Fighting Jon Olav Einemo is a bad business for Shane Carwin
Posted on March 24, 2011, 06:00 AM by Anton GurevichUFC President Dana White confirmed yesterday that the former UFC Heavyweight title contender Shane "The Enigneer" Carwin will make his Octagon return against no other than the Golden Glory fighter and UFC newcomer John Olav Einemo. Carwin will square off against the 35-year old Einemo at the main card of Lesnar-JDS headlined UFC 131 on June 11th.
Not to take anything away from Jon Olav Einemo, but I'm really having a hard time finding the logic behind such match-up.
The first question that comes to my head, is why would a top ranked Heavyweight square off against an unranked fighter such as Jon Olav Einemo? Shane Carwin is currently in position where a single victory could put him back on track for a shot at the UFC Heavyweight title. Carwin came very close to becoming the UFC Heavyweight Champion at UFC 116, and surely deserves a top name to prove his worth.
And it's not just about the rankings or not being a "top name", Jon Olav Einemo fought for the last time almost five years ago, against no other than James Thompson. Except of this fight against Thompson (oh, well), and the Decision loss to Fabricio Werdum in PRIDE, Einemo didn't fight against any of known, not speaking about top-tier, MMA fighters.
So yes, you can add the "inactive" to an already existing "unranked" in this equation.
Of course, Einemo is an outstanding submission artist, winning the 2003 Abu Dhabi Tournament, where he defeated Roger Gracie in the Semi's and then Alexandre Ferreira in the Final. But then again, his latest known grappling achievement is a Quarter-Final of the 2005 ADCC. That's right, six years ago.
There are plenty of other exciting match-ups for Shane Carwin in the UFC. Fighting someone like Cheick Kongo, Pat Barry, Stefan Struve or even Mike Russow is a much better idea than putting up Carwin against the relatively unknown Norwegian. I'm sure that the UFC fans would love to see Carwin against the listed above fighters, especially against strikers Cheick Kongo and Pat Barry.
Carwin has little to gain and a lot to lose in this fight. In case of defeat, "The Engineer" will definitely find himself out of the Top 10 Heavyweight zone, and about four fights away from another shot at the title. It's a bad business for Shane Carwin.
In the end, Einemo has a golden opportunity to prove his fighting skills against a top-tier Heavyweight. It's without a doubt the biggest fight of his career, as a victory will surely catapult him into a very favorable position in the UFC. Will I eat my words? We'll have to wait for June 11th to find out.
Comments
Now that's certainly left field. Very surprising... aren't engineers the logical type?
This fight makes no sense for Carwin unless he is looking for a quick win. The risk is great for no real gain other than getting over some ring rust or getting a quick pay check. Even that doesn't warrant this decision.
Its especially odd when you consider other fighters return fights, lesnar had carwin after a year lay-off, shogun had probly the top fighter he could have faced after a year lay off and surgery but carwin gets this guy?? joe silva must crap names into a bag
the answer is the heavyweight division sucks all he matchups available suck.
Get the strikeforce merger going asap and have a legit tournement!!
They had better opponents because they were champion dipshit.
Would you prefer:
Lesnar - Tim Hague
Shogun - Frank Trigg.
??????????
@shaundiel and Shane carwin is only 1 fight away from being in the mix for the title, you don't think I know they were champs???????? So u think this is a fair match up then dipshit?
Being '1 fight away from being in the mix for a title' and holding the title and being the division's champion are two completely different things.
Yes, I think you're retarded.
And Carwin fought for the title and only lost due to cardio issues. How many 1st round finishes? He has some terrible flaws, but even with them flaws he is still a top 3 or 4 HW and should be fighting someone far more relevant than Einemo.
the match up is a little bit of a head scratch but im glad to see shane back. i miss the brutal first round ko's
The only logic I can see behind this is:
Most of the other top ranked HWs in the UFC are tied up in fights already, so they'll hype up Einemo as a 'dangerous' opponent for Carwin, then once he gets his first round KO, he'll be back in the title hunt.
right on the money
Kinda agree with this one. But Carwin is one of the best, and best fighters should fight other best fighters. And I don't mean to go "fighter bashing" here, but Jon Einemo is far... very far from being the best.
Anton, well all the guys you mentioned have fights right now, Pat Barry is actually fighting Cheick Kongo next in June I believe. Struve is fighting Travis Browne next, and Russow is fighting Jon Madsen, Schaub just fought, Cain injured, Mir vs. Nelson, JDS vs. Brock...... Who else is there really? Only other one I can think of is Ben Rothwell but he's injured, or coming back from an injury, one of the two...
Also,Just read that Einemo requested Carwin as an opponent, make of that, what you will....
All of the above reasons plus....
What happens if JDS or Brock get injured or for some reason cannot fight iin Vancouver?
Backup.
Carwin will be training for the same card against another HW, so if something goes wrong with a main card fighter, there is no problem substituting for an injured HW star at the last moment.
plus I believe Dana is pissed with Carwin for a number of reasons including his complaints about his salary and steroid allegations.
Good points, and yah I remember Carwin complaining about the UFC's rules with not allowing some sponsors. As far as I know there are a couple HW's that are likely better than JOE that he could have been fighting, and it does seem like he or the UFC was content on having him on the Vancouver card.
Or maybe we even have a conspiracy in the making, and Brock is just beind used for TUF, then he's going to pull out of the fight.....I doubt that though.
