Tag: Shane Carwin

UFC 131 Fight Card: What Mark Munoz Must Do To Defeat Demian Maia

By Bleacher Report’s Blake Dreisbach:

As the dominant wrestler in the bout, Mark Munoz has a distinct advantage in choosing where this fight takes place.

Standing up, the NCAA Division I wrestler has a solid advantage in power, but Maia is consistently improving his technical skills as seen in his post-title fight bouts versus fighters like Mario Miranda and Dan Miller.

Munoz is one of the best wrestlers in the division, and since dropping down to middleweight, he has defeated Kendall Grove, C.B. Dollaway and another standout wrestler in Aaron Simpson.

If Munoz can keep this fight on the feet, he has a good chance at knocking out Maia. Maia showed a solid chin in his five-round fight with current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, but Munoz may be able to catch him off guard and knock him down and follow up with his powerful ground and pound, which is the only way I see him taking it there.

It will be the gameplan of Munoz that wins or loses him this fight, and it will have to consist of keeping the fight on the feet and only going to the ground if he feels Maia is hurt. Taking down Maia, especially in the first round, will be a great danger because of his top-level Jiu-Jitsu skills.

Stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 131, including the latest UFC 131 Results, Fight Card Analysis,  UFC 131 News, and Live Reaction, from Vancouver

 

 

UFC 131 Shane Carwin vs. Junior dos Santos: What’s at Stake.

Bleacher Report’s Matt Juul:

UFC 131 will showcase two of the top fighters in the promotions heavyweight division, with former UFC Interim champion Shane Carwin squaring off against Ultimate Fighter 13 coach Junior Dos Santos.

For both fighters, this bout holds great significance, since the winner will face Cain Valasquez for the UFC Heavyweight championship.

Dos Santos, however, has the most at stake this weekend.

Winning a title elimination bout against Roy Nelson, Dos Santos was already in position to fight for the heavyweight title when an injury to Valasquez postponed the bout.

Not content with sitting on the sidelines, he decided to pull an Anthony Pettis, taking a fight with Brock Lesnar that would come after a stint as coach on the Ultimate Fighter.

Although his opponent has changed, Dos Santos may be in even more danger of losing his spot as the top contender due to Carwin’s heavy hands and superb wrestling.  One can even argue that Carwin is a much bigger threat than Lesnar.

As we saw with Pettis last weekend, taking a fight instead of a guaranteed title shot can prove costly, especially when your opponent is a dynamic wrestler.

Risking his shot for a fight with a former champion may end up being a terrible career choice for Dos Santos.

Shane Carwin, on the other hand, has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to quickly rebound from a failed title shot and get another chance at UFC gold.

Coming off a brutal submission defeat to then champion Brock Lesnar, Carwin, who up until that fight had finished every opponent in the first round, gassed after pummeling his opponent entering the second round.

Click here to read the entire article.

Stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 131, including the latest UFC 131 Results, Fight Card Analysis,  UFC 131 News, and Live Reaction, from Vancouver.

UFC 131 Shane Carwin vs Junior dos Santos: Predictions for UFC 131

Bleacher Report’s Dale De Souza:

When Shane Carwin lost to then-UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar by second-round Arm Triangle at UFC 116 last July, the MMA world—quick to jump to discussions about dream fights for Carwin against the likes of Cain Velasquez and Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos—was on the verge of becoming accommodated with the Brock Lesnar era and started to question whether or not they would ever get to see Carwin in meaningful fights against Velasquez or Dos Santos for as long as they lived.

Fast forward almost a year later to now, when we as a proud MMA-addicted community are less than a week away from UFC 131, and what fight do we have to call “the main event of the evening” for this Saturday’s fight card?

Four months ago, the answer was a Heavyweight bout between Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos, but on May 12, 2011, multiple Mixed Martial Arts news outlets were able to confirm that the now-former UFC Heavyweight Champion was not only out of the bout, and not only forced to have a full foot of his colon removed, but Shane Carwin has stepped in for Lesnar.

It’s the Heavyweight main event we thought we’d never see, and it’s our main event this Saturday, backed by the continuing “Gold Rush”, so to speak, of TUF 1 Middleweight runner-up Kenny Florian against the fast-rising, hard-hitting, well-rounded Muay Thai mutilation machine and Black House Featherweight prospect Diego “The Gun” Nunes, who comes in off of the heels of a big UFC 125 victory over former WEC Featherweight Champion Mike Brown.

Also, Demian Maia walks into UFC 131 with only glaring defeats to Nate Marquardt and Anderson Silva on his otherwise blooming-bright professional record, and he looks to step in front of Silva once more, provided of two things, one of which is for him to soundly make rapid work of well-known Black House affiliate and Reign MMA standout Mark Munoz, who is looking to capitalize on the success he garnered against CB Dollaway at the most recent UFC Live event.

From top to bottom, the overall fight card is stacked with a little bit of something for every MMA fan’s insatiable appetite, but what’s going to happen this Saturday when UFC 131 is all said and done?

On behalf of myself, I present to you the answer to that daring question.

In my own poetic manner, I present to you 10 truths of what to expect to go down at UFC 131!

Stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 131, including the latest UFC 131 Results, Fight Card Analysis,  UFC 131 News, and Live Reaction, from Vancouver.

UFC 131 Shane Carwin vs Junior dos Santos

Bleacher Report’s J.P. Smith polls the Bleacher Report MMA Staff on UFC 131:

UFC 131: Junior dos Santos vs Shane Carwin

Bleacher Report’s Blake Dreisbach:

UFC 131 Shane Carwin vs Junior dos Santos

Bleacher Report’s Bryan Levick:

Some are calling this version of Carwin, Shane Carwin 2.0. This Carwin may be new and improved both physically and mentally due everything he has gone through since suffering his first loss to former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 116 last July.

He underwent surgery to repair a neck injury which forced him to pull out of a bout with Roy Nelson at UFC 125. Now that he is healed physically it is time to see how he reacts after suffering his first career loss. It was an especially damaging loss considering how close Carwin came to finishing Lesnar off in the first round.

Stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 131, including the latest UFC 131 Results, Fight Card Analysis,  UFC 131 News, and Live Reaction, from Vancouver.

They say a fighter learns more from his losses than he does from his wins and if that philosophy rings true then we can expect an even more dangerous Carwin than we have seen in the past. A powerful puncher, an outstanding wrestler and one of the more intelligent fighters in the business, Carwin will give Junior Dos Santos all he can handle and may find himself opposite current UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez sometime this year.

I have had the opportunity to speak with Carwin on a few different occasions and he is a humble, down to earth gentleman who puts his family first. He still works a full time job as an engineer at a local water authority. Carwin takes great pride in the relationship he has with his fans whom call themselves the “Carwin Army”

Bryan Levick: How are you feeling physically and mentally going into your bout with Junior Dos Santos? How has your body held up to the surgery you had?

Click here to read the entire interview: