MMA Conquest

It was billed as the biggest heavyweight title fight in MMA history, and it actually lived up to the hype.  Brock Lesnar, the reigning heavyweight champion, and Shane Carwin, the interim heavyweight champion, were not only the two largest athletes in the sport, but they are two of the best.  This fight had more than just the UFC heavyweight title on the line, with the loss of Fedor Emilianenko it would mean that in the first time in almost 10 years, there would be a new #1 ranked heavyweight by most experts. 

The fight started as most would expect, the two giants circled eachother a bit as they felt out the pace.  Lesnar made the first big move charging Carwin for a take down to get in to the position he has used to end all of his victories.  Carwin however avoided the take down, shook Lesnar to the side, threw a few punches, and Lesnar was on the run... this was going to be tougher than Brock thought.  Lesnar actually, at one point, turned his back, and ran away from Carwin.  As Carwin pursued, he eventually cornered the champ against the cage, and unleashed some big uppercuts, eventually dropping the champ.  Shane jumped on top of Lesnar, assuming the position that is usually the one Brock found himself in, and proceeded to rain down punches as Brock lay helplessly covering up.  Shane got tired however, the punches got slower, and to the credit of the referee, he didn't stop the fight despite Lesnar's lack of any sort of meaningful movement.  Eventually Brock escaped and made it back to his feet before the round ended.

During the break between rounds, Shane felt his body cramp up, and something wasn't right.  Just before the start of the 2nd round, Shane looked across the cage at Lesnar and winked getting a smile back from the champion's beaten and bruised face.  Carwin clearly was tired out as he wasn't the same fighter as he was in the 1st round.  Lesnar got an early take down, put Carwin in to a weak choke hold, and the two lied there, while Brock attempted to gain a better position, and Shane attempted to rest.  Suddenly, Lesnar locked the hold in tighter, and Shane tapped.  It was an unexpected result after what looked like an unstoppable force in the first round.  Carwin definitely looked like the better fighter, but Brock pulled it out.  At least we know now that Brock can no longer diminish the submission that caught him against Frank Mir in their first bout, the situations were nearly identical. 

It was a perfect end to a great night of fights.  Every single fight was competitive, and showed some great heart, skill, and determination.  Stephan Bonnar and Krzysztof Soszynski battled to a very exciting finish as Bonnar redeemed his earlier, contested loss to the Polish Experiment.  And Chris Leben, fresh off his KO of the Night win 2 weeks earlier outlasted Yoshihiro Akiyama in another fight where you thought Leben was done, but in typical Crippler fashion, he just kept coming.  Both fights were given fight of the night awards.