Tag: ShaneCarwin

Filed under: UFC

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Junior dos Santos sure didn’t look like a pro fighter who hasn’t worked in ten months.

There was no extra flab on display in his first public appearance before his fight with Shane Carwin on Saturday night. No visible signs of torpor. Not even close.

As the Brazilian showed off his boxing skills with some tricky mitt work at Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 131 open workouts, he looked as sharp as ever. Even if he were rusty from the time off, one would think that the way he swatted the focus mitts with the speed and timing of a punk rock drummer couldn’t help but knock that rust right off.

Then again, that’s what the mitts are there for. Lots of people look good hitting them on workout day. After nearly a year on the shelf, though, dos Santos has the distinct air of a man who is tired of hitting a target that doesn’t hit back.

“I don’t care about the opponent now. I want to fight,” dos Santos said, after admitting that he was initially “a little bit disappointed” not to get a crack at Brock Lesnar. “My last fight was ten months ago, so [that’s] too much time to sit out [of] fights.”

It’s also a long time to go without a paycheck, especially for a young fighter in what are supposed to be his best, most profitable years. That, said manager Ed Soares, is why they never really considered waiting for UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez to get healthy enough to give dos Santos his promised title shot.

“It would have been too long,” said Soares. “He would have been inactive for over a year. He wants to fight. He’s got to stay busy. He’s 26 years old and he’s a fine-tuned machine. It’s like having a Ferrari and just leaving it in the garage.”

Then again, agreeing to take the Ultimate Fighter coaching gig opposite Lesnar also put the Ferrari in the garage for a little while, which had financial implications of its own, Soares admitted.

“It does, but you know what? The UFC always finds a way to make things right.”

At long last, the wait is nearly over. He may have lost the chance to trade blows with Lesnar – who dos Santos referred to as “the most popular fighter in the world” – but it didn’t hurt his popularity any to have a weekly stint on reality TV where he was the smiling, gregarious counterweight to the scowling, misanthropic Lesnar.

“People recognize me more on the streets,” said dos Santos. “I’m very happy with that because I lost my opportunity to fight for the title, and then comes the TUF in my life. So it was very good and God blessed me again.”

Allowing fans to see his friendly, easy-going side might have even been the best thing to come out of the experience, though Soares wasn’t surprised to see people take to dos Santos’ warm personality as a coach, he said.

“He’s just a great guy. He’s an all-around good guy. He’s super intelligent, very motivated. He has his goals set and he’s going after them. He doesn’t steer away from that.”

When they heard that Lesnar was out and Carwin was likely in, Soares said, they figured it was a fight they’d have to take sooner or later, so they might as well go ahead and do it.

“Whether he fights Carwin on Saturday or eight months from now, eventually this fight was going to happen. So let the chips fall where they may. In this business, you have to be prepared for everything. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and I guarantee you it won’t be the last. Doing what we do for a living, we have to be prepared for this. His coaches have been a great influence in putting that in his head that, look, we’re professional fighters. This happens. It’s part of the game.”

With the fight just days away, dos Santos no longer has to worry about when he’ll get paid for hitting someone again. Now it’s just a question of what will happen when he finally gets the chance.

Not surprisingly, “Cigano” likes his chances.

“[Carwin] has good skills in boxing, but I think I’m better than him in boxing. That’s why I think he’s going to try to take me down, because when he starts to feel…I know he’s good and he’s got heavy hands. But I think I’m faster and I’ve got more skills [in the] stand-up than him.”

And just because he’s appeared patient and understanding of all the changes and delays, don’t let it fool you. Dos Santos has been just as frustrated at times with the long layoff due to other people’s medical problems, Soares said, even if he didn’t often complain about it.

“Or, well, at least he doesn’t complain to the media,” Soares added.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: UFC

Shane Carwin is getting ready to step into the Octagon with Junior dos Santos on Saturday night at UFC 131, but first he’ll take a little time out of his schedule to chat with MMA fans right here at MMAFighting.com.

Our live chat is your opportunity to ask Carwin about his preparation for the fight, his thoughts on dos Santos as an opponent, and anything else you’d like to know. Check out Carwin’s latest training videos on Bud Light’s YouTube channel.

