Pretty Amazing

Shane Carwin is now 12-0 in his MMA career, a staggering number but a number that has been repeated in the past.

What has not been repeated is his unprecedented run of first round stoppages. Of course, the two most respected fighters in Carwin’s division, Brock Lesnar and Fedor Emelianenko, have had meteoric rises with superb records on the way, but both endured losses within their first five fights.

Diego Sanchez had a historic run to start his MMA career, but he won via decision once in his first 12 fights, something Carwin has yet to do.

Not only has Carwin never gone to decision, he has never even been past the first round. And not only has never been past the first round, he has never made it to the fourth minute of the first round. And not only has he never made it to the fourth minute, he averages only 1:21 of fight time in his 12 professional fights.

Carwin has shown more dominance than any fighter has ever shown in the octagon to start a career. His impressive 4-0 record in the octagon with first round knockouts of Gabriel Gonzaga and Frank Mir show that his success in the first round is no fluke.

There is more to Carwin than meets the eye.

He is not just some big heavyweight with heavy hands and quick striking. Carwin has been a superb athlete for a very long time, having placed second in 1997 and first in 1999 at the NCAA Division II National wrestling tournament. In addition to his wrestling success during college, Carwin was also a two-time All American in football.

His athleticism combined with his size make him a very dangerous opponent for anyone in MMA. His skill set and background are eerily similar to that of his next opponent, Brock Lesnar.

Lesnar was the NCAA Division I National Champion in 2000, and he finished second in 1999. While Lesnar was dominating Division I talent, Carwin was doing the same in Division II. Wrestling is a much different sport than football or basketball.

Since there are so few wrestling programs around compared to basketball or football, the difference between a Division I national champion and Division II national champion is not nearly as vast as one would immediately assume.

The limited amount of collegiate teams, along the fact that at the time, there was not much to do professionally as a college wrestler made it possible for wrestlers to attend schools where they wished to start their careers and get a great education while they wrestle on the side, as Carwin did at Western State College.

This made the competition at the lower divisions much better, because many wrestlers chose to go to Division II or Division III schools rather than the Minnesota’s or Iowa’s of the world.

Lesnar also tried out for the Minnesota Vikings after his WWE career, and could have very well been a professional football player had he tried out for a team with a bigger need at defensive tackle.

Kevin and Pat Williams were already set as the defensive tackles and have been two of the most productive in the game, and Lesnar did not want to play anywhere but Minnesota which eventually led to him not making the roster and trying his hand in MMA.

Lesnar and Carwin have both had successful college wrestling careers and are likely two of the better football players to never actually play in the NFL.

The differences between the two are so small that they are nearly unidentifiable. Both have huge hands, great athleticism, great backgrounds in contact sports, and they have made huge strides in advancing their striking games since transitioning to mixed martial arts.

Despite Lesnar holding the belt and claiming that Carwin’s is “make believe,” Carwin is the one with the flawless record. There is nothing Lesnar can ever do to take the loss off of his resume. All Lesnar can do is try to put one on Carwin’s, but if you saw Shane’s performance Saturday night then you know that it will no easy task.