UFC Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar defeated Shane Carwin on Saturday night at UFC 116 by submission in the second round of the fight.
Carwin came out strong in the first round, dropping Lesnar with a vicious uppercut and almost putting the champion away with a fury of ground and pound. Lesnar survived the round and came back strong in the second round, making Carwin submit from an arm-triangle choke.
After the fight, Lesnar thanked referee Josh Rosenthal for not stopping the fight when he appeared to be in trouble. Lesnar said:
“He hit me pretty good, and I don’t know, I ended up there on the ground. I just had to go into survival mode and stay busy. I really have to thank the referee for allowing that thing to go on. I wasn’t hurt. I thought if I just kept moving — I could feel Shane’s punches getting less and less — and I thought, well, if I can get out of here then I’m just going to exert a lot energy. I realized there was [not a lot of time left], so I just tried to stay busy. He’s a beast. He definitely won the first round [laughs].”
Former WWE personalities Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Steve Austin, Jim Ross and Bill Goldberg were shown in attendence. Lesnar’s longtime friend Paul Heyman was also with Lesnar throughout the weekend.
At the post-show press conference, UFC President Dana White announced that Lesnar’s next title defense will be against undefeated heavyweight Cain Velasquez. No date has been announced, but the fight is expected to take place later this year.