Carwin could be best of the bunch

At a time when boxing can't find a heavyweight coordinated enough to step between the ropes without tripping, mixed martial arts is overrun with quality heavyweights.

Men like Fedor Emelianenko, UFC champion Randy Couture and UFC interim champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are but a handful of the first-class big men in MMA.

And with Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin on the horizon, it's only going to get better.

UFC president Dana White was privately raving about Velasquez, the two-time All-America wrestler from Arizona State, after Velasquez' first-round stoppage of Brad Morris last month at UFC 83 in Montreal.

And he thought so highly of Lesnar, the former WWE champion, that he's bringing a card to Lesnar's home state of Minnesota later this year so that Lesnar can headline.

But when their careers are done, the best of the three may turn out to be Carwin, a hulk of a man who once was a pretty fair NFL prospect.

Now a full-time mechanical engineer who trains MMA in his spare time, Carwin is good enough that he frequently makes UFC middleweight contender Nate Marquardt shake his head in admiration.

He makes moves that big men shouldn't be able to make, but is as powerful as his barrel-chested frame would suggest.

"Wrestling is his strength, but his overall ground game is very good," Marquardt said. "He's super, super dangerous on the ground compared to other fighters of his experience level. But I'm going to be honest with you, his ground and pound is second to none. I've never seen anyone with his stopping power on the ground, and that's comparing him to the best out there. I've seen him hit guys so hard, he'll knock them unconscious. And he has power from positions you just can't imagine."

Carwin, who faces veteran Christian Wellisch on May 24 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, could easily have been playing in the NFL had things broken differently for him.

He wrestled and played college football at Division II Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., where he was a three-time All-American in wrestling and a two-time All-American in football.

He was a middle linebacker who wreaked havoc on the smaller and slower Division II players like Dick Butkus did a few decades earlier for the Chicago Bears. According to his draft analysis by Gary Horton's War Room in 1998, "He dominates his opponents physically … " and "He has some sideline to sideline range, he is tough at the point of attack and he is an excellent, physical tackler."

Carwin played in the Senior Bowl and was invited to the NFL combine in Indianapolis. He prepared for the combine with then-LSU guard Alan Faneca, who went on to become a first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers and one of the best linemen in the NFL.

But not long before the combine, Carwin injured his back. He had three bulging disks, which essentially ended his career.

"It crushed me, because I had given so much of myself to get ready and try to get a job (in the NFL)," Carwin said. "I was devastated at the time. When I was out, it was the first time in my life I wasn't involved in sports."

But that led him back for one more year at Western State, where he won the Division II national championship as a heavyweight in 1999. And that led him, albeit indirectly, into MMA.

He was hired to help wrestle with MMA veteran Ron Waterman, who was preparing for a fight. As he saw what Waterman was doing, he became intrigued.

Slowly, he began to develop a passion for a sport that only a few weeks earlier he knew next to nothing about.

"As I watched and saw what this sport was all about, it was pretty obvious to me that I had to do this and that this would be the direction I was going to head," Carwin said.

Carwin met up with Marquardt, who is one of the top jiu-jitsu practitioners in MMA, and immersed himself in the things he didn't know.

He earned a purple belt, which he received as fast as anyone Marquardt has coached.

Marquardt found Carwin hanging around him like a puppy, eager to learn. He rarely had to be told the same thing twice and he made the commitment to learn technique instead of simply relying on brute force.

"He picked up jiu-jitsu super quick," Marquardt said. "He has a real good ability to learn, especially for a heavyweight. He's able to learn from smaller guys and doesn't just go in and try to muscle them all around. He's able to slow down and watch and listen. He's obviously a great athlete, but he's also smart and he picks things up quickly."

Carwin, whose boxing coach, Trevor Wittman, raves about the progress he's made in the standup, is 8-0. The most impressive thing about that record, though, is that he's never fought longer than the 2:11 it took him to win his pro debut at WEC 17 on Oct. 14, 2005.

And true to Marquardt's word, he's won five of the eight by submission and three with his striking.

In all, he's fought a total of 7:20 in his eight bouts.

"I'm not one who likes to lay around and pray," Carwin said. "I like to be explosive and powerful and get after it. I'm definitely looking to finish every fight I'm in."

He's going to be inextricably linked with the Lesnar and Velasquez, the men with whom he entered the UFC.

Lesnar has not only gotten more hype and more headlines than Carwin and Velasquez combined, he almost rivaled the UFC's top attraction, light heavyweight Chuck Liddell, in that regard.

Carwin knows the time may come when he stands across the cage from Lesnar. But for now, he simply roots for them to do well. He raved about Lesnar's performance in his UFC debut, even though Lesnar was submitted in the first round by ex-UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.

He knows that Lesnar and Velasquez will frequently be compared to him and he is aware there will be a measuring stick of sorts as far as which of the threesome is closest to the title.

"I respect them and I want to see them do well, but I'm a competitor and I want to be the best and that's what I go out there every time trying to prove," Carwin said. "I know I have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but my attitude is the same for every fight. I have to believe in myself and my ability and I go out there and let it go and try to put on a show."