UFC 131 conference call updates and LIVE blog today (May 31) for 'Dos Santos vs Carwin'

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will hold a media conference call today (May 31, 2011) live at 2 p.m. ET in advance of the UFC 131: "Dos Santos vs. Carwin" pay-per-view event that goes down a week from Saturday (June 11) in Vancouver.

Attending today's call will be top UFC heavyweight contenders Shane Carwin and Junior dos Santos. These two men will headline the UFC 131 telecast with the winner earning a title shot against the surgically repaired Cain Velasquez.

Dos Santos coached season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) against Brock Lesnar. He was originally slated to face the former champion but the ex-WWE superstar was forced to drop out of the fight to have surgery for his relapsing diverticulitis.

In his place will be Shane Carwin, a man who took Lesnar to the gates of hell at UFC 116 in 2010, nearly finishing the fight before losing in the second round via arm triangle choke. This will be his first fight back inside the Octagon since suffering his only career loss.

Live updates from the UFC 131 conference call after the jump.

Brian Hemminger here on standby. Call to begin shortly.

on his injury and surgery that he had earlier this year.

Shane Carwin: My arm was going numb and my muscles were contracting. The surgeon went in and gave my nerve some room so it wasn't pinched. It's a night and day. Just like my lower back surgery in 2009 on a ruptured disk. I had that feeling in my arms and I knew I was going to be better.

Shane Carwin: You get very few opportunities like this in life and I'm making the most of it. When I got the call, I took it.

Junior dos Santos: I really want to be the UFC heavyweight champion. Now I have one more challenge in front of me, Shane Carwin. He's a very big danger but I will give 100% of me to get in line for the title. My last fight was almost 10 months ago and that's too much time without fighting. I'm very excited to be fighting again.

Shane Carwin: We've worked with diet and nutrition and conditioning, a number of things. Every time you leave a fight you try to make yourself a better fight. We push on to this dos Santos fight and hopefully we made the right corrections.

Junior dos Santos: TUF was a great experience for me and I learned a lot there. I have a very good coach team and they are with me the whole time to teach me and help with my training camp. I'm feeling great for this fight and I know it'll be a tough fight but I'm ready for this.

Junior dos Santos: Me and Shane Carwin are good standing fighters. I believe so much in my boxing. My boxing bring me here until now. I feel very comfortable fighting on my feet. I will try to keep this fight standing but I'm ready to fight wherever the fight needs. On the ground or on the feet, it doesn't matter.

Junior dos Santos: I didn't talk to Lew Polley anymore. I don't have contact with him. Somebody told me he's saying some bullshit about me but I don't care about that.

Shane Carwin: Both dos Santos and I got where we are by knocking people out on our feet. I think we're both explosive fighters and I think the fans are going to have a real treat at UFC 131 knowing both guys have real power in their hands.

Shane Carwin: I'm weighing about 255 right now. My diet is mostly organic now, a lot of fruits and vegetables. Everything we do is for recovery. Before the Lesnar and Frank fights, I was cutting about 15 pounds to make the 265 pound limit. I feel a lot better right now walking around.

Junior dos Santos: The training didn't change with the opponent change. The strategy will change now though. It was easier to use my boxing against box and now I have a little more to worry about with Carwin, be a little more cautious.

Shane Carwin: (comparing Junior to Brock) They're different threats in different areas. Junior is more of a threat on his feet while Brock is more of a threat on the ground. 

Junior dos Santos: I'm going to have to move around the cage different with Shane than with Brock. 

Shane Carwin: (On what he learned from his Lesnar loss) I learned some things about picking my shots better when having someone hurt. I had to do some things with my nutrition and my cardio. I don't know if it was a cardio issue but we'll see in this fight. The one thing I can say is that I left everything in the Octagon. I was barely able to walk out of there. I put everything I had, every ounce of energy I had in there. 

Junior dos Santos: The first loss was a defining moment in my career. After that I realized losing wasn't a big deal and I really matured and grew as a fighter.

Junior dos Santos: Right now my focus is on beating Shane Carwin to face Cain Valasquez. I'd love to fight on the Rio card but my focus is on Shane.

Shane Carwin: (on whether his wrestling will come into play) We're knockout artists. That's how Junior fights and that's how I fight. I believe in my knockout power and my boxing and so does Junior. We'll find out on June 11th.

Junior dos Santos: I really miss doing what I'm trained to do. I have to keep fighting. You have to always be fighting to keep yourself up to date and I can't wait to finally compete for the title shot.

Shane Carwin: I miss being able to compete. I love to step into the Octagon with all the crazy UFC fans and show off my skills. I love competition and sport and that's what I miss the most (being sidelined for nearly a year).

Junior dos Santos: If I could go back, I'd still to TUF. I made some good friends and I enjoyed meeting the guys on my team. It's important to be visible in the US.

Shane Carwin: (on his recovery from surgery and it if affected him) It's pretty much business as usual now but the rehab process, there was muscle that was torn and separated. The doc did a great job. The main thing was doing the rehab and making sure all the scar tissue was pushed out as much as possible. I feel great.

Junior dos Santos: I always look for the knockout in my fights and this won't be different. Shane Carwin can walk through some punches but I'm still going to work for the knockout. I don't think he's ever faced someone with my power before. 

That concludes the call today. Did anything stand out to you Maniacs?