Shane Carwin signs with RIZIN, enters open-weight tournament

The RIZIN FF open-weight tournament just got a lot bigger. How much bigger?

Well, here is Shane Carwin comparing fist sizes with little friend Brock Lesnar.

Carwin, the former UFC interim heavyweight champion, announced his intention to return to mixed martial arts in July. He then negotiated with UFC vice president for Talent Relations Joe Silva, but the two were unable to come to terms, leaving Carwin a free agent.

Carwin will enter the eight-man second round of RIZIN’s open-weight tournament via wild card, on December 29 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. That event is RIZIN 3.

RIZIN 4, which will feature the semi-finals and finals, takes place just two days later on New Year’s Eve.

ROUND 1 took place on September 25, 2016, at Saitama Super Arena.

Wanderlei Silva
BYE

Mirko CroCop
Hyun Man Myung

Szymon Bajor
Teodoras Aukštuolis

Amir Aliakbari 
Joao Almeida

Baruto Kaito
Kazuyuki Fujita

Valentin Moldavsky 
Karl Albrektsson

Jiri Prochazka 
Mark Tanios

Shane Carwin 
BYE

ROUND 2

The brackets for round 2 have not been made, so Carwin’s opponent is TBA, and will presumably come from one of the winners of Round 1, excluding Wanderlei Silva and Mirko CroCop. The trilogy fight between the pair has been set.

Wanderlei Silva
Mirko CroCop

Szymon Bajor

Amir Aliakbari

Baruto Kaito

Valentin Moldavsky

Jiri Prochazka

Shane Carwin

The Colorado native, now 41, has not fought since losing a title eliminator to Junior dos Santos in 2011, and a title unification fight with Brock Lesnar the year before. Prior to that he had one of the great runs in the sport’s history – 12 fights, 12 wins, 12 finishes, all in the first round.