It appears to be a trend these days - call out a former UFC heavyweight champion who isn't even in the promotion any longer, and who retired from the sport years ago. Get lots of media attention, and profit? Alistair Overeem did it in February after a match against Frank Mir. Frank Mir himself did it earlier this month, saying he was looking for a rubber match to finish out their trilogy, which has Mir and Lesnar tied at one fight a piece. Now it's Shane Carwin, a fighter retired for several years who was plagued by injuries before hanging up the gloves (as well as plagued by a steroid scandal). Carwin fell victim to Lesnar at UFC 116, being choked out by an arm-triangle in the second round after having Lesnar hurt in the first. Carwin gassed, and Lesnar, known for solid cardio for a man his size, took advantage. It was Lesnar's final UFC victory, and Carwin's second-to-last UFC fight: he would go on to lose to Junior Dos Santos before retiring in 2011, roughly six months before Lesnar himself retired. However, speaking to Fox Sports this week, Carwin claimed that he was "all in" for a potential second fight with Lesnar, and that "all the pain would be worth that." According to Carwin, Lesnar didn't win their first fight, Carwin himself let it slip away: "In the second round, anybody could have tripped me and landed on me" he stated, adding "I should have let him up and kept punching him in the head." Instead, Carwin let the fight stay on the ground, the round ended with no stoppage, and he was finished quickly in the second. Revisionist history? Carwin's not exactly wrong, but hindsight is twenty-twenty, and he remains a notch on Lesnar's belt who never got another win in any promotion. His name was tarnished further when it turned up on the customer list of a pharmacy known to have peddled steroids to athletes in 2010, shortly before his career ended. Carwin has a new fight promotion of his own, so calling out Lesnar gets him the spotlight for a bit, but even he thinks the WWE champ is unlikely to return, saying "I don't even know why he would have the desire."
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
