by Tim Priester

So my buddy says to me prior to the Lesnar/Carwin fight that he thinks Carwin was going to win and he had a 12 pack on it. Not one to shy away from a bet especially one dealing with beer, unless it was that bet of jumping off my house and using the trampoline to try and clear my neighbor’s house…dude, it was a two story with an 80’s antennae! But back to this bet. He was telling me stories of Carwin’s magnificent first round defeats and how not one lasted more than four minutes. How Carwin, who by the way looks huge, at 6’4 and 265 was evenly matched against the bigger looking Lesnar. He felt Lesnar hadn’t really been tested, how could he in so few MMA fights. And he felt confident; enough to make it that fancy beer.

I took the bet. I thought that other than Mir and Gonzaga, Carwin hadn’t really been tested, and that although Lesnar was returning from a devastating injury that kept him from the ring, Carwin had a year in between victories himself. Lesnar also beat Mir (he may have lost to Mir early on in his career but that was when Lesnar was fresh to the ring), Couture (yes, that legend) and I wouldn’t hold his going to a decision on the Herring fight against him, after all he wasn’t rushing in to lose again like he did against Mir.

So the fight started and man was I confident in my boy Lesnar. That was good for about 10 seconds and then came Carwin’s famous first round. That was brutal. An unbelievable fury that would have killed any normal man, but Brock managed to keep his bearings and held off the blasts as part of his game plan. I thought for a moment, “There goes my free beer!”

Thankfully that moment lasted for about 10 seconds of the second round. Lesnar did what he has done since college, used his size to control the flow of the match, and about half way through the second round he submitted Carwin via the arm triangle.

Now the questions would have to be asked, Did Lesnar show that he was fully recovered from his injury and ready to retain the heavy-weight belt? Was this Carwin’s only chance to take on a less than 100% Lesnar and become champ? Who will face Lesnar next? Frankly I don’t have an answer yet, just drinking in my victory!

Tim Priester is a local MMA fan and a new contributor to Chicago’s MMA.

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The event, held on July 9th-10th at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida drew more than 2,500 competitors from 37 countries.

Participants competed in nearly 600 divisions contesting more than 20 disciplines of martial arts competition.

The ESPN2 broadcast will feature some of the world’s elite martial arts performers vying for ISKA World Titles in Extreme Weapons and Forms, Power, Speed and Creative Breaking, Demonstration Team, Synchronized Forms, and Self Defense competition. The spectacular Night of Champions show, from which much of the material for the broadcast was drawn, also included submission grappling, continuous fighting, sport jujitsu, and a special team fighting event.

Tune in this Friday night to ESPN2 for a dynamic presentation of unprecedented talent by these extraordinary martial arts athletes!

MMA Junkie is reporting Carter will face Torrance Taylor, a one time Strikeforce fighter, at Bellator 25 which is scheduled for August 19.  Bellator has not officially announced the fight yet.

Prior to taking part in Bellator 25, Shonie is supposed to fight in New Hampshire at HAVOC on July 31 against former Olympic Judoka Rick Hawn for the promotion’s welterweight title.  It’ll be a quick turnaround for Mr. International but maybe he’ll pull off some Chris Leben-esque magic and rip off two straight victories in a month’s time.

Here’s the promo video for HAVOC.

The MMA promotion Moosin is bringing some big fighters — in both name and size — right here to Chicago according to MMA Fighting. The event is scheduled to take place on October 9th at a venue that has yet to be determined.

Moosin wants to match up Tim Sylvia against Hong Man Choi and Kimbo Slice against world’s strongest man Mariusz Pudzianowski. Moosin executive Corey Fischer told MMA Fighting, “I would say the Kimbo-Pudzianowski fight is the furthest from being finished, but we’re trying to work on it and make it happen.” With Chicago’s huge Polish population, Pudzianowski against anyone would be a huge draw here. But pitting him against the former Elite XC and UFC fighter Kimbo makes it sensational.

Sylvia is coming off a win against Pudzianowski at the first Moosin event in May, “God of Martial Arts”. Slice hasn’t fought since losing by TKO to Matt Mitrione at UFC 113. He was cut by the UFC after that loss. Hong Man Choi is most famous for having fought Jose Canseco, as well as being submitted by Fedor Emelianenko on New Year’s Eve in 2007. He last fought in October of 2009, losing to Ikuhisa Minowa. He holds a 2-4 MMA record, with other losses to Badr Hari and Cro Cop.

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Bellator 25 will mark the Chicago landmark’s second-ever mixed martial arts event — the first being Bellator 14 which took place on April 15, 2010.  The Bellator 25 card will feature two quarterfinal fights in both the Season 3 Heavyweight and Women’s World Championship tournaments.

