Two Gorillas in a Cage

The Matchup: Coming up this Saturday night is a clash of two Mixed Martial Arts titians, Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin for the undisputed heavyweight title. This fight will barely fit inside the octagon: Lesnar at age 32 stands at 6’3” weighs 265 pounds, and has a reach of near a mile (81 inches). His not so well known 35 year opponent stands at 6’2”, weighs 265 and has a reach just one inch shorter than Lesnar. This battle seems almost too close to call as both opponents destroyed their well respected opponent and UFC veteran Frank Mir. Both have successful backgrounds in wrestling; Carwin the NCAA Div. 2 Heavyweight champion in 1999, and Lesnar the NCAA Div. 1 Heavyweight champion in 2000. But there are a few things that tip the scale in one competitor’s favor. When I first saw Lesnar fight I thought to myself, “there is no way this guy will ever be beaten again. Mir got lucky grabbing his ankle and he will never again allow anything like that to happen, he is just too big and powerful”. But then this Carwin guy comes out of nowhere with a 12-0 (7 by K.O. and 5 by submission) record and hasn’t even gone into the second round. This guy has dynamite in his hands.

X factor: Lesnar’s illness. The holes in his intestine that kept him out of his last matchup November 21st 2009 will certainly have an impact on the fight. Even though Lesnar’s trainers say he is stronger than he has ever been, I feel his illness has had a negative impact on Lesnar because he finally knows what it feels like to be hurt. Another thing that scares me about Lesnar is his last match against Mir. Mir was able to stand with Brock for a while; it was only when Mir was taken to the ground did Lesnar begin to dominate. If Lesnar is going to stand a chance with Carwin he needs to work on his stand up skills or he’s going to find himself sleeping in the middle of the ring. 

The Decision: I’m going to choose this fight on who has the biggest hands. Everyone has heard of Lesnar’s “lunchbox” size hands with 4XL gloves. But I bet fewer people have heard that Carwin in fact needs 5XL gloves. Not to mention that Carwin has explosives in his lunchboxes. Therefore, the title is going to switch owners Saturday night and Carwin will be crowned the new UFC heavyweight champion. There is no way this fight lasts all five rounds, but it will last longer than the 1:08 average Carwin is used to fighting. After a few rounds of crazy haymakers thrown from both fighters, Carwin will submit Lesnar in the fourth round with his kryptonite, a leg lock. Don’t agree? Tell me what you think.