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.
Carwin was effective with his stand up early, obviously, and when the fight initially hit the ground, he put together a brutal flurry of punches that would probably have put anyone else in the heavyweight division out. However, following his early efforts, punches landed more sporadically and several of his combinations lacked the luster one of his better shots would have had. Altogether though, he issued an absolute beating to Lesnar.
Unfortunately for those stating that the fight should have been stopped, the numbers simply fail to see it all. Yes, Carwin landed a punishing amount of blows to Lesnar, but the heavyweight champion managed to cover up for the vast majority of those and show his heart and desire to continue fighting through the intense adversity placed before him. As cliché as it may sound, it takes a lot of guts and desire for a fighter to withstand such an onslaught and survive to see another round and if you can remain conscious through a vicious beating like that one, who has the right to suggest that you do not deserve to continue fighting on. It’s safe to say Lesnar would have rather been knocked out than saved too soon by the referee.
The funny thing about this occurrence is that, not only did Lesnar recover from Carwin’s onslaught, he managed to take a great deal of punishment from a man unanimously considered the hardest power puncher in the sport. No, I’m not saying Carwin does not hit as hard as the hype would have you believe, but shouldn’t the man known exclusively for his power be able to knock someone out with a handful of strikes, let alone 50?
Not when a fighter displays the heart of a champion and the desire to fight on against all the adversity brought forth by a very game opponent.
The x-factor in this whole equation is that Lesnar simply had no quit in him, all while taking a brutal attack from the heaviest hitter in the sport. Carwin certainly beat him badly in the first five minutes, but it apparently takes more than a savage offensive to break the heavyweight champion. Lesnar’s will to continue defending through the dominant power of Carwin is what kept him in a fight that quickly turned sour for him.
Sure there are going to be hard feelings from the Carwin faithful. The former interim heavyweight champion was very close to earning the stoppage in the first, but suggesting that the fight should have been stopped after the heart displayed by Lesnar is criminal. He took a vicious beating in the first round only to come back and win in the second, displaying the true heart of a champion.
While it would have been a shame had Lesnar taken more punishment than he could handle and been brutally knocked out, the true crime would have come about had the fight been stopped prematurely. Robbing Lesnar of the opportunity to fight through the adversity that so much mirrored the fight he had with his health not so long ago would have been a tragedy. Thankfully, Josh Rosenthal allowed the fight to continue and, in doing so, let the greatest heavyweight clash of all time take its due course.
So, in this case, the numbers simply don’t see everything. After all, CompuStrike does not gauge a fighter’s heart. And Lesnar’s was the reason a devastating striker like Carwin could not break the heavyweight champion and the reason why the undisputed heavyweight champion managed to earn the victory in one of the greatest comebacks the sport has ever seen.
