UFC 131 is set to take place on June 11 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia.The main event on the card will see two highly-ranked heavyweight fighters face each other in the Octagon as Junior dos Santos meets Shane Carwin.The card was or…
UFC 131 is set to take place on June 11 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The main event on the card will see two highly-ranked heavyweight fighters face each other in the Octagon as Junior dos Santos meets Shane Carwin.
The card was originally scheduled to feature a heavyweight title elimination bout between Dos Santos and his fellow coach on Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter, Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar recently announced that he is suffering from diverticulitis and would be unable to remain on the card.
Carwin, who was scheduled to meet Jon Olav Einemo at UFC 131 was moved into Lesnar’s spot.
It is believed that the winner of the Dos Santos versus Carwin fight will be next in line to face UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, who is currently rehabbing from shoulder surgery.
Currently, three other bouts will round out the fight card:
Kenny Florian vs. Diego Nunes
Demian Maia vs. Mark Muñoz
Mac Danzig vs. Donald Cerrone
Bleacher Report will be your source for news, analysis and opinions on the upcoming fight card.
Check back often as the fight card nears for all the UFC 131 information you need.
After learning of Brock Lesnar’s illness, UFC heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez has decided to switch strategies, in case he is to meet the former heavyweight champion’s replacement, Shane Carwin. Shane Carwin will be featured in the main event…
After learning of Brock Lesnar‘s illness, UFC heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez has decided to switch strategies, in case he is to meet the former heavyweight champion’s replacement, Shane Carwin.
Shane Carwin will be featured in the main event against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 131, after being notified from UFC president Dana White earlier this week via text message.
It is also confirmed that the winner between Carwin and Dos Santos will meet Velasquez later this year for the UFC heavyweight title.
Velasquez, who has been out of action since his title bout with Lesnar at UFC 122, acknowledged Lesnar’s absence but he said Carwin was a suitable replacement.
“He was next in line, for sure. He’s a tough guy. I think it was a good call.”
Velasquez, who is 9-0-0, will be paying close attention to this bout, as both Dos Santos and Carwin are two of the best strikers in the heavyweight division.
Carwin accepted the fight on a thirty-day notice, as he has been out of action since last year after undergoing neck surgery.
Meanwhile, Dos Santos has been nothing short of dominant, remaining undefeated during his tenure in the UFC. His most recent win was over Roy Nelson at UFC 117.
Both Carwin and Dos Santos share a total of seven knockout wins combined, which gives reason to believe why Velasquez sees the bout being contested on the feet.
“Before (with Lesnar-dos Santos), it was wrestler vs. striker,” he said. “Now it’s striker vs. striker—but they’re different. I think dos Santos is more technical and hits hard, but Carwin is a really hard puncher. You can’t pound him out. So it’s two hard hitters.”
And although he won’t have the opportunity to compete against Lesnar in a rematch anytime soon, Velasquez is optimistic of the former champion’s future in the UFC and expects him to return a better fighter.
“People get hurt all the time and pull out of fights. But he’ll come back, and he’ll come back stronger,” he said.
Filed under: UFC, NewsCREST HILL, Ill. – The MMA world got a little jolt on Thursday when the UFC and Brock Lesnar announced the heavyweight’s diverticulitis had returned and he was back on the shelf.
Count UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in …
Count UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in with that group. He was waiting in the wings with a careful eye on the planned main event at UFC 131 in June between Lesnar, the former champ, and Junior dos Santos, since that winner would get the next shot at Velasquez.
When the news broke, Velasquez had to shift gears and start thinking about Shane Carwin and dos Santos, even though a fight with either of them is likely at least five months away. Carwin will step in for Lesnar to face dos Santos, currently coaching opposite Lesnar on Season 13 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” But after conducting a seminar at Clay Guida’s MMA Stop Fitness in Crest Hill, Ill., on Friday, Velasquez told MMA Fighting he believes Lesnar will make another comeback from the digestive disorder – and will be better than ever.
“It sucks, but it happens in this sport,” Velasquez said. “People get hurt all the time and pull out of fights. But he’ll come back, and he’ll come back stronger. It sucks right now, but we already have somebody tough coming up with Shane (replacing him).”
Ryan Bader Makes a Funny on Cain Velasquez’s UFC Summit Satisfaction Survey (Middle Easy).Chael Sonnen’s Struggle With the Truth Isn’t Just His Problem—It’s Ours, Too (MMAFighting).Jon Jones and Rashad Evans Nearly Came to Blows in a Vegas Club T…
Ryan Bader Makes a Funny on Cain Velasquez’s UFC Summit Satisfaction Survey (Middle Easy).
Chael Sonnen’s Struggle With the Truth Isn’t Just His Problem—It’s Ours, Too (MMAFighting).
Jon Jones and Rashad Evans Nearly Came to Blows in a Vegas Club This Week (Cage Potato).
Pablo Garza reflects on path leading him to spectacular submission (Five Ounces of Pain).
Fabricio Werdum: I’m going to win the Strikeforce Tournament, then beat the UFC Champion (LowKick).
UFC 131: Junior dos Santos Cares More About When He Fights Than Who He Fights (MMA Convert).
