UFC 116: What's Next For Shane Carwin and The Other Losers...

On Tuesday, I wrote a column detailing what's next for the winners of Saturday's UFC 116.

Today, I want to take a look at the guys who were not able to come out on top, and what it means for them moving forward.

Shane Carwin: My guess is Carwin has still not mentally recovered from essentially having that fight won and then punching himself out.

The questions about his cardio are ridiculous. Watching the fight, it was clear that he saw an opportunity to finish it quickly and just punched himself out, instead of using a more precise style of striking once he had Brock Lesnar down and out.

Carwin is still an elite heavyweight, and ultimately, I think he will learn and grow from this loss. I think we will have to wait until the Lesnar-Cain Velasquez and Roy Nelson-Junior dos Santos fights shake out to learn where Carwin will land. If Velasquez loses, a Carwin-Velasquez matchup could be interesting.

Yoshihiro Akiyama: Akiyama fought well, but I don't think he's a top 10 guy at middleweight. It seems that the trend of Japanese fighters struggling when they enter the UFC continues. I'd like to see Akiyama fight the similarly mediocre Michael Bisping.

Krystof Soszynski: Soszynski had a disappointing outing against Stephan Bonnar, especially after he looked to be in such great shape physically heading into the fight. I think a Soszynski-Jason Brilz matchup would be interesting, especially after Brilz' "loss" to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

Kurt Pellegrino: As much of a fan of George Sotiropoulos as I am, I think "Batman" came very close to ending that fight before the end of the third round. Pellegrino is who he is at this point of his career. He's not quite a gatekeeper, but he is also not going to climb much higher than the bottom rung of the Lightweight top 10.

I think a fight between him and Joe "Daddy" Stevenson would be entertaining.

What are your thoughts on what should be next for the Losers?

 JL