Former WEC light heavyweight champion Steve “The Robot” Cantwell (7-3) was a guest on Thursday night’s Cageside Beat, the official radio show of ProMMA.info. Cantwell, along with training partner Anthony Njokuani (who is fighting Chris Horodecki at this weekend’s WEC event), hung out with hosts Brian and Mike for about half the show and discussed a myriad of topics. One such topic was Brian Stann.
The first time Cantwell faced Stann was at WEC 26 back in 2007. Stann won a quick 0:41 TKO over Cantwell, giving “The Robot” his first professional loss… but their saga was far from over.
Cantwell got to return the favor when the two met again, a year later at WEC 35. This time it was Cantwell who scored a TKO (second round), and took Stann’s light heavyweight title.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view it), Cantwell was never able to defend that belt as he and Stann, along with the WEC’s light heavyweight division was folded into the UFC.
Stann was able to get his shot at redemption against Cantwell when the two were matched up at “UFC Fight Night 19” this past September. It turned out to be a frustrating fight for “The Robot”, who was expecting to fight the same “Brian Stann the brawler” he had fought twice previously, but instead, got a more elusive version. Cantwell ended up losing a three round unanimous decision.
Currently, two of Cantwell’s three losses come from the hands of Brian Stann. However, if you think Cantwell is interested in one more fight against the Marine, forget it. When asked if he was looking to maybe get a rematch with Stann one more time, he said,
“No, not at all. If you saw my last fight with Stann, that guy did not want to fight me. People called it ‘elusive’, I called it ‘fighting afraid.’ I want to fight someone who is gonna go out there and fight me. No disrespect to Stann, he is a great person. But, the guy, he don’t wanna fight me. And I don’t want to fight people that don’t want to fight me. I’m not a bully, you know what I’m saying? I want to fight guys that are going to bring the fight every single time no matter what, and unfortunately our last fight, he failed to do that.”
Those are Cantwell’s thoughts at the moment. It will be interesting to see if he still feels the same way a year or two down the road. It is quite likely the Cantwell vs. Stann saga is not over.
At the moment though, Cantwell has bigger fish to fry, namely a 205-pound Russian fish by the name of Vladamir “The Janitor” Matyushenko (23-4). The two will meet at UFC 108 on Jan. 2 in Las Vegas.
“The Janitor” will be a big step up in name and competition for Cantwell. He holds wins over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Pedro Rizzo, and Jason Lambert, to name just a few. Chances are Cantwell will not have to worry about Matyushenko being “elusive.”
You can catch ProMMA.info’s Cageside Beat live MMA-themed radio show each Thursday night at 10pm ET/7pm PT at www.blogtalkradio.com/cagesidebeat.
By: Jack Bratcher