Shane Carwin vs. Cain Velasquez, Matt Hughes vs. Mike Swick Rumored to Headline UFC 103
Shane Carwin vs. Cain Velasquez and Matt Hughes vs. Mike Swick could co-headline UFC 103 on September 26 in Dallas if current rumors are accurate.
A potential bout between heavyweight contenders Carwin and Velasquez began to be discussed after Velasquez’s UFC 99 victory over Cheick Kongo earlier this month, which cemented his status as a contender for the heavyweight title much like Carwin did with a UFC 96 win over Gabriel Gonzaga. Both Velasquez (6-0) and Carwin (11-0) are undefeated and in line for a title shot, though each needs one more victory over top competition before fighting for the belt.
Swick has lost just once in 10 UFC bouts, losing to middleweight contender Yushin Okami in 2007 before dropping to welterweight in early-2008 and winning four-straight to make a case for a title shot, though it appears he’ll have to get through the former champion Hughes before fighting for the 170-pound title. Hughes had lost back-to-back fights before defeating rival Mat Serra by unanimous decision in May.
Though the matchups had been rumored since UFC 99, Inside Fights recently confirmed that both bouts are under consideration for the pay-per-view event.
[Pictured: Shane Carwin]
Tags: Cain Velasquez, Matt Hughes, Mike Swick, shane carwin
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Cain v Shane makes total sense to me, its probably the best idea for setting up one of these two to become legit “contenders” for the HW title…. With the power in Shane’s hands and well the lack of head movement displayed by Cain, Shane has a good opportunity to drop the younger Cain, should be an excellent fight if (when) it happens..
Swick v Hughes ummmm ok whynot? Hell if GSP wins @ UFC 100 the WW division will be stuck in limbo, no clear cut #1 contender, most of the top of the division has already lost to GSP, there is always a rematch against Fitch i guess… Hey I want and think that GSP will win against Thiago, but for snitzingiggle of the Division and to make it a wide open race and would become rather exciting IF the PitBull were to win, it might be best for the division…
Ya it would be rather interesting if Thiago won thier would be alot more matchups available. I think its kinda obvious thier realy trying to set swick up for a title shot, cause their pretty much feeding him hughes at this point. It would be crazy if hughes won though imagine him going for the belt again.
Alves took the same road to face GSP. He beat Hughes and then Koscheck and now has a title fight. Also I think Swick is a great contender. His one loss was against Yushin who is no easy win, and even in that fight he wasn’t demolished. Swick is a tough dude.
GSP has never beaten Swick. Besides Alves is going to knock out GSP
UM who said that GSP has beaten Swick? I’m a little confused by your comment…
what round do you think that The PitBull will ko The Greatness, and by all means it can defiantely happen…..
GSP is too quick for Alvez to knock him out, anyway GSP is going to take him down and kick is a$$ there like he did Penn.
But Alvez can still get ‘em
fr WHAT UP!!!
Man you said it all great points!!!
I see looonng nights here for Cain and Hughes.
Thier putting arguably one of the best strikers at 170 against one of the worst. We all remeber how well tha went last time. ala Hughes vs Alves
As for Cain, well just like every one else on here was saying he is going to be in a lot of trouble if he meets someone he cant take down at will. Carwin is just not the guy to mess with right now.
Swick by TKO rnd 2
Carwin by TKO rnd 1
worst strikers is a bit of a stretch when you talk about Hughes(I don’t even like the guy) but Swick is nasty on his feet. Takedown defense decides that fight.
I am seriously racking my brain to think of someone in the UFC’s 170lb division with worse striking. POSSIBLY that guy that just recently KO’d Koscheck? I mean I know that sentence is nearly oxymoronic because I said horrible striker and KO’d Kos, but before that upper-cut he looked terrible. Chin up, hands down. Reminded me of Ricky Hatten (ouch!) But seriously Hughes under-commits to his striking. It’s always an exchange at the exit rather than an entrance for him.
