MMA Mailbag: UFC 131 Edition

Added on Jun 13, 2011 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

Here is UFC 131′s addition of the Twitter mail bag, as always feel free to ask me any questions at my twitter feed at www.twitter.com/scream13 . I try to do these every event if I get enough questions so feel free to let them fly there.

Whats next for Shane Carwin?

There are a lot of people writing off Shane Carwin, and it’s a little insulting to me. Here is a guy who changed his opponents 30 days out from a fight (and had minutes to decide,) his opponent change was from an unranked fighter to a top 5 opponent, and he was coming off a long lay off after major surgery. Carwin goes out and fights like a lion, and everyone is saying its over for him, or he is now a gate keeper at best.

With a minute to go in the third round, Shane Carwin had an easy out. All he had to say was “I can’t see,” and the doctor would have stopped the fight (we later found out he couldn’t.) No one would have thought a second about it especially if you have seen the pictures after the third round. Instead, with impaired vision he decided to fight, and leave it all in the cage. Carwin stood toe to toe with Junior and traded with him for 15 minutes, and he caught a beating for sure, but you don’t see heart like that very often.

There are great fights for Carwin at Heavyweight, and thats including Einamo who he was supposed to fight, and of course a few other opponents. Carwin is 12-2 with 12 first round knock outs, and you need to adjust your set if you think this guy is all done.

Does Kenny Forian deserve the the next shot at Jose Aldo?

This is a tough call, because the division isn’t very deep yet. It’s a growing division in the UFC, and yes I know its from the WEC, but things are falling into place for it to be very competitive in the future. More fighter’s like Ken-Flo will move down that only fought at 145 because there was no division for it before in the UFC.

On paper, No he doesn’t deserve the shot. If they are really going to start moving fighters over strikeforce like they are doing with Nick Diaz then I think Gilbert Melendez deserves the next shot. If the UFC has no want to bring over Melendez than I understand them making that fight, but I would like to see him get another 145 win before having a crack at Aldo.

How did you score the Maia vs Munoz fight?

Firstly, I scored the fight for Maia, but it was a close fight. I am not saying there was a robbery (not in this fight anyway,) but for about ten minutes I thought I was crazy because no one was saying what I thought happened in the fight. I thought Munoz clearly won the second round, but I thought Maia one the first and second rounds. I felt much better when is saw the Sherdog play by play page where I saw Jordan Breen and another analysts score it the same way. It wasn’t a robbery, but I had it for Demian Maia.

Is Yves Edwards alright?

Yes, he is ok. I really wish the UFC would do a better job about updating us on the condition of fighters during the events, but yes he is fine. Edwards walked out of the Octagon under his own power with a doctor at his side. I have not heard of the medical suspensions yet for the event, but I imagine that they will be coming in the next 24 hours and that he will have a lengthy no contact suspension unless he is cleared sooner by a doctor.

Were you surprised at Cowboy Cerrone’s performance on Saturday?

I really was, as I was expecting a much better fight out of him. Cerrone was fighting a guy with little or no stand up skills, and a guy with mediocre at best take downs. Cerrone is fantastic at his takedown offense, and that means this fight takes place on the feet. Thats exactly his wheel house for fights. Cerrone is normally a dangerous Muay Thai fighter who has the ability to light a lot of guys up in his division, and Vagner Roacha is one of those guys. He wasn’t even really throwing combinations until the third round, and after the 20^th leg kick I thought he had done enough to keep Roach guessing as to what was coming next-a punch or a kick.

After watching this fight, there is no doubt in my mind this should have been a first or second round win for Cowboy, and he fought a decent fight, but if he wants to be known as dangerous he needs to finish guys like Roacha.