(That guy in the lower left still has nightmares to this day. Photo courtesy of 5oz.)
Great news, everybody: Shane Carwin may finally be getting a real opponent. Not to say that his past opponents haven’t been "real," in a literal sense — they’ve all unquestionably had height, width, and depth, and existed in what we all perceive as the physical realm — but anybody who’s seen the massive heavyweight prospect fight knows that he has enough talent to be a title contender, and deserves better competition than the palookas he’s been stomping lately. Over ten fights, Carwin has racked up ten first-round stoppages, with the longest being his pro debut against Carlton Jones, which went to the 2:11 mark. His two opponents in the UFC, Christian Wellisch and Neil Wain, were rescued at the 0:44 and 1:31 marks, respectively.
So anyway, it looks like he’s getting Gabriel Gonzaga (10-3) next. FiveOuncesofPain reports that Carwin and "Napao" will be meeting at UFC 96 (March 7th; Columbus, Ohio). Gonzaga was briefly considered one of the ten best heavyweights in the world, before consecutive losses to Randy Couture and Fabricio Werdum derailed his momentum. Since then, he’s gotten his balls back with quick stoppage victories over Justin McCully and most recently Josh Hendricks at last month’s UFC 91. Gonzaga and Carwin both lie somewhere in the middle of the UFC’s heavyweight ladder, and the winner of their fight will take a big step towards a title shot. Though Gonzaga has unraveled against tough competition in the past, he’ll be the first legitimate test for Carwin. Should be a corker.
In other fight-booking news…
— Fresh off a drilling of Jason MacDonald at the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale last Saturday, Wilson Gouveia has verbally agreed to face Nate Marquardt at UFC 95 (February 21st, London). Marquardt is coming off a first-round TKO victory over Martin Kampmann at UFC 88.
— Former all-American wrestler and WEC vet Jake Rosholt will make his UFC debut in a middleweight bout against Alessio Sakara at UFC Fight Night 17 (February 7th; Tampa, Florida). Though his standup looked shaky in his last bout against Nissen Osterneck at WEC 36, Rosholt is undefeated in five pro fights, with all wins by stoppage. Sakara is 4-4 (with one no-contest) in the UFC, and most recently knocked out Joe Vedepo at UFC Fight Night 15.
— New WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown, who scored a shocking upset TKO over Urijah Faber at WEC 36, has agreed to take on Leonard Garcia for his first title defense in March. Brown is on an eight-fight win streak and hasn’t lost a match since December 2005. Garcia has been 2-0 since exiting the UFC and dropping from lightweight to featherweight, notching impressive first-round knockout wins over Hiroyuki Takaya and Jens Pulver.
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commentsThat last Jake Rosholt put me to sleep. Is the UFC's MW division so pathetic that they have to bring this fool in?
Marquardt via decision (though I'd like to see Gouveia win)
Sakara via KO (Rosholt blocks with his face and looks like Rocky Dennis...related?
)
Garcia via TKO (....what? Garcia via TKO)
Brock Lesnar would no doubt eat Carwins lunch, plus yours and mine at the same time .. hes a big dude who im sure has a big appetite to boot.
Carwin was brought in for Randy so that he could prepare for the Lesnar fight. He also wears 4XL Gloves apparently.
Carwin seems like a Brock Lesnar with skill.
Like a Brock Lesnar with skill? Brock Lesnar would eat this guys lunch. Brock has had better competiton in his 4 pro fights than Carwin has in all of his.
carwin has only fought bums up to now and didnt fight for more than one round yet.
gonzaga has ko power in his hands and shins, and is also a bjj black belt. he lost to couture and werdum(twice), which are unarguably top ten heavyweights.
i foresee gonzaga taking that one and soon stepping up against lesnar after the big prick loses an arm to nog in ufc 100.
and regarding the fight of the week ya wtf cp
they leave the fight of the week up for over a week
and they post one fuckin topic in the last 24 hours
fuck you Cagepotato you filthy cunt muscles
Carwin seems like a Brock Lesnar with skill.
That is indeed impressive, aye?
marquardt is better than gouveia technically in most aspects i believe.....but if he gets touched on the chin by gouveia's power he just might go to sleep. I still like Nate for the win though, by close decision...maybe even split.
and rosholt's standup is definitely garbage, but he's athletic enough to avoid getting ko'd by sakara and will most likely take him down and keep him there.....or he could pull off a sub with his improving ground game, but i say roshold by one-sided decision.
garcia is definitely heavy handed, but so is brown...who i also believe is more technical than garcia. but i don't really know anything about brown's chin, and i've seen garcia take some heavy shots......so i'll say garcia by ko as well but that's a tough one to call.
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