Actually not a terible matchup just not a great. one. Its a chance to see if Carwin did any training on submission defense at all.
I dont care who the guy has fought. Shane's resume isnt much better. I only care about what he did with what was in front of him. If he had the skill to beat a young Roger Gracie dude can make things happen. I would not be suprised if Shane loses this match. He better run like hell if it goes to the ground.
carwin is gonna loose, the other guy trains at golden glory with saki, overeem and struve..im gonna make a lot of money of you yanks
Your profile description:
>Fedor is the best, better then overeem and any other mma fighter...American people believe only in hypes
Your argument is void.
I think the brit is right If I still gambled I would bet on this guy. T he Yanks are going to have Carwin as a heavy favorite too cause he's popular with the UFC fans.
Carwin is actually an engineer and I believe he still works so money is not the biggest issue. The issue is Lesnar earns a rediculous 400k for the fight and Carwin, who had finished all his fights, earned 40k.
So I'd say fair enough to complain about a 40k payday versus 400k payday.
Excluding UFC 100, the highest UFC PPV buy rate is a little over a million buys--and not the average.
ballpark = $50 x 1,000, 000 = ~$50 million.
The PPV provider/cable companies take half of that so the UFC gets $25 million before paying any overhead, taxes or percentages to fighters.
And 25 million is a top selling PPV--the average is probably about half that number.
The gate is between 3 and 5 million.
So ballpark, the UFC is no where near making 50 - 100 million per Pay per View.
That said, I agree that Carwin should have made more--but I think he pissed off Dana.
Like when Carwin tweeted (jokingly) he would talk to Strikeforce's Scott Coker.
How much do you think Harley Davidson and Bud Lite pay them? They make as much off advertising as they do in other revenues.
Its all politics kid. Its everywhere but UFC plays it up alot. James Toney Made more money in his UFC debut the Coture did his 1st ten fights combined. But he lost it to the IRS so now he want to fight Jackson. In Japan Im sure they paid the guy that fought rikson gracie great for his mma debut. He was a wrestler like brock and popular. But at least they took care of the real fighter in Rikson gracie and paid him a couple million. UFC's pay has gotten better but the lower rank guys still make shit for what they do. But Iam worried the ceasar gracie boys wont get paid what they should when there contracts are up.
Takada went on and fought many many more times in Pride, but lots of those early fights were worked (ie. fake, fixed, with a planned result), he fought a mix of fixed a real fights for Pride.(Mark Coleman admitted years later their fight was fixed, hence Takada being able to pull off the win) He was also an investor and helped promote Pride. I don't think he was paid in the typcal manner.
No one gets paid what they deserve, but it's getting better. The fighters need to pull together and form a union and demand more equal share, but like Dana said, the top earners are gonna have a problem with that, spreading some of their dough down the chain.
Carwin would destroy any of the guys available already in the ufc so dana is takin a shot maybe this guy is good at weathering the storm and that seems to be the only way to beat him
Now i want Jon Olav Einemo to win
J-O ain't no push over! Do not underestimate this man!!
He has superb submissions, top notch take downs. His striking is alright, but his striking defense is excelent. He's leathel from the guard and he's like the Energizer Bunny!! Never seen cardio like his in any heavyweight.
The only thing that I hold against him in this fight is his ringrust. And that Carwin is the better striker, but in every thing else J-O has the upper hand.
Once he gets some fights, he'll be a top contender.
Carwin was a national wrestling champ. He has the edge there too, don't get it twisted. He is also bigger, stronger and more athletic and hits a lot harder.
I doubt Carwin is the better technical striker, but his punching power and clinch game will make up for that.
It seems that the UFC wants to see a striking battle. If Carwin is wise, he won't make it one. He should be able to take this guy down and pound him out in under 2 minutes in true Carwin style.
J-O is a submission artist. Carwin got submited by Lesnar so just think what this super grappler will do to him. Carwins best chance is to stand up and get a knock out before he runs out of gas. Carwin is the superior striker, but J-O's striking is closer to Carwins striking than Carwins grappling is to J-O's grappling. I would say J-O is by far the best grappler in HW. His grappling is on the same level as Demian Maia's or Dennis Hallman's. Hi is a grappling machine!!
shogun got submitted by griffin. is that because of a skill difference too?
Lesnar submitted a completely exhausted Carwin from top position. It's not like he got caught in a triangle like Sonnen. Do you really think J-O is going to be able to take him down like that? Carwin's wrestling is too good.
And I don't care how good a submission guy you are, you don't want Carwin on top of you, and there are 12 guys who can testify to that.
Sure Carwin can beat J-O in the ground game, but I think it's highly unlikely. J-O probably asked to fight Carwin because he knows that a win will catapult him into the top of the HW-division. And I think he asked for this fight because he knows he's got the superior ground game and based on Carwins previous fights the better stamina.
He's been working on his stand up with Overeem, who is a better striker than Carwin, and I doubt Carwin has been working on his grappling with someone with J-O's skills.
To be honest I think the only thing that could cost J-O this fight is that he's been in the octagon once in the last 6 years because he suffered from a flesh eating bacterial infection that almost cost him his leg.
Or may be I'm just rooting for him because he used to toss me around like a ragdoll! lol
Just keep in mind, J-O is unknown but he's far from untalented. And Dana and the matchmakers in the ufc know this. That's why this "unknown" got a top contender in his first fight.