First Fedor, Now Lesnar Fall Among Heavyweight Champs

How quickly the MMA heavyweight picture has changed over the past six months. Pound-for-pound king Fedor Emianenko was submitted by Fabricio Werdum in June. UFC champion Brock Lesnar then submitted undefeated Shane Carwin in July to claim the top of the heavyweight division ranks. And now: Lesnar loses to another undefeated fighter in Cain Velazquez to again scramble the rankings.

In a most impressive performance, Velasquez may have proven one thing: any fighter can be beaten on any night. Lesnar had destroyed the one person who defeated him, Frank Mir, in a rematch and then showed he could survive adversity by coming back to defeat Carwin. All of this after nearly losing his life to a rare intestinal disorder that required surgery and nine months of recovery. But now it will be Cain Velasquez with the target on his back.

The first challenger to the UFC champ Velasquez is reportedly going to be Junior dos Santos. Expect Lesnar to get one fight (possibly a third fight against Mir) and the winners to face off.

Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem has mostly been competing in K-1 the past year. His lone MMA fight was a dominating TKO victory over Minnesota heavyweight Brett Rogers in May. Overeem will be competing in the K-1 World Grand Prix on December 11, so expect an early 2011 return to MMA. That is the same timetable for Werdum and Emelianenko.

Strikeforce also contracts Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva in their strong heavyweight stable. Silva is expected to face Valentijn Overeem, the older brother of Alistair, at the December 4 Strikeforce event in St. Louis.

In a wide-open division, here are my unofficial rankings of the top dozen heavyweights in the world:

1. Cain Velasquez (9-0)
2. Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1)
3. Fedor Emelianenko (31-2)
4. Brock Lesnar (5-2)
5. Junior dos Santos (12-1)
6. Alistair Overeem (33-11)
7. Shane Carwin (12-1)
8. Frank Mir (14-5)
9. Antonio Rodrigo Noguerira (32-6-1)
10. Antonio Silva (14-2)
11. Josh Barnett (29-5)
12. Brett Rogers (11-2)

Fighters in red are contracted by Strikeforce.
Fighters in blue are contracted by UFC.

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Lesnar Defends Title Against Carwin

Brock Lesnar successfully defended his UFC Heavyweight title on Saturday night by submitting Shane Carwin in the second round.

Lesnar has mono; UFC bout vs. Carwin ppd.

Lesnar has mono; UFC bout vs. Carwin ppd.

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Lesnar training for Carwin

Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar training for his upcoming fight against Shane Carwin.

UFC 106 fight card taking shape

Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar (4-1) will return to the cage on November 21 at UFC 106 to defend his title for the second time.  His opponent will be undefeated Shane Carwin (11-0).  The event will happen at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

In his last fight Lesnar scored a victory over Frank Mir, who is the only man to defeat Lesnar, the champion gained his revenge.  Using his dominant power and strength, Lesnar pounded Mir for nearly the entire fight before getting the TKO stoppage at 1:48 of the second round.

Carwin earned his title shot with three victories in the UFC, his last a first round TKO over Gabriel Gonzaga (11-4).  Carwin previously had defeated Neil Wain (5-1) and Christian Wellisch (8-5).  Although his list of opponents is not extremely impressive, Carwin has finished all 11 of his fights in the first round.

The rest of the fight card for UFC 106 is starting to take shape, with the announcement of a light heavyweight bout between Tito Ortiz and Mark Coleman.  Ortiz is making his return to the cage after suffering a loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 in May of 2008.

          Unofficial fight card:

• Brock Lesnar (4-1) vs. Shane Carwin (11-0)
• Tito Ortiz (15-6-1) vs. Mark Coleman (16-9)
• Ricardo Almeida (11-3) vs. Jon Fitch (19-3)
• Kenny Florian (11-4) vs. Clay Guida (25-10)
• Karo Parisyan (18-5) vs. Dustin Hazelett (12-4)
• Dennis Hallman (41-12-2) vs. John Howard (12-4)
• Phil Baroni (13-11) vs. Amir Sadollah (1-1)