By Shawn W. Smith
When Shane Carwin decided to hang up his gloves and call it a career earlier this week, there was no press conference, no big send-off, and no big thank you from the UFC. Instead, he released a simple Tweet saying he was done fighting, thanked everyone for their support, and told people to dream big.
It was a no nonsense way to end a career, and seems to be fitting of the straight forward former UFC interim heavyweight champion. With 140 characters (or less), Carwin ended his fighting career and put the official stamp on the end of the “giant” era of heavyweights.
Carwin, along with Brock Lesnar, ushered in a generation of monster heavyweights. Never before had we seen men who had to cut substantial amounts of weight to make the 265-pound heavyweight limit.
He was a tower of muscle and an intimidating figure for anyone who dared step in his way. It was a stark contrast from the days of Randy Couture as a virtual light-heavyweight holding the championship and Andrei Arlovski who, although a large man in his own right, rarely weighed in over 235 pounds and certainly never cut weight.
Carwin’s explosive UFC debut at UFC 84, a mouth-guard loosening knockout over Christian Wellisch, will be on highlight reels for as long as the UFC is around. However, it was his other first-round stoppages of Neil Wain, Gabriel Gonzaga, and Frank Mir which truly helped to solidify Carwin as a world-calibre competitor.
As a 38-year-old who came so close to being a world champion, retirement couldn’t have been an easy decision. A different referee on a different night could have easily stopped his heavyweight title bout at UFC 116 against Lesnar and few would have complained.
For the opening five minutes of the bout, Carwin pounded Lesnar into a bloody mess, delivering thunderous punches which most would have succumb to. Referee Josh Rosenthal spent much of the round telling Lesnar to fight back as he could provide no offense against the overwhelming attack of Carwin.
And although it was ultimately a losing effort (an exhausted Carwin had little energy left in the second round and was forced to submit when Lesnar caught him in an arm-triangle), it will be remembered as his career-defining performance. Like his career, the performance was short and violent, and he burned out far too soon.
At nearly 1.3 million buys, UFC 116 ranks among the top three pay-per-view selling shows in the UFC`s history, making Carwin one of the most recognizable faces in mixed martial arts. If nothing else, it was direct proof that when it comes to combat sports, bigger is always better.
Carwin’s look as much as his fighting style made him an appealing figure to fight fans. His working-class background certainly didn’t hurt either.
Like any good engineer, the career he will likely return to, Carwin knows when a machine is finished and it’s time to move on. Unfortunately, there are no calculations to come up with for a solution, and no secondary parts which can easily be tossed in to make the machine run fresh again.
When the human body says it is finished, little can be done to stop the erosion. Time catches up with the best athletes, especially those in as physical a sport as mixed martial arts.
