Brock Lesnar Retains UFC Heavyweight Title
By Scott Heritage
Brock Lesnar retained his UFC heavyweight title earlier tonight, submitting Shane Carwin in the second round after coming back from the very brink of defeat in the first. Fighting for the first time in over a year due to a nasty bout of diverticulosis, Lesnar was tentative from the opening bell, and as a result was quickly on the receiving end of a salvo of heavy blows from Carwin. The champion went down and was clearly in big trouble, and fighting from his back for more or less the first time in his career Lesnar looked helpless. For the rest of the first Carwin rained down blow after blow to a struggling Lesnar and more than once referee Josh Rosethal took a close look with a view to stopping the fight.
The Minnesotan former professional wrestler survived though, and coming out for the second appeared to be the much fresher fighter. Carwin was breathing heavily after expelling so much energy dishing out abuse in the first, and he then proved to be easy pickings for a Lesnar takedown. A brief interplay of positional grappling later, and Lesnar was in side control with an arm triangle choke deeply sunk in on Carwin, yielding a stoppage at 2.19 of the second round.
In a shoe in for the fight of the night award, Chris Leben defied the odds in defeating accomplished Judoka Yoshihiro Akiyama by submission in the third round. In a back and forth affair that saw both men out on their feet at various stages, ‘The Crippler’ was able to undo early dominance from Akiyama and turn the fight into the kind of energy sapping brawl he excels in. After being taken down towards the end of the third Leben managed to secure a fight ending triangle choke with just 20 seconds remaining in the bout.
Chris Lytle did as expected in defeating Matt Brown once again further down the card, and was getting the better of the stand up throughout with his sound boxing. Brown tried to keep Lytle at bay with kicks, but held hid hands so low throughout the was an easy target for Leben’s overhand right. Lytle eventually secured a top position armbar in the second to end the fight, but not before having to weather a submission scare early on in the form of a brabo choke in the first.
Stephan Bonnar manages to stave off his forcible departure from the UFC for at least one more fight with a stoppage over scrabble player’s dream Kryzsztof Soszynski in a rematch of their battle at UFC 110 earlier this year. This time around though, Bonnar got the better of most of the exchanges, and eventually dropped a sluggish looking Soszynski in the second with a huge knee to the chin. From there Bonnar rained down punches to a covering up Soszynski, and Mario Yamasaki was forced to step in.
Rounding out the main card, fast rising Aussie lightweight George Sotiropoulos survived a late knock down to beat the always game Kurt Pellegrino to a unanimous decision. Using his reach to good effect the taller Australian peppered Pellegrino with shots throughout all three rounds, and when taken down remained aggressive enough off of his back to prevent Pellegrino doing any serious damage.