Shane Carwin left the octagon covered in blood after replacing a former UFC Heavyweight Champion on short notice.
A year after losing the UFC Heavyweight championship to Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin took the former WWE star’s place in a huge main event fight.
UFC 131 saw Carwin taking on Brazilian MMA legend Junior Dos Santos on top of an impressive fight card that included Dave Herman knocking out John-Olav Einemo.
However, Carwin’s bout with Dos Santos was one of the most impressive of the night, even though the hard-hitting American took the bout on short notice.
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Shane Carwin was left bloodied in a brutal defeat against Junior Dos Santos
The UFC 131 main event saw Carwin covered in his own blood as he was brutalized by one of the top heavyweights in UFC history.
Less than a month before Lesnar was due to battle Dos Santos, the former heavyweight champion was forced to pull out due to a flare-up of his diverticulitis.
Carwin jumped at the chance to take on Dos Santos in the heavyweight title eliminator, with the winner taking on Cain Velasquez in November that year.
Despite the short notice, Carwin immediately accepted the fight, with the prize of a title fight being too much to miss out on by beating Dos Santos in Vancouver.
However, it became clear very early that Carwin had bitten off more than he could chew with the Brazilian MMA legend.
In the first round, a series of jabs connected with Carwin’s nose, keeping him at a distance while also breaking his nose, sending blood pouring from his face.
The bleeding did not stop throughout the fight, as neither did the relentless assault from Dos Santos for all three rounds of the bout.
A takedown followed by a flurry of fists threatened to end the fight in the first round, but the bloodied and battered Carwin somehow escaped and lived to fight another round.
The punishment continued in the next two rounds, with Carwin visibly shaken. The hard-hitter couldn’t get near Dos Santos, and the image of his face covered in blood was a lasting image that wouldn’t be forgotten soon.
The fight went all three rounds, with the judges awarding Dos Santos a unanimous decision victory that was well deserved, given the damage he inflicted on his opponent throughout the three rounds.
Shane Carwin retired after the bloody loss to Junior Dos Santos
The loss to Dos Santos was the first time Carwin went the distance in the octagon, but it was also his last fight before retiring.
He suffered a number of injuries in the defeat to Lesnar at UFC 116, which were only exacerbated in the troubling loss in June the following year.
While he planned to return to the octagon after this defeat, various injuries delayed his return to fighting before he finally called it quits.
2013 was when Carwin announced his retirement from fighting, and he has had a much better quality of life since walking away.
He has been linked to returns to fighting over the years for promotions like RIZIN and Bellator, but nothing ever materialized for one of the UFC’s heaviest hitters of all time.