing coach Roy Nelson.

The former UFC interim heavyweight champion believes “Big Country” is an average fighter, and furthermore, he intends on knocking him out when they eventually lock horns.

“This will be the first time in my adult life that I wont be working. I will just be focusing on developing a team to win the show and focusing on preparing to knock Roy Nelson out. That is my new job and my new passion. I know Roy likes to be the UFC’s Jester but he better know this is not a joke for me. He can keep striving for being average, I am pushing myself and those around me to find the American Dream. The dream that comes from lots of hard work and sacrifice, no gimmicks necessary,” Carwin said.

For a while now, Carwin and Nelson have been at loggerheads, so it’s bound to make for great viewing when the show airs on FX in September.

That said, both fighters hit like mules and possess some of the sturdiest chins in all of MMA. While Nelson’s only KO loss came at the hands of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski back in 2008, Carwin has never suffered the same fate.

Carwin’s last outing was a three-round drumming courtesy of current UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos back in June of 2011—something that Nelson was privy to, as almost a year earlier, he too was subjected to the punches of the division’s heaviest hitter.

Following that loss, it was revealed that Carwin (12-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) required back surgery—an injury that has kept him out of the mix for over a year.

Prior to the aforementioned defeat, “The Engineer” failed in his quest to capture UFC glory when former heavyweight titlist and mixed martial artist Brock Lesnar submitted him via arm-triangle choke.

Apropos Nelson (17-7 MMA, 4-3 UFC), having suffered a beating by Fabricio Werdum, he would then bounce back in emphatic fashion—a 51-second knockout victory over Dave Herman at UFC 146, which garnered him Knockout of the Night honors.

 

For additional information, follow Nedu Obi on Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Quote of the Day: Josh Rosenthal Was “Slow on the Trigger” During Munoz/Weidman

(A replay of the Munoz/Weidman ending in all its gory glory for those of you who missed it.) 

Right before he kinda sorta announced his pending retirement from the sport during the UFC on FOUEL TV post-fight show, Stephan Bonnar made the audacious claim that referee Josh Rosenthal should be fined and/or suspended for his late stoppage during the Mark Munoz/Chris Weidman fight. After Weidman landed some 12 or 13 unanswered shots on a helpless Munoz, I briefly thought that we were witnessing the first death in the promotion’s history, and my immediate reaction was almost that of agreement. Almost. 

Because, although it is hard to deny that Rosenthal dropped the ball Wednesday night, the stoppage was likely considered even worse because it was a revered official like Rosenthal who made it. This wasn’t Steve Mazzagati calling an eye poke a TKO or Kim Winslow letting Jan Finney return from the dead only to be killed once more. This was Josh freakin’ Rosenthal, a man who had not only made our top five referees list a couple years ago, but had easily climbed up it a few spots in the time since. This was a man who had, as GritandMettle’s Darren Jensen put it, “reffed Shogun vs Hendo perfectly” — the same goes for his excellent job in the first round of Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin’s UFC 116 heavyweight title fight. What we’re saying is, this isn’t an everyday occurrence for the guy. Hell, can anyone even remember an instance in recent memory that Rosenthal has even come close to screwing up (Faber/Mizugaki maybe)?

In retrospect, Bonnar’s assessment was a little harsh, but Rosenthal was still willing to admit that he shit the bed, so to speak, when he appeared on SiriusXM’s “Tapout Radio Show”.

Check out a few snippets from the interview after the jump.


(A replay of the Munoz/Weidman ending in all its gory glory for those of you who missed it.) 

Right before he kinda sorta announced his pending retirement from the sport during the UFC on FOUEL TV post-fight show, Stephan Bonnar made the audacious claim that referee Josh Rosenthal should be fined and/or suspended for his late stoppage during the Mark Munoz/Chris Weidman fight. After Weidman landed some 12 or 13 unanswered shots on a helpless Munoz, I briefly thought that we were witnessing the first death in the promotion’s history, and my immediate reaction was almost that of agreement. Almost. 

