Lesnar vs Carwin

http://mmajunkie.com/news/15921/brock-lesnar-and-shane-carwin-in-discussions-to-meet-at-ufc-106-in-las-vegas.mma

As broken by MMAJunkie (My personal choice of MMA news broker be it through their site or twitter) a likely bout between Heavyweight Juggernauts Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin is slated for UFC 106 in Vegas.

As Brock has amassed his 4-1 record using his size and athleticism to negate the large experience gaps he has faced against his opponents so far, Carwin poses a "fair fight" in terms of physical gifts. Carwin is the only fighter in the UFC with bigger hands than Lesnar, both of which needed custom gloves made for them, making this fight a tough test for Lesnar.

Lesnar, while belittled by hardcore fans for his lack of experience and marketing shove up the title ladder showed a savy gameplan and patience in his dominant performance against Frank Mir last July.

Carwin's last bout was a step up in competition against Gabe Gonzaga who not only tested Carwin's chin but also his skills off of his back, both of which he passed and delivered another devastating KO, bringing his record to 11-0.

While Brock's 4-1 record pales to Carwins 11-0, it can be argued that Brock has faced tougher competition with his last 3 victories being over vet Heath Herring, legend Randy Couture and avenging his one loss against Frank Mir who was coming off a destructive win over Antonio Noguiera. Carwin's hit list, while not as elite, consists of solid fighters, all of whom never made it out of the first round.

When breaking down this fight, only experience seems to set the two apart. Both are enormous and athletic wrestlers with devastating KO power and both come from strong camps with coaches that will come up with a perfect gameplan, which will likely be the same for each fighter. There are small advantages in each area however as Brock is the more decorated college wrestler while Shane has showed more polished boxing.

The likely plan for both is as follows; A) Put him on his back B) Stand and knock him out. I for one hope plan A is quickly abandoned. Brock has yet to be tested on his feat and I feel has shown some weakness there. Randy had early success on the feet and the few offensive moments by Mir in their last fight had Brock covered up and moving straight back until a flying knee attempt ended with Frank on his back again.

Now that Greg Jackson has Carwin training full time for the first time in his career, he'll likely have him aggressive in the standup as that will help set up the takedown. Straight wrestling will favor Brock but throwing hands and having him cover up will present the opportunity for Shane to change levels and score the takedown and finally test Lesnar on his back. If Shane can connect and test his chin or get top position, we could easily have a new Heavyweight Champion.

Lesnar will likely look to stand initially but should be able to take the fight to the ground whenever he'd like. In the past we've seen that it doesn't take much more than a playground-like shove for Brock to put someone on their back. If Brock gets on top, expect a more aggressive attack than he showed against Mir as he won't be worrying about submission defense as much.

This fight boils down to either who connects first or who gets on top first. If they stand for any amount of time I don't expect this fight to leave the first round. Should they decide to wrestle, we may see the fight hit the second or third. Either way, both fighters are powerful and aggressive making this Clash of the Titans a great fight to look forward too.