Brock Lesnar may have beaten Shane Carwin in the main event of UFC 116, but it was not without five minutes of trials and tribulations before he earned his submission victory.
Following a massive uppercut from Carwin in the early moments, the fight went downhill for Lesnar, and fast. The heavyweight champion fell to his back against the cage and covered up in an attempt to recover from the blow he took on his feet. Carwin continuously reigned down punches in an effort to secure his thirteenth first round knockout victory and the undisputed heavyweight championship.
But it was not meant to be for Carwin, who failed to put away the champion in the first and, thus, seemed to have little energy left to even compete with Lesnar for the next few minutes (let alone four more rounds) prior to the stoppage.
However, as it always seems to be in mixed martial arts, some feel the second round stoppage victory for Lesnar should never have happened. A fair amount of protestors believe the fight should not have lasted through the first.
And, according to the numbers, they have a point.
According to CompuStrike.com, Carwin threw 100 strikes to Lesnar’s 22 in the opening round, landing 57 of them. 47 of those strikes were landed when Lesnar was down on the mats in grasping on to the last moments of consciousness.
However, the whole “numbers don’t lie” argument is not exactly going to work in this one.