UFC 131: Junior Dos Santos Vs Shane Carwin – FIGHT TIME
By Siri Karri
UFC 131 features what may be my all-time favorite heavyweight match up. Two of the greatest modern heavyweight knockout artists of recent memory are matched up in the main event. One is a lightning quick prodigy in his mid twenties who is undefeated in his UFC career. The other is literally the hardest hitting heavyweight in the world, who is coming fresh off a surgery to correct pinched nerves and is ready to snatch up the heavyweight title. Ladies and gentlemen, Junior Dos Santos and Shane Carwin.
Leave comments if you wish to dispute, agree with, or wish to add to my claim.
What Junior Dos Santos brings to the Table
Junior Dos Santos is, without question, the best striker in the UFC heavyweight division. He has the power to floor even the largest heavyweights with a single punch, yet he has hand speed that makes lightweights envious. His boxing is absolutely beautiful, enough to make professional boxers envious.
1) His striking is incredibly varied,
2) His hand speed is incredible
3) If you get hit with the first punch in a combination, you ARE going to get hit by the rest of them
His list of victims include greats such as Fabricio Werdum, the great Mirko Cro Cop, and fan favorite Roy Nelson . . . NONE of whom could even give him a contest. To this day, Roy Nelson is the only man to survive his onslaught. Part of it his physique.
Athleticism is a big problem with heavyweights. I’m not saying these guys aren’t athletes (they are spectacular athletes), I’m referring to the natural physique that some people have that allows them to do spectacular things without really putting a lot of effort into it.
Randy Couture was fast and fit, but was simply too small for the new line of heavyweights. Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir are large and strong, but their enormous size affects their cardio and their footwork. Junior Dos Santos is a blend of the two, measuring in at 6′ 4″ and 240 lbs. He’s not ripped like an Abercrombie & Fitch model like some fighter in the division, but he’s unbelievably athletic. He’s just heavy enough to where his shots carry flash knockout power but he’s just light enough to where his footwork is several paces ahead of the rest of the division.
And he doesn’t gas. Those who do not believe me should go watch the Roy Nelson fight, where Dos Santos threw so many punches I was pretty sure the referee was about to call the police and file charges for rape. Yet even in the end, Dos Santos was firing uppercuts and combinations, visibly tired but not enough to slow him down.
He also has a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from his instructors Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Anderson Silva, which is the equivalent of getting a black belt from any other instructor. We’ve never gotten a chance to see his ground game however because if his opponents ever go to the ground, it’s because they have a concussion.
What Shane Carwin brings to the Table
The hardest hitter in the entire heavyweight division. Think about that for a second.
A heavyweight division in mixed martial arts is stacked with men who resemble a family reunion at bigfoot’s house. Literally 99% of heavyweights have one-shot knockout power; it’s just a quality heavyweights have. So understand how hard Shane Carwin hits if his power stands head and shoulders above the rest of the division.
In his UFC debut against Christian Wellisch, he had a video game knockout; you couldn’t plan it more perfectly. He caught Christian Wellisch with a right hand that knocked his mouthguard across the Octagon as he crumpled into a limp heap. Wow.
Then he ground and pounded Neil Wain so hard that audiences could hear Neil Wain’s head bouncing off the canvas . . . OVER the sellout crowd. Cool, but Wain was hardly a quality opponent. Then comes big, dangerous knockout veteran Gabriel Gonzaga.
In the first minute, Shane Carwin attempts to run in and land one of his haymakers. Gonzaga catches him with two consecutive counter hooks one which snaps Carwin’s nose, the other which makes his eyes roll back into his head. On his back, Shane Carwin pushes the BJJ champ off of him, and with a right hand that literally travels maybe a foot and a half, knocks Gonzaga clean out.
Knocking out Frank Mir in the clinch was just the icing on the cake. That’s how strong this guy is.
Carwin is also a DII championship wrestler. Like Junior, he doesn’t utilize his wrestling often simply because there’s no point in wrestling with someone who is already unconscious. However, we did get to see a bit of his wrestling in action in his title fight with Brock Lesnar, in which the seemingly unwieldy Shane Carwin twirled away from Lesnar’s takedown attempts before dropping him with a left uppercut.
Shane Carwin once said, “I touch people and they go down”. Folks, he’s not kidding.
X-Factor
I hate the UFC hype videos, but they really did nail the X-Factor: “Who lands first?”
Unlike Gonzaga, if Junior manages to land on Carwin he won’t take him down; he’ll keep swinging until Carwin’s eyeballs pop out the back of his head. Likewise, Junior cannot afford to get hit with a rolling right hook like he did against Roy Nelson. If he wishes to end his life, there are far quicker ways such as a cyanide pill.
The man who lands his power shot first will end this fight.
Prediction
As we’ve established, both men have the ability to end this match within seconds. Considering that Shane Carwin had surgery to repair his neck and back, it’s conceivable that we will be seeing the most powerful version of Carwin yet.
That being said, Dos Santos has never been hit first in the Octagon; his footwork is simply too good. Carwin, on the other hand, was cracked off counters by Gonzaga as he plodded in for the knockout shot. It’s anybody’s match, but past experience shows that Junior will land first.
Junior Dos Santos TKO 1st round