Love some of these matchups.
Lytle vs Brown will be a war. Both those guys are always 'game' fighters and always do something exciting.
Sotiropoulos and Pellegrino could turn into a grappling clinic. I know that will not interest most, but if you love the ground game, you will likely love this fight.
Akiyama and Leben probably will not be the prettiest fight. Leben's takedown defense looked much improved, but can it hold up against Akiyama? I know Akiyama is getting more confident in his standup, but does he really want to bang with Leben's two nuclear warhead of fists he has?
And Lesnar - Carwin. I'm really interested to see where Lesnar is, and what he has improved on in all this time. The one thing that I hate about Lesnar's camp is the guys he has with him. It's basically a large concentration of heavyweight wrestlers, and not a group of guys who will allow him to evolve. IIRC, Erik Paulson is even his kickboxing coach, which isn't the best guy to have helping with your striking.
It's a good group of guys if you are looking to improve upon takedown defense and wrestling, but Brock will be teaching all of them in that department more than they can help him learn anything.
Really wish Brock would go somewhere like ATT or Alliance to focus in on his striking to see how good he really could become.
Another thing is Brock admitted he has lost about 15lbs, and now doesn't need to stay in the sauna burning off weight to get to 265lbs. Dude is still gonna be as big an as strong as ever, but how much would that extra weight help push around a guy who will be as big as him in Carwin? You can definitely notice in his neck and shoulders that Brock is not as big as he was.
In the end, I still think Brock's wrestling can outdo anyone in the division as long as he relies on it. If Brock oes his game and what he is best at, he takes this pretty easily.
But if Brock stands for too long, I have no doubt Carwin will find his chin and test it rather hard.
I'll say Brock by TKO mid way through the 2nd.
