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UFC 131 Fight Card: Should We’ve Seen Junior Dos Santos vs. Shane Carwin Coming?

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…

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.

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UFC 131 Fight Card: Junior Dos Santos on Shane Carwin: "It Will End by Knockout"

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.

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Brockwatch 2011: With Lesnar Gone, UFC Scrambles to Make Chicken Salad Out of Summer PPV Schedule

(Pic: MMA Soldier)

It was rampant speculation time across the interwebs on Friday, after yesterday’s announcement that Brock Lesnar’s diverticulitis has returned with a vengeance. “Is Brock done?” we all wondered aloud. Is Carwin vs. dos Santos actually a better fight? Can the UFC rebound from a couple of weeks that saw the main events of UFC 130, 131 and 133 all go up in smoke? And, dear God, are Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz next to suffer some bizarre malady, causing a reshuffling of the only PPV still left in one piece? Nobody knows.

What we do know is this: Brock Lesnar turns 34 in July and twice now since 2009 he’s seen his career indefinitely sidetracked by being the world’s only millionaire athlete to get a near fatal disease from not eating enough vegetables. Age has never been particularly kind to jumbo-sized athletes and even for a professional wrestler, Lesnar’s job history has been pretty flighty over the years. So, while we can’t say with any kind of certainty that his MMA career might be over over, Lesnar’s second bout with a strange digestive infection nobody had ever heard of before two years ago can’t exactly be considered a good thing. Apparently, the first time he went through this the UFC forgot to tell us that diverticulitis is something that sticks around for the rest of your life. Whoops. But we digress. What it all means for Lesnar, dos Santos, Carwin and – most importantly – you, after the jump.

(Pic: MMA Soldier)

Dos Santos has also been thrust into kind of a tight spot here. Here he is coming off an altogether affable – if not star-making – turn on TUF 13 and for the second time in recent memory he’s seen a big-money fight fall through due to an injury to the other guy. Now he inherits a slightly lesser known but arguably more dangerous opponent. At this point, the dude should just be happy if Carwin makes it to the cage, but (in case you’re interested) he’s taking a “same shit, different opponent” kind of approach to this last-minute switcheroo.

“I got a little upset about this change, but I’m happy that the UFC got another opponent for me,” dos Santos told Sherdog this week. “Carwin is an excellent fighter and deserves all my respect. His boxing skills are great. It’s gonna be a great fight with tough blows from both sides. I would say that it will end by knockout.”

Dos Santos rightly opened as a pretty significant favorite over Carwin, who will be staring down the barrel of his own 11-month absence from the cage by fight night. Oddly though, at least some of the early money appears to be falling to Carwin. According to reports, dos Santos opened at around -265, but has since seen those odds shrink to -225. That means there are a significant number of gamblers who might just think Carwin can win here. Winning would be a great thing for The Engineer, who came within a breath of claiming the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 116 and still, still at some point needs to give us his side of how his name wound up on that one list we’ve all forgotten about already.

As for the company itself, well, this change pretty much couldn’t come at a worse time, what with the upcoming PPV schedule already ailing. To add insult to injury, TUF 13 ratings slipped again this week, further fueling our speculation that a season of reality TV was exactly the wrong way to try to promote Lesnar in the first place. During 2010, the big fella was the company’s biggest (and best paid) PPV draw. At this point though – even if he is able to return to active competition – you have to wonder just how much the UFC can count on him as a reliable future PPV draw.

UFC 131: Junior Dos Santos vs Shane Carwin, Early Head-to-Toe Breakdown

It’s been a tough week for the UFC. First, the main event for UFC 130, Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard III, was scrapped when both fighters sustained injuries.This left fight fans groaning as Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs Matt “The Hammer” Hamill was prom…

It’s been a tough week for the UFC. First, the main event for UFC 130, Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard III, was scrapped when both fighters sustained injuries.

This left fight fans groaning as Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs Matt “The Hammer” Hamill was promoted to the main event.

Then yesterday it was revealed that Brock Lesnar will be unable to headline UFC 131 because he has been stricken with diverticulitis.

Luckily for MMA fans, UFC 131’s main event has not been completely ruined. some would even say that it’s better.

Top contender Shane Carwin has stepped in to fight Junior Dos Santos for the No. 1 contender spot in the heavyweight division.

Let’s take a look at how these two stack up.

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UFC 131 Fight Card: Early Predictions for Every Fight

UFC 131 has just had a major shake up.Originally the main event was to be Brock Lesnar vs. Junior dos Santos for the No. 1 contendership to the heavyweight title.Unfortunately, a flare up of diverticulitis has forced Lesnar to pull out of the scheduled…

UFC 131 has just had a major shake up.

Originally the main event was to be Brock Lesnar vs. Junior dos Santos for the No. 1 contendership to the heavyweight title.

Unfortunately, a flare up of diverticulitis has forced Lesnar to pull out of the scheduled bout.

Luckily for the UFC, Shane Carwin was set to fight on that card already, and he agreed to move up into the main event and take on Junior dos Santos in a No. 1 contender bout.

So now the main event features two outstanding strikers, in a fight that is sure to end in a knockout.

But who’s going to get the knockout? And what about the rest of the fights?

Read on to find out my early predictions for every fight on the card.

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Brock Lesnar Believes He Would Be 100 Percent by June 11

Brock Lesnar says this will not be the end of his fighting career. During an open media call on Thursday, Brock addressed the two dilemmas he was facing—moving forward with his June 11 fight against Junior dos Santos, and the decision as to whet…

Brock Lesnar says this will not be the end of his fighting career.

During an open media call on Thursday, Brock addressed the two dilemmas he was facing—moving forward with his June 11 fight against Junior dos Santos, and the decision as to whether he would undergo surgery.

First, he addressed his decision to pull out of his scheduled match-up.

“The first thing that came to mind was, from today until June 11, I can’t be well-enough prepared to step in the Octagon and face Junior dos Santos. It wouldn’t be fair to myself or my family, or to the people I have to get in the Octagon and perform in front of, because I wouldn’t have been 100-percent on June 11. It was a hard decision. I’m choked up about it.”

He then went on to explain that his current battle with the illness isn’t as bad as his first, but is would have put him in a position where he could not get a proper training camp in.

“It just didn’t allow me to train the way I needed to train for a No. 1 contender’s bout” Lesnar explained. “I only have three weeks to turn this thing around. We just didn’t feel like I could do that.”

Then Lesnar went on to explain his decision regarding whether or not to have surgery.

“Now I’m at another fork in the road to where now, what do I do? I gotta follow-up with my doctors and weigh the risks and rewards. I went down there yesterday to figure out the problem. We’re waiting on a number of different tests to come back. I believe there’s a solution to every problem. I just gotta find the right solution to fix this problem. This isn’t the end of Brock Lesnar. This is a speed bump in the road. I’ve hit a lot of speed bumps in my career and this is one of them.”