Skip to content

Carwin bloodied and beaten

Junior Dos Santos battered and bloodied Shane Carwin to win a dominant decision at UFC 131 on Saturday night and earn a shot at heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
Junior Dos Santos, Shane Carwin
Junior Dos Santos

VANCOUVER — Junior Dos Santos battered and bloodied Shane Carwin to win a dominant decision at UFC 131 on Saturday night and earn a shot at heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.

Twenty-two of their 26 combined fights had ended in the first round so no one was expecting a marathon. And Dos Santos (13-1) almost finished Carwin in the first, with a barrage of unanswered blows.

But Carwin (12-2) stayed up and the Brazilian made him pay, using his superior striking to disfigure Carwin’s face.

Referee Herb Dean called in the doctor in the third round. “Can you see?” the doc asked Carwin before letting the beating continue.

The judges scored it 30-27, 30-27, 30-26 for Dos Santos who goes after the title next.

“Cain, I’m coming for you,” said Dos Santos.

“I’m excited,” said Velasquez, who entered the cage after the fight.

Canadian lightweight Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout knocked out veteran Yves Edwards with a vicious left hook on the undercard of UFC 131 on Saturday.

Edwards toppled backwards and didn’t move. Stout (15-4-1) closed for the kill, but held back from punching when he saw Edwards was motionless, his arms outstretched like he had been dropped from 50 storeys.

Edward remained on his back with four people working on him as Stout was interviewed in the cage after the fight. He eventually got up on a stool to the applause of the crowd but needed a helping hand as he was led away.

Edwards (40-17-1) took Stout down earlier but failed to keep him there. As they traded blows on their feet, Edwards threw a right and Stout answered with the deadly hook at three minutes 52 seconds of the first round.

The 27-year-old from London, Ont., did a backflip in the cage and then jumped atop the fence to celebrate. His last seven UFC fights ended in decisions and he said he was desperate for a KO. He delivered in spectacular fashion.

“That is one of the nastiest KO’s I have EVER seen!!!!” tweeted UFC president Dana White.

Canadians went 3-1 on the undercard of the 12-fight mixed martial arts show at Rogers Arena.

The card started less than 24 hours after the stadium was rocking to 18,860 Canucks fans celebrating their 1-0 win over Boston in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final.

It took just three fights Saturday for the crowd to chant “Go Canucks Go.” And the highly partisan fans booed video of featherweight Kenny Florian’s arrival at the arena, remembering that the Boston native wore a Bruins’ jersey to the weigh-in. Even the Green Men were in attendance.

Hockey overshadowed the show all week, a far cry from UFC 115 last year — the first UFC card in Vancouver — which sold out in a then-record 30 minutes.

Canadian light-heavyweight Krzysztof (The Polish Experiment) Soszynski won a workmanlike 30-27, 30-26, 30-27 decision over Mike (The Master of Disaster) Massenzio.Calgary middleweight Nick (The Promise) Ring used a gritty ground game to carve up, dominate and defeat newcomer James Head. It ended with a third-round submission via rear naked choke after Ring had softened up Head (7-2).

Head’s heavy hands presented some problems early on and he wobbled Ring with a right to the head. Ring (12-0) survived and then used takedowns to control the fight.

It was all Ring on the ground and referee Herb Dean stopped the fight in the second round to have the doctor look at a nasty gash on Head’s nose — which looked like someone had taken a can opener to it. The fight continued, however, with Ring in complete control of his bloody opponent.

“It’s mixed martial arts for a reason and I came prepared for a fight that could go a variety of ways,” Ring said.

It was an emphatic showing by Ring, who was perhaps given the benefit of the doubt by the judges in his last outing — a decision over Riki Fukuda at UFC 127.

Chris (The All-American) Weidman impressed in a first-round win over Jesse (The Water) Bongfeldt, forcing the middleweight from Kenora, Ont., to tap to a standing guillotine choke at 4:54 of the first round.

Weidman, who has had four knee surgeries, said his meniscus popped out briefly during the fight.

Bongfeldt (15-5-1) ended up underneath Weidman in the first round and seemed to tire. When he got back up, he caught a knee but gave up his neck in the process and Weidman (6-0) locked onto it.

UFC newcomer Jason Young (8-4) proved to be a handful for Dustin (The Diamond) Poirier but the rising featherweight talent still won a 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 decision over the Brit. Young was durable and tough, targetting Poirier’s legs with kicks.

Poirier (10-1) has won all four of his WEC and UFC fights.

Darren (The Damage) Elkins won his debut at featherweight, earning a 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 decision over Japan’s Michiro Omigawa. Elkins (13-2) was cut around the right eye in the second round and his face was a bloody mask, thanks to some time on the ground under Omigawa (12-10-1), by the time the fight ended.

Still he got the decision, looking as surprised as anyone in the arena as the crowd booed the outcome.

“WOW!!!!,” tweeted White. “The judges rob another fighter!!! Omigawa won that fight!!!”

Said Omigawa: “I know 100 percent that I got the better of him in the standup. I don’t know what to say. I think I won this fight.”

Heavyweights Joey (The Mexicutioner) Beltran and Aaron Rosa went at it like Rock’ Em Sock’ Em Robots in the first round. There was action of a different kind in the second round as both fighters absorbed knees to the groin, with Rosa taking a knee to the head in the same sequence and then a late punch as the round ended.

Beltran (13-5) won by TKO at 1:26 of the third round after mauling an exhausted Rosa on the fence and the canvas in what was an entertaining if ugly fight. Rosa (16-4) was raw but very game in his UFC debut.

---

NOTES — As they did at UFC 130 in Las Vegas, the ringside judges used monitors.