Similar records. Similar success in the UFC. The difference? One is getting a title shot, and one isn’t.

34 year-old Shane Carwin has reached the pinnacle. On Nov. 21 in Las Vegas, Carwin takes on Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight championship. It’s a well deserved title opportunity now that Fedor Emelianenko is out of the picture. Carwin, a former NCAA Division II wrestling champion, is 11-0 in his MMA career, 3-0 in the UFC, had a monster win over Gabriel Gonzaga, and at 6-4, 255 pounds can match Lesnar’s power.

My only question is why Carwin and not Cain Velasquez? The Salinas, Ca. native has similar credentials to Carwin. He’s a little smaller at 6-2, 245 pounds, but is also unbeaten in six fights, 4-0 in the UFC, and had a huge win over Cheick Kongo in June.

The funny thing is that if Kongo had beaten Velasquez it would’ve been Kongo and not Carwin taking on Lesnar. In fact, Velasquez was supposed to face Carwin but that fight "fell through" according to the UFC, allowing Carwin to be penned in to face Lesnar at UFC 106.

The UFC must have its reasons for giving Carwin the shot and not Velasquez. A lot of pundits say Velasquez is too inexperienced, too raw, but he nonetheless beat Kongo who the same pundits thought was a serious contender for the heavyweight title. That win came in June, just one month before Lesnar’s dominating win over Frank Mir.

Carwin’s last fight was the win over Gonzaga in March. Eight months of inactivity isn’t the end of the world, but I would rather have the heavyweight champion take on someone who scored a significant win recently, than one that did the same almost six months ago.

Carwin has as good a shot as anyone to beat Lesnar – that shot being not good – but Carwin’s big win against Gonzaga was, let’s face it, against a one-hit wonder. Gonzaga’s career consists of one kick to Mirko Cro Cop’s head, but then two one-sided losses to Randy Couture and Fabricio Werdum.

The same could be said of Kongo, but his career peak was in 2008 and early 2009, and not a lone kick in 2007.

Carwin did what he had to do against what I consider an inferior fighter. He dominated and stopped Gonzaga in one round, but Velasquez deserves a shot at this title as much as Carwin does.

The MMA world will now wait until after Lesnar-Carwin to reevaluate who then deserves a shot at the title. Maybe it will be Lesnar after losing to Carwin, maybe it will be Carwin after a spirited effort versus Lesnar, or maybe it will be someone who jumps ship from another organization, or the winner of The Ultimate Fighter. The options are endless, but here’s one writer who believes Velasquez should be next in line because he should have been standing at the front already.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@