It was at UFC 116 that fans first got a chance to see some real holes in the game of Brock Lesnar. Sure, he lost to Frank Mir by submission in his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut, but Mir didn't dominate Lesnar. The submission was quick after the fighters were reset due to illegal punches to the back of the head.
UFC 116? That was when Brock Lesnar appeared to be human. Billed as a wrecking machine, he would finally meet his match, both in size and strength. Shane Carwin lacked Lesnar's wrestling pedigree but made up for it with one punch knockout power. The type of power that crushes a man's soul.
Carwin didn't win that night. After dominating Lesnar for the first five minutes of the bout, his body gave out on him. Although he wasn't victorious, he created the blueprint for defeating Lesnar. Brock was great when he was the hammer but lost it all as the nail.
Since that bout, both fighters have retired from mixed martial arts (MMA). Lesnar returned to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to work on a part-time basis on major pay-per-view (PPV) events. Carwin's retirement wasn't as voluntary.
After suffering several injuries in training camps, he made the decision to step away from fighting and focus on being an engineer full time. Now at 38 years old and with rumors flying that Lesnar could possibly return to the UFC in 2014, Carwin is already angling for another shot at the former UFC Heavyweight champion.
Carwin sent out a tweet to UFC President Dana White in hopes of scoring a ticket for tonight's (Dec. 28, 2013) UFC 168 card.
@danawhite got an extra ticket for tomorrow night? I'm hearing the bitch that will solve my itch will be there.
— Shane Carwin (@ShaneCarwin) December 27, 2013
While Lesnar will need a foil should he return to the Octagon, it shouldn't be Carwin. The reason Carwin retired was because his body is falling apart. He was forced to pull out of multiple bouts because of knee and back injuries and hasn't competed since 2011.
If he wants to try and make a return, that's fine. But the final years of his UFC career proved that Carwin can't be relied upon. The UFC can't book him in the co-main event when it's more likely that he'll pull out of the bout than actually show up in the cage.