Damian “The Polish Pitbull” Grabowski will make his U.S. debut in a quarterfinal heavyweight world championship tournament fight against knock-out artist Scott Barrett.

Grabowski, who was considered one of the top heavyweight free agents in the world before signing with Bellator, boasts a perfect 13-0 pro record. The Polish Pitbull has not only finished each of his opponents by TKO or submission, but not one of his opponents has yet to see the third round of a fight. His spectacular tenacity was on full display in April 2009, when he competed in a one-night, 16-man heavyweight tournament in an Austrian promotion that featured no-time-limit bouts. Grabowski dismantled each of his four opponents, winning the tournament with his longest fight lasting only 3:48 into the second frame. In his most recent fight last month Grabowski TKO’d the highly regarded heavyweight Michal Kita in the first round.

Barrett, who owns a four-fight win streak coming into the tournament, fought earlier this year at Bellator 19 where he knocked out formerly undefeated Ty Lee just 2:25 into Round 1.

Bellator 25 will also include an opening-round fight in Bellator’s World Championship Women’s Tournament featuring Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto and the world’s No. 6-ranked flyweight, undefeated Jessica Pene.

Frausto was added to the tournament after she shocked the MMA world recently at Bellator 23 with her stunning KO of the world’s top-ranked and heavily favored Rosi Sexton.  Sexton was subsequently forced out of the tournament due to a 60-day medical suspension from the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority. Pene debuted for Bellator in May 2009 with a first round TKO against Tammie Schneider at Bellator 5.  Her unblemished record also features a submission victory over fellow tournament participant and No. 8 world ranked 115 pounder, Angela Magana.

In other action, Aisling Daly, the best female mixed martial artist in Ireland and the world’s No. 3-ranked 125 lbs. woman, will drop down to 115 lbs. to face 13-5 submission ace and No. 3-ranked flyweight Lisa Ward in the opening round of the World Championship Women’s Tournament.  The 22-year-old Daly will make her U.S. MMA debut backed by a pristine 9-0 record, while Ward enters the fight with one win already coming under the Bellator banner.  Just two weeks ago at Bellator 22, she dismantled Stephanie Frausto with a slick rear naked choke 2:01 into the first round.

The Bellator Season 3 Heavyweight and Women’s World Championship tournaments begin Aug. 12 and will once again be televised LIVE in primetime every Thursday night on FOX Sports Net and during special weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator.

Tickets are priced at $100, $75, $50, and $35, and go on sale at Ticketmaster.com beginning this Saturday, July 10^th, at noon.

Chicago’s Louis Taylor is headed to the main event. Taylor got the call to take on Joe “Diesel” Riggs to headline a stacked STRIKEFORCE Challengers event from Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona. Taylor will be fighting Riggs in front of Diesel’s home crowd, and they’ll do it at a catch weight of 182 pounds in the main event on Friday, Aug. 13, LIVE on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. here in Chicago.

Taylor is 6-1 and has rattled off two consecutive knockout wins since his first career loss to Nate Moore on the undercard of the STRIKEFORCE and M-1 GLOBAL: Fedor vs. Rogers event here in Hoffman Estates last November.

The 5-foot-11 Taylor has scored knockouts in four of his six consecutive victories and has only gone to the judges scorecards once in his professional career.
The event, STRIKEFORCE’s first in the state of Arizona, will also feature a four-woman single elimination welterweight (135 pound) tournament comprised of four female prospects to be announced soon. The tournament will be completed over the course of the evening’s fight card.

The winner of the tournament will likely face the champion of the July 23 STRIKEFORCE Women’s Welterweight Title fight between undefeated, defending champ Sarah Kaufman and challenger Roxanne Modafferi in Everett, Wash., LIVE on SHOWTIME.

Riggs holds notable victories over STRIKEFORCE Welterweight champ Nick Diaz, Kendall Grove, Chris Lytle and “The N.Y. Badass” Phil Baroni. He is coming off a controversial unanimous decision loss to streaking, former world champ Jay Hieron at STRIKEFORCE: Miami on Jan. 30, 2010.

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Fans can vote online at AMPEnergy.com/WEC or text their zip code to a secret number available only at Hess and Maverik locations.

“AMP Energy is giving consumers the authority to tell a major sport where an event will take place, and I’m not sure that’s ever been done before,” said Pat Santangelo, assistant marketing manager, AMP Energy. “We know how passionate WEC fans are, so we partnered with the WEC, Hess, Maverik and Versus on this collaborative effort that is sure to make serious noise this year. We want fans to be a part of the process.”

Fans who don’t live near the winning city still have the opportunity to attend the fight by visiting participating Hess and Maverik stores. One winner will represent Hess and one lucky fan will represent Maverik. For complete contest details and a Leader Board update, log onto www.AMPEnergy.com/WEC.