Shane Carwin to Pursue Comeback As Free Agent After Parting Ways with UFC
Shane Carwin is still interested in making a comeback, but it won’t be in the UFC.
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“As many of you know I recently decided to come out of retirement. I asked my management team at Ingrained Media to help chart a course. This lead to reviews of my contract and conversations with Joe Silva and UFC’s legal team,” Carwin wrote. “We decided mutually that my value and what I bring to the heavyweight division will be better utilized elsewhere. I am now a free agent. I look forward to freely speaking with the other MMA promotions. The heavyweight division has a lot of great fights and not all of them are in the UFC.
“I am excited about what the future holds. I want to prove to myself and my fans that I belong at the top of the division. Today that journey begins.”
Carwin, now 41 years old, initially announced his retirement from MMA on May 7, 2013 following a six-bout stint with the UFC. The end of his tenure was plagued by injuries, as the Grudge Training Center product first had back surgery following a loss to Junior dos Santos at UFC 131. He returned to coach “The Ultimate Fighter 13” opposite Roy Nelson but was unable to face “Big Country” at the show’s finale due to a knee injury. The loss to dos Santos would ultimately be his last fight.
An NCAA Division II national champion wrestler at Western State University, Carwin rattled off 12 consecutive first-round finishes to begin his MMA career — including four in the UFC. He captured interim gold with a first-round knockout of Frank Mir at UFC 111 and had then champion Brock Lesnar reeling in the opening stanza at UFC 116 before submitting to an arm-triangle choke in the second frame.
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