Why bother with a UFC interim heavyweight title?

Unlike Strikeforce, it appears that the UFC is unwilling to let a title sit idle for too long. With heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar sidelined indefinitely with a bacterial infection in his intestines that required surgery, UFC president Dana White is working on setting up an interim championship bout, according to the L.A. Times. And top contender Shane Carwin, who was supposed to fight Lesnar at UFC 108, has posted to the MMA Underground that he’s in talks to face Cain Velasquez for the temporary title.

As Carwin wrote, “I have a knee I am rehabbing and a baby due on the eleventh of February. I am down to do whatever is best for the division. Not sure how important the belt is in that scenario. (There are) lots of great fighters at the top and lots of talented young guns on the way up right now.”

Now, I like the idea of Carwin vs. Velasquez, a match-up that was supposed to happen until Carwin got fast-tracked to the immediate title shot against Lesnar. And with Velasquez’s UFC 108 opponent, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, out with a staph infection, it makes a lot of sense. Although it does feel like a step backwards for Carwin, who goes from a title shot to an interim title shot. Guess he can’t afford to sit around and wait for Lesnar in order to make a buck, especially with a kid on the way.

But Carwin does make an interesting point – how necessary is an interim title right now? If the prognosis on Lesnar is that he’s out for eight or ten months or more, then sure, let’s get the ball rolling. But a Carwin vs. Velasquez fight is at least eight weeks out, and that’s assuming Carwin could enter training camp today. So why rush to fabricate a title? Why not give it a couple of weeks to see how the Lesnar situation plays out? Until Lesnar returns nobody is going to take an interim belt seriously, so why even bother?

And Carwin agrees:

“Talk of stripping a man of his title due to illness will set this sport back farther then anything Brock has ever said. We need our Champions healthy and defending. I know the show will go on but to be a Champion you must beat a Champion … If you sit around bashing Brock or making fun of this because of his antics you might be the very same thing you despise. As an MMA fan, as a human be concerned that one of OUR OWN has fallen and needs our support.”

As a sidenote, how classy is Carwin? Here’s the rest of what he wrote about the Lesnar situation:

I am sure most of you know I am not the leader of the Lesnar Fan Club. That being said, antics or not, he is OUR UFC HWT Champion. He beat a future Hall of Famer to keep that belt and he NEEDS our prayers and good thoughts right now … Brock has a wife, kid, and friends that depend on him to make their lives better. You do not have to support Brock and his antics but you should have respect for the human side of what is happening here.