File Photo: Sherdog.com
On the heels of Cain Velasquez’s crushing victory over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in February, March gave Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin the stage to prove their worth in the heavyweight division. Both followed through. On March 21, dos Santos blew by Gabriel Gonzaga in the first round, putting his highly-touted boxing skills on display once again. Less than a week later in Newark, N.J., Carwin stole the show at UFC 111 by smashing Frank Mir inside the first round of their UFC interim heavyweight title tilt. With the victory, Carwin will have the chance to welcome Brock Lesnar back to the Octagon on July 3.
The heavyweights were not responsible for all the great performances, though.
To cap the month of March, Kenny Florian solidified his place among the lightweight elite with a one-sided drubbing of former divisional king Takanori Gomi. Florian’s jab held “The Fireball Kid” at bay for two rounds before “The Ultimate Fighter” alum choked out Gomi the floor in the third stanza, punctuating another thoroughly impressive performance from “Ken Flo.”
However, Florian’s dominance was expected. The biggest upset of March belonged to Shuichiro Katsumura, who took the Shooto world title from Masakatsu Ueda on March 22 with a commanding display of dominant grappling. With three straight wins since returning from a two-year hiatus, Katsumura became the most unlikely Shooto world champion in recent memory.