Because, although it is hard to deny that Rosenthal dropped the ball Wednesday night, the stoppage was likely considered even worse because it was a revered official like Rosenthal who made it. This wasn’t Steve Mazzagati calling an eye poke a TKO or Kim Winslow letting Jan Finney return from the dead only to be killed once more. This was Josh freakin’ Rosenthal, a man who had not only made our top five referees list a couple years ago, but had easily climbed up it a few spots in the time since. This was a man who had, as GritandMettle’s Darren Jensen put it, “reffed Shogun vs Hendo perfectly” — the same goes for his excellent job in the first round of Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin’s UFC 116 heavyweight title fight. What we’re saying is, this isn’t an everyday occurrence for the guy. Hell, can anyone even remember an instance in recent memory that Rosenthal has even come close to screwing up (Faber/Mizugaki maybe)?

In retrospect, Bonnar’s assessment was a little harsh, but Rosenthal was still willing to admit that he shit the bed, so to speak, when he appeared on SiriusXM’s “Tapout Radio Show”:

I came home and I watched it, and I was kind of like you know, if I was sitting here, watching this on the couch, I probably would have been talking smack about myself. I always say accountability is a huge part of the sport, and you are accountable for your actions.

As for the stoppage in question, Rosenthal understands that it was a bit on the late side, but is just trying to make sure it never happens again:

 I feel like I was just a little slow on the trigger. I don’t want to see guys take unnecessary punishment. It’s a rough sport. Everyone knows what they sign in for, but it’s a millisecond-basis game. You’re making choices right there on the spot, and in the heat of the moment, I felt like I was seeing some stuff. In hindsight, I have to step my game up and make sure I’m on point for the next guys.

So what do you guys and gals think? Should Rosenthal be punished for failing to save Munoz when he was clearly out? Or does his one misstep pale in comparison to the blunders made by far lesser referees?

–J. Jones

Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin Announced as Coaches for ‘TUF 16: Fat David vs. Goliath’


(For his final masterpiece, Michelangelo decided to pay tribute to the Biblical hero’s fall from grace through the medium of hamstone. The results were shocking, yet delicious.)

As is likely the case for most of you, we here at CagePotato are more than willing to admit that we all but completely missed out on the failed experiment that was TUF Live. The placement of the show on Friday nights, the rehashed trash-talk and pranks between coaches; it just seemed all too played out and tired to really get us hooked. The fact that Dominick Cruz tore his ACL with only a couple episodes to go only furthered our belief that the season would have been a complete loss if not for the uplifting story of the season’s lightweight winner, Don Cheadle (or something like that).

So when Dana White informed USA TODAY Sports yesterday that the coaches for this season would be polar opposite heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin, it more than piqued our interest. Aside from being the winner of the show’s tenth (and arguably least talent filled) season, TUF: Heavyweights, Nelson is by all accounts, one entertaining and funny sumbitch. Carwin, on the other hand, has shown before that he is up for a good joshing as long as it is not aimed at him. If you recall, the last time we got on Carwin’s bad side, Old Dad packed up his things, fled, faked his death, died his eyebrows, and attended his own funeral as a man named Phil Schiffley. The last we heard, he was still reporting on all things MMA from a one man vessel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean out of fear that “The Engineer” was still looking for him. So clearly, the potential for hilarity between these two on the set is higher than Nelson’s cholesterol levels.


(For his final masterpiece, Michelangelo decided to pay tribute to the Biblical hero’s fall from grace through the medium of hamstone. The results were shocking, yet delicious.)

As is likely the case for most of you, we here at CagePotato are more than willing to admit that we all but completely missed out on the failed experiment that was TUF Live. The placement of the show on Friday nights, the rehashed trash-talk and pranks between coaches; it just seemed all too played out and tired to really get us hooked. The fact that Dominick Cruz tore his ACL with only a couple episodes to go only furthered our belief that the season would have been a complete loss if not for the uplifting story of the season’s lightweight winner, Don Cheadle (or something like that).