Cain Velasqyez vs. Shane Carwin should determine the next guy for a title shot. This has the makings of a great fight…or a fast one. Cain V. for sure is not going to do to Carwin what he did to Kongo, no way because Carwin is also a good wrestler who is decent off his back AND he showed that against Gonzaga. Gonzaga rocked him with two big punches then had him on the ground and was startin to give him some gNp, and remeber that Gonzaga is a black belt in bbj so he’s no joke on the ground, anyway Carwin managed to fight his way up and OFF BALANCE still had enough puching power to drop Gonzaga. We saw that(like fr702 pointed out),we saw that Velasquez can be hurt and he doesn’t have too much head movement which can cost him because not only is Carwin a good wrestler, but he can take a big punch and still knock you out. Velasquez has the ability to take Carwin down and control him like he did Kongo, but i feel he’ll have a hard time doing that because Carwin’s ground game is waaayy better than Kongo’ little to none ground game.
As for Hughes vs. Swick, this doesn’t really make sense to me. Hughes just got finished by GSP and Alves, yeah he beat Serra, but that’s not too big of a deal. Swick was asking for Hughes after defeating Killa B because he wants an easy path to the title AND he wants to avoid fighting his buddies from AKA. Either way, Hughes is not the asme Hughes as before, his chin is waaayyy weaker AND he’s not close to being as strong as he was before. His only hope in this fight is to take Swick down and try to apply a sub or control him, BUT if Swick manages to avoid the takedowns he obviously will have a great advantage of putting Hughes away because we all know that Hughes has zero stand-up. I’m not counting Hughes out though because he has a big heart and the skill to still compete AND he’s not that old either. He also has some momentum coming off the Serra fight which has built his confidence level. Hughes can beat Swick, i don’t think that Swick is all that great or anything but he’s younger,faster and will have a huge reach advantage, if Hughes can pull this off, it will be awesome to see him go for the belt one last time.
So what exactly is your logic that Hughes has a weak chin? Because he’s been TKO’d one time by Alves a year ago and once by GSP almost 3 years ago?
I’m by no means a Matt Hughes fan, and I agree that the man has a pretty weak stand-up game, but getting knocked out by a flying knee is hardly a reason to call his chin suspect.
Ko’d also by Pele (Jose Landi~Jons) early in his career (just fueling the fire, have a good day)
Dont worry PStrait Marvel thinks Randy has a week chin to which i dont agree with but what can you do. :p
What makes YOU think that Hughes HAS a chin? What’s YOUR logic on that?
Hughes barely gets hit and gets dazed easy, Serra barely touched him with his head and Hughes went down and almost got finished, Alvez,if you look at the fight again, Alvez didn’t really completely connect with the knee he got Hughes with and Hughes fell,but before that he got Hughes with one or two jabs that didn’t really connect either,but Hughes still got dazd.
If Swick connects,or anyone who fights Hughes in the future,if anyone connects he’s going down. And i’m a Hughes fan,but it doesn’t take a lot to see that his chin is weaker than before.
Randy is old, it doesn’t matter how much in shape he is, if he gets touched in the chin he’s going to sleep, period.
We will see marvel we will see. By the way nice avatars lately.
MK4 what up!!
I am seriously not a matt hughes fan butt I give credit where it is due and he got my respect to say the least.
I think the times hughes got dazed that you talk about were the knee that sent him crashing was more of an off balance falling on his knee oddly.
The serra fight he got rocked by a head but.. MK4 dude seriously have you seen the size of matt Serra’s HEAD!!! Glance or not any man would be dazed from that.
But I said all of that just to say he is going to get KO’D by Swick!!
LOL have a good one.
If Carwin can stop Velasquez’s takedowns he’ll force Velasquez to strike with him. Now for a big dude, Carwin has decent speed and decent movement. Velasquez was very impressive in his win over Kongo, but Kongo exposed that Velasquez doesn’t have the best chin nor stand-up. I only see Velasquez winning if he can take Carwin down and control him like he did Kongo. Not to fighter bash, but I honestly feel that Carwin’s win over Gabriel Gonzaga was more impressive than Velasquez’s win over Kongo because Gonzaga is one of the top Hevyweights in the world and he’s waaayy more well rounded than Kongo. I’m personally rooting for Carwin because i want to see if he can knockout Lesnar(if Lesnar gets passed Mir).
Well said Mk4,
I agree. Cain imo had it pretty easy against kongo since kongo’s ground game is just as bad as cain’s head movement. Carwin is a whooole different story dude. This guy is ****ing tough dude and if cain can’t take carwin down and keep him there it’s lights out dude.
