Due to an increasingly long absence from the octagon, Brock Lesnar will likely have to return to unify his UFC heavyweight belt with an interim one.
According to Mike Chiappetta at FanHouse.com, Frank Mir and Shane Carwin are the two most likely candidates to face opposite one another in a duel for the interim gold. The bout is likely to land on the UFC 111 card set for New Jersey on March 27 of 2010.
Carwin was originally set to battle Lesnar for the heavyweight championship at UFC 106, but Lesnar’s continued health problems have forced the bout to be postponed indefinitely. However, the UFC feels Carwin has earned a title shot and they were not about to make him fight again if a title was not on the line.
Carwin sealed himself as a contender after a destructive knockout over former top contender Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 96. The knockout artist has not had a fight since then, and he will have a year’s worth of ring rust when he enters the cage on March 27.
Mir is coming off a quick and dominant performance at UFC 107, where he submitted Cheick Kongo early in the first round. Mir was the also the last man to hold a UFC interim title, when he defeated Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to gain the gold. However, a second round technical knockout loss to Brock Lesnar at UFC 100 removed the belt from around Mir’s waist.
Since the knockout loss this past July, Mir has put on a lot of extra muscle and continues to strive towards a rubber-match with the enormous champion. While another interim-title is probably not what he had in mind, a win would guarantee Mir and opportunity at completing the trilogy that, at this point, seems inevitable.