So when Dana White informed USA TODAY Sports yesterday that the coaches for this season would be polar opposite heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin, it more than piqued our interest. Aside from being the winner of the show’s tenth (and arguably least talent filled) season, TUF: Heavyweights, Nelson is by all accounts, one entertaining and funny sumbitch. Carwin, on the other hand, has shown before that he is up for a good joshing as long as it is not aimed at him. If you recall, the last time we got on Carwin’s bad side, Old Dad packed up his things, fled, faked his death, died his eyebrows, and attended his own funeral as a man named Phil Schiffley. The last we heard, he was still reporting on all things MMA from a one man vessel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean out of fear that “The Engineer” was still looking for him. So clearly, the potential for hilarity between these two on the set is higher than Nelson’s cholesterol levels.

And although Carwin did in fact take a year away from action following his UFC 131 loss to Junior Dos Santos to search the world over for Fowlkes, he also spent a good deal of time rehabilitating his back. Coincidentally, it was this very injury that forced him out of his original matchup with Nelson at UFC 125.

“Big Country” most recently found his way back to the win column with a first round knockout of Dave Herman at UFC 146. Just 2-3 in his past five, Nelson certainly won’t be looking at a title shot with a win over Carwin, but a victory would undoubtedly be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, of his Zuffa career.

And in other TUF coaching news…

For those of you who didn’t stick around to catch the post-fight show on FUEL TV last night, DW also announced that the coaches for the second international season of TUF, which will see fighters from the UK square off against Australia’s finest, will be TUF 9 winner Ross Pearson and TUF 6 standout George Sotiropoulus. Both men have fallen on hard times as of late, with G Sots dropping his past two to Dennis Siver (via decision) and Rafael Dos Anjos (via lawn chair KO). After dropping to featherweight following a 4-2 UFC stint at lightweight and scoring a unanimous decision victory over Junior Assuncao, Pearson most recently screwed our parlay over royally when he was knocked out by Cub Swanson in the second round of their tilt at UFC on FX 4.

So, Potato Nation, do these matchups do anything for you?

–J. Jones

Roy Nelson, Shane Carwin to Serve as Coaches on the Ultimate Fighter 16

Get ready for a little more Big Country on your television screens.UFC heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin have been selected as the coaches for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.Sources close to the show informed Bleacher Report of the news…

Get ready for a little more Big Country on your television screens.

UFC heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin have been selected as the coaches for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Sources close to the show informed Bleacher Report of the news on Wednesday. USA Today confirmed the news in Thursday morning’s print edition of the newspaper.

The pair will headline the second season of the show on FX, which is scheduled to premiere in the fall.

Carwin has been out of action since losing a title eliminator bout to Junior dos Santos in 2011. Nelson, meanwhile, last appeared at UFC 146 in May, where he scored a knockout win over Dave Herman. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Rumor: Brock Lesnar Will Return to the UFC by the End of 2012


(Inferior heavyweight contender, or marketing genius?!) 

Perhaps we’re in the minority here, but we’re getting pretty God damn sick of mixed martial artists throwing around the word “retirement” like Kim Kardashian throws around the word “marriage.” Because retirement, like marriage, is a sacred institution, and nowadays it seems as if every other fighter is taking a big, steaming turd on what was once holy ground. In the past year alone, both Jamie Varner and more recently B.J. Penn have retired, only to come out of said retirement before anyone could even assess their retirement in the first place. Though the jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz and Jason Miller will be out of action, it’s looking like you can add none other than former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar to the former list, as it has been reported by co-Host of Tough Talk on wrestlingobserver.com, Mike Sawyer, that Lesnar will return to the UFC within the year. He broke the news over his Twitter:

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
Had an interesting conversation with someone VERY close to all the Brock Lesnar stuff. He is fighting THIS YEAR in UFC & not Frank Mir…

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
plans change all the time, but the name I was told isn’t Roy.

Brian ?@FrontRowBrian
If it’s not Mir fighting Lesnar in UFC later this year as @TOUGHTALKMMA reports, who is it? @roynelsonmma? @stefanstruve? @ShaneCarwin II?

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
one of the above.

For those of you with the memory capacity of Sammy Jankis, Lesnar announced his retirement from the sport following his first round TKO loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141. UFC 141 was a mere six months ago.


(Inferior heavyweight contender, or marketing genius?!) 