Imagine a if both carwin AND lesnar win? That would be a beast of a match! and one of the best hw title fights in a long time.
Swick vs hughes imo is a total buffet for swick to tear up! Someone said swick is being set up for a title shot and it couldn’t be more obvious that that’s what’s going on. Swick should have gotten kampann and hughes should have gotten condit or hardy(since he beat davis). But hey whatever, swick is the only remaining fighter on AKA that GSP hasn’t whooped on so i’m all for it!
Carwin by tko 1st round
Swick by tko 2nd round
GSP BY TKO in the 2nd!
MK4 Jazzok my boys!!! What up!!
I still say Valesquez is a beast.. Yeah Kongo ground game is horrible but he took some beastly shots to get him to the ground and he did it all 3 rounds without gassing so Hey man he proved himself to me.
Carwin has no head movement and got his nose broken I just dont see him lasting long in later rounds without it{head movement}. But he is dangerous standing. That KO of GG was unreal.\
Great match up.
Swick IMO has done alot though, his only loss in the ufc since tuff is what Okami and that was at 185 so he fought long enough, He was in title contention at 185 until okami… I mean people are already saying let Diego fight the likes of BJ or Florian so hey let Swick fight hughes ko him and get title shot too. Although i dont agree with that.. Swick vs Kampman is a good Idea. I dont know why the fought that Saunders guy, way below Swick’s league!
Glad were on the same page about Swick OT1. Before the fight with Swick Dana said Marcus davis was close to a title shot, so Swick beats him and TKO’s 2 more guys for kicks. Hell i say he deserves the shot right now. I thought from the get go Sounders was overated and was gonna get dropped. Its ok though if swick beats hughes he should have no argument for a title shot.
well for one hughes can take a punch. That head butt from serra was right in the temple and hughes has takin some punches as sen in his fights against BJ, Riggs, Trigg, and sherk. I think swick gives him ALOT of problems though. If he cant take him down he is in trouble. And he hughes does take him down you cant count out swicks submission game. He has submission wins over riggs and Vigneault not sayin that they are hard to submit.
Carwin is a college champion wrestler as well. I’m not saying Cain can’t take him down, but size is on Carwin’s side and if they are even close to evenly matched in the wrestling department I would not be surprised at all to see Carwin in top position against Cain.
look shiny objects!!! Seriously though this makes this card a lot more attractive!
Carwin-Velazquez makes a lot of sense for both fighters, though stylistically this could turn into a wrestling match in a hurry. Both will be swinging for the fences but I think the first time of these guys gets staggered it’ll turn into a wrestling match in a hurry. I see a whole lot of scrambles. Definitely excited to see these two tie up.
Hughes-Swick makes sense when you consider it is what Swick wants right now. I’m interested to see how it’ll work out because like I said above I think Swick’s takedown defense will decide this fight. Hughes has ok boxing skills but his boxing is more to set-up take downs. Hughes is in the twilight of his career but that doesn’t mean he still cannot cause trouble for Swick. Either way I’m more intrigued by than excited by this fight. Could turn out a lot of different ways.
I totally disagree with the Carwin-Velazquez fight. Both of these guys are one fight away from a title shot. Sorry, but if one gets beat by the other then the loser moves to 2 fights away at best. Let’s say carwin bets Cain V by 1st round murder as many of you (and I) think will happen. If that happens, Cain V drops by a lot, to maybe 3 wins away from a title shot. Then say Lesnar wins, then you have no one deserving a title shot. Randy–No. Big Nog-needs to beat Randy and 2 more wins to deserve that. Kongo-Murder by Lesnar, and oh 3 wins at least. Well, that leaves the same heavyweight division as we had 2 1/2 years ago where it sucked. SO, let Carwin fight Lesnar and then let Cain fight the winner of that. Deserving or not, that makes way more sense (to me).
