Brock Lesnar: The Return of the Champ

Brock Lesnar's next fight and return to the Octagon appears to be at UFC 116 on July 3 versus Shane Carwin

There now are several media outlets that are reporting former WWE and current UFC heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar, is ready to make his return to action on July 3rd in Las Vegas at UFC 116. His next bout will be versus Shane Carwin (current interim heavyweight champ) for the undisputed UFC heavyweight title. Both fighters have reportedly signed on the dotted line and are waiting for the organization to make it official.

This will be Lesnar’s first fight since his November 2009 bout with Carwin was called off due to a severe case of diverticulitis. Carwin didn’t sit idle and wait for the champion to get healthy; he fought and defeated Frank Mir in March at UFC 111 to win the interim title. As a result of his spring time victory, he has set up a long-awaited heavyweight tilt between two very similar fighters.

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After his January announcement that declared his doctors clearing him to return to the octagon, Lesnar has been looking for his next opponent. He hasn’t made many public appearances since recovery; however, he was there, in the octagon, after Carwin won his 12th straight fight to make it known to all that he had the “real” championship belt. Carwin responded by agreeing and reiterated that he was up for the challenge.

There is little doubt that when they finally do meet in the octagon, it will be one of the biggest fights in the history of the promotion. Well, who has the advantage in the fight, you may ask? The answer to that question is up for debate, and will continue to be so until the octagon door closes in July.

Both fighters were national collegiate champions in wrestling, and have the ability to dominate most of the division in that area. Lesnar likes to use his wrestling to get his opponents to the floor in order to use his devastating ground-and-pound from there. Carwin hasn’t had to use his wrestling as much; he seems to be content on slugging it out on his feet and taking his chances there. As far as wrestling goes, it seems to be close, but, Lesnar will get a slight advantage in my book.

When discussing “Lesnar vs. Carwin” as a stand up battle, there will not be any “stick and move” striking. This clash should be loaded with power punches from both heavyweights. Carwin has been known to land some heavy bombs, and is more than willing to trade with anybody. Lesnar has demonstrated some crisp stand up as well, however, uses his power punching in order to get his opponent to the ground where he stresses them out. For the sake of argument, I’ll give a slight edge to Carwin in the stand-up.

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Lastly, neither fighter has a ton of experience inside the octagon. Lesnar has five total and four UFC bouts, while Carwin has twelve total fights including four inside the octagon. As previously mentioned, Carwin does have some major amateur wrestling experience, but beyond that, not much else. His UFC bouts have been against little-known Christian Wellisch and Neil Wain as just recently has made the jump up in class to Gabriel Gonzaga and Mir. Lesnar has just as much college wrestling experience as well as his big stage appearances in the WWE in front of hundreds of thousands of fans. He fought MMA legends in the UFC including Frank Mir (2), Heath Herring, and Randy Couture - all in main events. There is no doubt that Lesnar holds the experience edge between the two.

Let the promoting and marketing begin. Now that Lesnar has been granted a clean bill of health, it finally looks like it will happen. It’s been a long time coming and everyone in the business is looking forward to this much-anticipated fight. If it is true, and indeed does happen, it is just the next step in the “one of the biggest fights in history” trend that seems to be taking place more often these days inside the UFC. That is a great sign of things to come especially for us fans.

By Nick Russell
ProFighting-fans.com Senior MMA Staff Writer