Perhaps we’re in the minority here, but we’re getting pretty God damn sick of mixed martial artists throwing around the word “retirement” like Kim Kardashian throws around the word “marriage.” Because retirement, like marriage, is a sacred institution, and nowadays it seems as if every other fighter is taking a big, steaming turd on what was once holy ground. In the past year alone, both Jamie Varner and more recently B.J. Penn have retired, only to come out of said retirement before anyone could even assess their retirement in the first place. Though the jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz and Jason Miller will be out of action, it’s looking like you can add none other than former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar to the former list, as it has been reported by co-Host of Tough Talk on wrestlingobserver.com, Mike Sawyer, that Lesnar will return to the UFC within the year. He broke the news over his Twitter:

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
Had an interesting conversation with someone VERY close to all the Brock Lesnar stuff. He is fighting THIS YEAR in UFC & not Frank Mir…

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
plans change all the time, but the name I was told isn’t Roy.

Brian ?@FrontRowBrian
If it’s not Mir fighting Lesnar in UFC later this year as @TOUGHTALKMMA reports, who is it? @roynelsonmma? @stefanstruve? @ShaneCarwin II?

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
one of the above.

For those of you with the memory capacity of Sammy Jankis, Lesnar announced his retirement from the sport following his first round TKO loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141. UFC 141 was a mere six months ago.

Now, this rumor may not be coming from the most reliable source, but if there is any truth to this, then we gotta ask what the hell DW and company are thinking. Oh wait, they’re thinking that having Lesnar back in the UFC will significantly add to their stacks of cash which already stand higher than Joe Silva on a step ladder.

But Sergio Hernandez of CageSideSeats seems to think that we are all being made fools of, and that the UFC have become nothing than pawns in a possible WWE storyline. He writes:

In his short career, he defeated a Hall of Famer, won the heavyweight championship and became the biggest pay-per-view (PPV) draw in the history of the company.

Four months later, he was back in WWE, F5ing John Cena out of nowhere and kicking off their rivalry which culminated in a terrific match at Extreme Rules.

Following Lesnar’s loss to Cena that night, he attacked WWE COO Triple H. Snapping “The Game’s” arm, he hasn’t been seen since and his old mouthpiece Paul Heyman showed up at one point to announce his client’s resignation and subsequent lawsuit against WWE.

Of course, in the world of professional wrestling, this is all a charade.

So when Lesnar showed up at last night’s UFC 146 event and rumors began swirling the former champion was looking to get his old job back, it get me thinking [sic].

According to Dave Meltzer, Lesnar’s meeting with White did not go well. Perhaps the UFC President felt the biggest star in the sport was genuinely interested in making a comeback only to find out his appearance was all to help legitimize the storyline in which he quit WWE.

Meltzer also mentioned a “game is being played.”

It’s unclear what he means by that. Perhaps the aforementioned theory is true and Lesnar plus Vince McMahon is simply using the UFC.

Or maybe Dana White — who has had meetings with McMahon in the past — is helping an old friend with his new gig?

We gotta say, this theory makes much more sense than the actual possibility of Lesnar returning to the UFC. As Hernandez also mentioned, it’s not like the beatings Lesnar took at the hands of Cain Velasquez and the Ubereem have been long forgotten, so who would honestly expect Lesnar’s return to be anything but a marketing ploy? One thing’s for sure, if he were to return, it surely wouldn’t help add to the legitimacy of a sport that is constantly trying to gain credibility in the mainstream.

But on the outside chance Lesnar actually is returning, Sawyer seems convinced that he will either face Stefan Struve, Roy Nelson, or Shane Carwin. We can go ahead and cross Struve off that list, because he is not nearly well known enough to be facing a guy like Lesnar, even though he has about 5 times the experience. Nelson has been angling for a fight with Lesnar for what seems like an eternity now, even to the point that he would be willing to go to the WWE to “whoop his ass,” so perhaps all of his trash talking could finally pay off. As for Carwin, he and Lesnar already engaged in a classic war at UFC 116, and Carwin finally has a return date tentatively set, so that could make for the most interesting storyline of the three, but what do you think, Potato Nation? Should we even be considering this lunacy as a possibility?

–J. Jones