I kinda get what you are saying, also with the “new” crop of UFC HW’s coming in and well TUF 10 with HW’s the division won’t be “as we had 2 1/2 years ago where it sucked”… Hell Big Country isn’t a bad fighter rather good actually… So if Carwin or Cain don’t take advantage of the opportunity afforded to them, perhaps they will be forgotten ala Brandon Vera (in the HW division)… the HW division is going to be fine, you have Brock, Mir, Couture, Big Nog, Kongo, Cain, Carwin, GG (for now),dos Santos and well the new crop that will be fighting on the UFC 102 card and the TUF 10 guys hey that is a better HW division than Affliction or any other Org has, even if it does for the moment include Kevin Ferguson
Let’s throw Junior Dos Santos into this topic too. He’s 2 fights away from a title shot if not sooner.
ok let’s not throw Junior dos Santos in there, he is more than 3 fights away from a title shot imo… He KTFO
FacricioFabricio Werdum and (t)ko’d Stefan Sturve, tho impressive by all accounts he isn’t near the top of the HW division by anymeans.. Well atleast not yet..I think that Carwin should have already earned a title shot with his KO of Gonzaga, but I guess not. He should make quick work of Cain, I feel kind of sorry for that guy. He’s 6-0, but really needs to keep facing middle tier competition. Putting him against Carwin is a huge step up and I think a bit too quick. I think Carwin will knock him out in the first round. Since Kongo was able to stagger Velasquez (even though he has shown to have average punching power, for a heavy weight) imagine what Carwin can do, who hits really freaking hard.
On Hughes and Swick, definitely a match-up that happened because Swick called for it. I don’t think that Hughes is anywhere near the fighter he was 2-3 years ago, but the fact is his only recent losses are to the numbers 1 and 2 guys in the division, so it’s hard to rank him that low. A win for Swick (which I think will happen) would put him right in line for a title shot. A win for Hughes I think would do the same for him. Hughes I think can win the fight, as in I’m not ruling it out, but I doubt it will happen. The only way that could happen is if Hughes manages to out muscle Swick the way that Okami did at MW, and I just don’t think that’s going to happen (even as a Hughes fan).
Junior Dos Santos knocked Fabricio Werdum who at the time was problblby the #1 Contender BUT Werdum wasn’t so impressive in his wins over Gonzaga(who for some reason just quit in that fight) and Brandon Vera(who took zero shots while mounted by Werdum). So my point is that Werdum isn’t all that great meaning that Dos Santos defeated an ok borderline overrated guy sooooo Junior Dos Santos really hasn’t had top tier competition to put him in the mix with the other guys who have taken that step up in competition.
Gonzaga quit in that fight due to massive leg kicks. I was the best! I love watching two BJJ guys decide they are stand up fighters. The less technical the better! Werdum had zero hands and Gonzaga went for nearly NOTHING but HRK’s trying to ‘cro cop’ Werdum. Those leg kicks though were pretty meaty and Gonzaga crumpled. I have been posting for EVER that Gonzaga is over rated. I can not wait till the rest of the world catches up to that.
I think Carwin would knock Velasquez out in the first round.I’m sure Cain would try his best,but unfortunately,his best just ain’t good enough to deal with Carwin.And I think Swick would be a good opponent for Hughes.Swick would try to use his speed and striking,but he can’t compare with Hughes’ strength and wrestling.Unless Swick were to catch him with a shot I think Hughes could manhandle him on the ground.
Mike Swick is very fast and has deceiving punching power. I’m not so sure that Hughes will be able to take him down, and if he does i’m also not too sure he’ll be able to hold him there. Swick is in his prime and he’s looked pretty good in his last few fights. Given that Hughes is older and his chin is more guilty than suspect, i don’t see why Swick can’t win this fight fairly easy, but as a Hughes fan i’m hoping that i’m wrong
Im with ya on this one Marvel. Cause yes Hughes can win this fight, its just highly unlikely and getting Swick down and keeping him there all while not being put to sleep shooting in, is gonna be pretty hard for the guy. Im stickin with Swick by TKO rnd 2.
Who ever wins the carwin/velasquez fight should fight the winner of the couture/nog fight.Then that person should be the one to challenge for the title!!
yea carwin will murder cain. cain showed tht his chin is suspect in his last fight. and he only one tht fight with him taking down kongo, carwin will stuff a lot of those take downs.
alves is not a sure win against gsp. i think we are going to see gsp play extra safe and take him down and control him for 5 rounds. this could be a really boring fight. gsp is probably one of the smartest fighters and he will find a way to win and i dont think he cares if its boring.