The Shane Carwin live chat begins at 6 PM ET Wednesday below.

---

---

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: UFC

On Tuesday’s media call, UFC heavyweights Shane Carwin and Junior dos Santos made very clear what fans should expect to see when they meet in the Octagon on June 11, and it’s more or less what most people were already expecting.

“Let’s face it, both dos Santos and I got to where we’re at right now by knocking people out on our feet,” Carwin said. “I think we’re both explosive fighters and I think the fans are going to…have a real treat at UFC 131 when it gets to that main event, knowing both guys have knockout power in their hands.”

Dos Santos echoed the sentiment, adding that while he usually feels most comfortable in the stand-up game, he’ll have to be more wary of Carwin’s striking than he would have been of Brock Lesnar’s.

“Me and Shane Carwin are good standing fighters,” dos Santos said. “I believe so much in my boxing. My boxing bring me here until now, and I feel very comfortable fighting on my feet. So I will try to keep this fight standing, but I’m ready to fight wherever I need.”

Not that it should come as a surprise that these two heavyweights should continue to look for the KO in this number one contender fight, of course. Carwin and dos Santos sport identical 12-1 records, and both owe more than half their victories to knockouts.

But for both men, facing an opponent with dangerous striking skills is a significant change from the original plan. Dos Santos was initially slated to face Lesnar, who’s known much more for his wrestling than for his stand-up. But when he withdrew due to a recurring bout of diverticulitis, Carwin was pulled from his match-up with submissions specialist Jon Olav Einemo and shuttled into bout with dos Santos, where the stakes and the quality of competition were instantly higher.

“I don’t know if there are any warm-up fights in the UFC,” Carwin said of Einemo. “You’re fighting a top group of guys in the world who have competed to get to that level and Jon was no exception. He was basically a gold medalist in jiu-jitsu and training with one of the top striking teams in the world. He was a very tough opponent and just hasn’t run the same course that Junior dos Santos has run through the UFC, so either way I had to make sure that I was prepared to come in there and fight at my best.”

Dos Santos, who said his training camp didn’t change much as a result of the opponent switch, acknowledged that he will have to adopt a different approach on fight night now.

“The strategy now is going to be a little bit different, because with Brock I could use my boxing more [easily] for me with him. With [Carwin], now I have to be…a little more cautious.”

By the time they step into the cage, both men will have been out of action nearly a year, but for very different reasons. After his loss to Lesnar in a UFC heavyweight title fight last July, Carwin opted to have a neck surgery that kept him on the shelf for several months. Dos Santos decided to take a coaching spot opposite Lesnar on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ rather than wait for current champ Cain Velasquez to get healthy enough to defend his title.

Dos Santos last fight was a decision victory over Roy Nelson, but that was nearly ten months ago, which is “too much time without fights,” he said.

On the flip side, it’s probably a little easier to deal with the layoff when you’re coming off a win. For Carwin, the last fight on his record is still a bit of a bitter memory, though he said he tries to extract as many positives as he can from it.

“I learned a lot. I learned some things about picking my shots a little bit more when you get someone hurt or get them down. I learned that I had to try and do some things with my nutrition and my cardio – I don’t know if it was so much a cardio issue, but we’ll see,” said Carwin, who added that he’s slimmed down to the 250-pound range thanks to a “mostly organic” diet given to him by Grudge Training Center fighter and nutritionist Josh Ford.

As for the loss itself, Carwin seems to be doing his best to put it behind him.

“It’s part of life. I’m not going to dwell on it. There were plenty of positives, but the one thing I can say is that I left everything in the Octagon. I was barely able to walk out of there. I didn’t hold back; I put every ounce of energy I had into that fight. When I walked out that cage door, I knew that in my mind. So I was okay with myself, I just knew that I had things to work on.”

Against dos Santos, he confronts an opponent with the ability to test not only his staying power, but also his boxing skills and his chin. Both men seem well aware of the risks in this particular fight, even if they have slightly different opinions on who is favored more by a toe-to-toe striking battle.

“We’re knockout artists,” said Carwin. “That’s how Junior fights and that’s how I fight. I just believe in my power and my strength in boxing, and he believes in his. We’ll find out come June 11th.”

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments