Lesnar vs. Velasquez may be a short wait

Looks like we might not have to wait too long for Brock Lesnar to defend his newly unified heavyweight title. Lesnar, who survived a first-round scare against Shane Carwin at Saturday’s UFC 116, will next face Cain Velasquez – and that could happen as early as UFC 119 on September 25. It’s just a matter of everybody staying healthy, and of Lesnar recovering from the pounding he took from Carwin before pulling off the suprising submission victory.

Just how much of a beating did Carwin give Lesnar before the turn-around? He landed 60 shots to the champ’s Easter Island head before he gassed out. That shows some inexperience on Carwin’s part, and some over-anxiousness (and perhaps our over-estimation Carwin’s punching power).

Carwin’s only racked up 15 or so minutes of actual fight time in his pro career and his heavy hands have always been enough to get the job done. Not against a genetic freak like Lesnar, however. I wonder if referee Josh Rosenthal would’ve had to step in, though, if Carwin had targeted Lesnar’s cowering body with punches and a few knees similar to how Georges St. Pierre punished Matt Serra in their rematch?

Meanwhile, the winner of UFC 117’s heavyweight tilt between (future champ) Junior dos Santos and Ultimate Fighter alumnus Roy Nelson will be next in line behind Velasquez for a title shot.  And while a Nelson title shot is both laughable and awesome in a “win one for the little big guy” kind of way, it’ll be tough to get past dos Santos, who already has impressive victories over Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Gabriel Gonzaga and Fabricio Werdum, who just handed heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko his first loss in a decade last week.

And as a side note, there’s a column over on Five Ounces of Pain that wades into the whole heavyweights/pound-for-pound debate. Unfortunately, the writer gets lost in the murk with statements like this:

While the pound for pound debate will always be a hypothetical one heavyweight fights can provide definitive answers. This is what makes fights for the heavyweight title that much more significant than title fights in any other division. They are not just about finding out who is the best fighter at a specific weight class, they are about finding out who is the best fighter, period.

Since when is the best heavyweight fighter also automatically considered the best fighter in the world? Being the best fighter at the biggest weight doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best fighter overall, hence the never-ending pound-for-pound debate. But for some reason some people continue to equate the two.