Hughes vs swick is going to be intersesting, i give the edge to swick but i hope he loses. it seems like he is getting a bit cocky. if he can stuff hughes take downs he will win. both alves and gsp would beat swick though.
I dont think Swick is necessarily cocky,(Guys like guillard or Karo are cocky) hes just a realy confindent dude. And hell he should be hes only lost once in the UFC and that was a hard fought decision loss to a tough guy in Okami.
yea carwin will murder cain. cain showed tht his chin is suspect in his last fight. and he only one tht fight with him taking down kongo, carwin will stuff a lot of those take downs.
alves is not a sure win against gsp. i think we are going to see gsp play extra safe and take him down and control him for 5 rounds. this could be a really boring fight. gsp is probably one of the smartest fighters and he will find a way to win and i dont think he cares if its boring.
Hughes vs swick is going to be intersesting, i give the edge to swick but i hope he loses. it seems like he is getting a bit cocky. if he can stuff hughes take downs he will win. both alves and gsp would beat swick though..
yeah we got it the first time mike
I’m a huge carwin fan. and can’t wait to see this matchup live! not a big fan of the hughes swick fight.. hopefully they will throw some more good battles in
I absolutely hate the idea of guys fighting one or two decent names and getting a title shot. To me it takes away from the real hard nose workers in the fight game that win 9 of 10 {Swick] and there’s been others and still don’t get their shot. Anyway Swick should beat Hughes fairly easy if he can sprawl and brawl. Carwin will most likely not get taken down like Congo did “pathetic” O sorry but yeah I’ll take Carwin by KO. I want GSP to beat Alves and move to MW and smack some guys around up there. If GSP is smart he will take him down and control him there as people have already mentioned.
U guys talk like swick isn’t that strong of a dude. But this guy first came into the ufc as a 205 pound fighter. I am big fans of both fighters. But I see swick winning decisively. Early!
That’s true, but Swick said he was walking around at just over 170 going into this fight, Hughes walks around at 185-190. Hughes is also “wrestler” strong combined with “farm boy” strong and that is a tough combination to deal with.
Although Velasquez has a lot of potential, I see him getting caught by the more experienced Carwin coming out of a wrestling scramble, probably in the first or second round. Velasquez hasn’t exactly displayed an iron chin, and Carwin has displayed at times a frightening amount of power. These factors seem to indicate a tough, short fight and an “L” for Velasquez, and a probably future match-up with the Lesnar-Mir winner for Carwin.
As a Matt Hughes fan I wish him all the success in the world, but like a lot of Miletich guys the sport has sort of passed him by. He’s still probably one of the top 25 WW’s on the planet, and remains the most dominant champ of his era, but in the 2009 UFC he’s a long way off the mark. At this stage of his career fighting Swick gains him nothing, because Hughes has already proved unable to beat GSP, or even a contender like Alves. A sloppy win over Matt Serra is NOT an indication IMO of being ready for a run at the UFC WW title.
A swift striker like Swick is most likely going to give Hughes fits standing, which will lead to him trying to force a takedown, which will lead to him getting KTFO’ed by a younger, hungrier opponent.
Shayne will pound Cain bad, Kongo rocked Cain everytime they stood up, Shayne is a world class wrestler so that aint going to happen Shayne KO 1st minute of round 1 Guys got bigger mitts than Brock, I want to see DOsSantos in the mix too. He is a little small but He has some power too and quickness.
sweet i was saying this a while a go they were both the rising stars in HW division and should fight each other
shawn carwin will win
I though Matt Hughes was retiring. I hope he wins but good chance that he won’t
carwin will beat lesnar to a pulp. there are a handful who i believe could outclass him , but carwin could beat the tar out of him.
carwin and cain are improving – (as is lesnar to some extent- we’ll see)
Don’t forget in the Tsilva fight h=e injured his leg which cause the fall right? He messed up his knee or something if I remember correctly..
You dudes are getting ahead of yourselfs, counting out Velasquez too soon. Velasquez has alot of heart and great indurance. I wouldn’t be surprised if Velasquez survives Carwin’s knock out power….the longer the fight goes the more probable Velasquez wins.
I still think that Swick should have 2 losses I just rewatched the Swick vs Burkman fight and Josh clearly won Round 1 and did more to win Round 3
Carwin will destroy Cain Cain has no power.