Shane Carwin: I Have Everything to Gain From Fighting Junior Dos Santos (5th Round).
Dan Gable on Randy Couture’s retirement and wrestling in MMA (The Fight Nerd).
Management Breakup Splits Jon Jones, Rashad Evans (NBC Sports).
The term “expected” is seldom thrown around much in MMA circles unless you ask someone that goes off of name recognition to make their picks, but when it is said that we as a sports community should have seen something coming, the first question relate…
The term “expected” is seldom thrown around much in MMA circles unless you ask someone that goes off of name recognition to make their picks, but when it is said that we as a sports community should have seen something coming, the first question relates to how we should have seen it coming.
Fedor losing two fights in a row, Randy Couture losing a fight against a top-five light heavyweight after defending the sport’s honor, Jose “Scarface” Aldo looking vulnerable, Urijah Faber being booked for a fight against a guy that he genuinely did not like—these are all the things we should have seen coming when they went down, but the fan in all of us prevented us from seeing the events of the past year coming.
Maybe we just wanted those dream fights to happen, but for whatever reason we chose and are sticking by, the fact is we chose to not see those upsets coming.
Maybe it’s me, but we may have to add the brand new UFC 131 headliner—the long-debated Junior dos Santos vs. Shane Carwin bout, still existent as a UFC heavyweight title eliminator until otherwise confirmed—to the list of MMA events in time that we should have expected.
From the moment it was announced that Lesnar and dos Santos were announced as coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 13 and UFC 131 headliners, there’s one question we all had before and during TUF 13 before we found out about Lesnar’s recurring diverticulitis:
Why is there not the same hype for this fight as the Velasquez bout got?
Was one of the men involved not named Brock Lesnar?
Maybe it was because the belt was on the line in the Velasquez fight, but Brock Lesnar is arguably the most polarizing name in the sport right now, so the belt should not have been preventing Dana White from hyping the bejeezus out of this sucker.
We also could have pointed to Junior dos Santos, who only had the hype of being unbeaten in the UFC and being one of the three arguable most technical strikers, pound-for-pound, in the UFC heavyweight division to his credit.
Aside from that and the fact that he’s learning English and able to conduct an interview without subtitles, there’s not much you can do with JDS because he’s so damn nice.
You’ve seen him on the show…you guys know what I’m talking about.
The dude couldn’t be a jerk if it meant saving his career.
Anyway, it seemed like we had all the answers, but then diverticulitis forced itself into a rematch with Lesnar as of yesterday, so Carwin had to step in for the man who took his “0”.
Then during a discussion someone sparked up earlier today, the thought came up about why a Brock Lesnar fight, of all fights, would not be as heavily promoted up to this point, and that’s when I started questioning it myself.
Should we have expected this dream-fight to become a reality from the minute we first heard that Lesnar and Dos Santos would first coach TUF, and then meet up in Vancouver?
I mean, Velasquez and Lesnar didn’t trade too much trash talk either.
The most offensive thing I can think of was Lesnar saying he’d eat a burrito and drink a Corona after beating Velasquez, but he didn’t say too many outlandish words to Velasquez either.
Maybe the fight was never meant to happen, or maybe Dana White just wanted us to have this fight since we’ve been talking about it for so long.
Whatever the reason was, whether we should’ve seen this coming or not, let’s answer one question honestly:
Whether we should’ve seen this one coming or not, can we really say the end result is disappointing?
Au contraire, I don’t think the end result could make me any happier than I am right now.
While all the attention has been on Brock Lesnar recently, his former opponent, Junior Dos Santos has been left lurking in the shadows. Lesnar’s withdrawal from his bout with Dos Santos at UFC 131 has left the Brazilian a bit surprised, to say the…
While all the attention has been on Brock Lesnar recently, his former opponent, Junior Dos Santos has been left lurking in the shadows.
Lesnar’s withdrawal from his bout with Dos Santos at UFC 131 has left the Brazilian a bit surprised, to say the least.
“I got a little upset about this change, but I’m happy that the UFC got another opponent for me,” Dos Santos told Sherdog.com.
The opponent that Dos Santos is referring to is heavy-handed, Shane Carwin. Carwin has been out since last year after a back injury put him out of action. Carwin was originally scheduled to compete on the same card against Jon Olav Einemo, but was slotted in the main event to replace the former UFC heavyweight champion.
Although it is not the opponent he had been hoping to face, the fact that Dos Santos is still receiving the opportunity to fight is fine with him.
“His boxing skills are great,” Dos Santos said of his opponent.
“It’s gonna be a great fight with tough blows from both sides. I would say that it will end by knockout.”
Although Carwin is taking a risk of fighting Dos Santos on a thirty day notice, the winner of the heavyweight bout will be next in line to challenge UFC heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez.
While there is hardly any time to change his strategy, Dos Santos will not let this opportunity go to waste, realizing his dream of becoming UFC heavyweight champion.
“I’m in the best moment of my career and I want to make my dream of being a UFC champion come true,” Dos Santos said.
UFC 131 is set to take place on June 11 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia.
CREST HILL, Ill. – The MMA world got a little jolt on Thursday when the UFC and