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The mammoth left arm of Brock Lesnar sucked the life out of challenger Shane Carwin, as Carwin tried his best to hold on before deciding to tap out for his first-ever loss in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and in mixed martial arts.

The return of ‘The Next Big Thing’ Lesnar to the UFC at UFC: 116 was a sports highlight of the 2010 summer. Lesnar’s fight was the second time in his career that he fought in a UFC Heavyweight Title Unification bout. The heavyweight title battle was far from a technical masterpiece, but Lesnar brought a lot of hype going into this.

This was Lesnar’s first title defence since July of 2009. In late 2009 Lesnar suffered from diverticulitis, which nearly took his life. While Lesnar recovered, Carwin became the interim UFC Heavyweight Champion and established a record of 12-0. Questions on if Lesnar could return to top form and if Carwin could win the big one were answered at UFC: 116.

Carwin nearly dominated the first round and some can argue that he had the fight won when he was pummeling Lesnar with the ground and pound. The fight kept going though and Carwin progressively got tired. Carwin’s fatigue was not only obvious to the announcers, but Lesnar as well. Lesnar says he waited for his chance and he made the most of it. The fight is similar to Lesnar’s comeback—you think Lesnar is done, but out of nowhere he is standing at the top of the UFC mountain at that point in time.

“I should have performed better in the first round, I’m not happy about it,” says Lesnar in the post-fight interview. However, “a win is a win. He was better than me in the first round, but I showed a lot of heart.” In a bonus feature, The Rock Dwayne Johnson congratulates Lesnar on his fight and new child in an amazing moment for fans of each superstar.

In Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar 2, it does not take long for both men to have bloody faces. Both are able to get exciting flurries against each other and credit to both men for taking such brutal abuse back-and-forth. Unlike the first fight, there is no question to the finish of this fight. Hard to believe this was not fight of the night, until you see Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Chris Leben.

Originally Wanderlei Silva vs. Akiyama, Leben took the fight two weeks before the event and after he fought two weeks prior as well. Akiyama had not fought in the UFC for about a year, but did not look like he missed a step. Fast action, hard kicks, a chess game on the ground, that once they got tired became a slugfest. Akiyama seem to have control most of the fight, but Akiyama’s heavy breathing and Leben’s toughness allowed for a shockingly dramatic finish.

The extras on the two-disc ultimate edition of UFC: 116 includes the preview show that aired on Spike TV, the prelim bouts, the weigh-in, pre-fight and post-fight comments for each fight and the standard behind-the-scenes feature that shows how the UFC event was all put together hours before it went live on pay-per-view. Lesnar’s comments on the ref not stopping the fight and getting another shot at life is a different look at one of the most hated fighters in the UFC. Watching Cain Velasquez have his own commentary segment on the Lesnar-Carwin fight was fun thanks to Velasquez’s friend putting down the fighters and putting over Velasquez.

UFC 116: Lesnar v. Carwin

Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada

Released on Sept. 14, 2010

$21.98

Click here to order the DVD

UFC: 116 Fight Card

MAIN CARD

• Champ Brock Lesnar vs. Interim Champ Shane Carwin
  UFC Heavyweight Championship Unification
• Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
• Chris Lytle vs. Matt Brown
• Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
• Kurt Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropoulos

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer
• Kendall Grove vs. Goran Reljic

• Seth Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero
• Gerald Harris vs. Dave Branch
• Daniel Roberts vs. Forrest Petz
• Karlos Vemola vs. Jon Madsen