When it comes to twitter, the saying is that you never know what to expect from anyone. Anything can happen at any time, whether its positive or negative news. I highly doubt how anyone would see this as negative news. Shane Carwin has been out of the limelight for the past six months, since his retirement from MMA. He’s opened up about possibly wanting to fight again.

Shane Carwin is considering a return to the UFC

“‪@FlexMastaSteph: ‪@ShaneCarwin how’s retirement big man?” I’m itching to fight, can’t stand it

How random is that? He responds to a question that has been probably asked several times on a weekly basis. You never know the mindset of certain fighters, when it comes to social media and answering questions from fans. Carwin has always been a soft-spoken private guy, which makes this even more odd.

As for the potential of Carwin returning, I don’t see why anyone would be against it. Everyone knows the heavyweight division is starting to dwindle, due to the lack of contenders. Most of the stars in the heavyweight division are declining such as Alistair Overeem, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Frank Mir, and Roy Nelson. Other than Travis Browne and Stipe Miocic, there aren’t any heavyweights rising up in the ranks.

The division still has big names, but for how much longer? Carwin may be 38 years old, but he hasn’t taken that much punishment from fighting. Other than his loss to Junior Dos Santos, all of his injuries have occurred in training. He’s still relatively fresh, when you think about the last time he fought in 2011. This isn’t a broken down veteran, who may have taken too many beatings. When you look back at Carwin’s career, you see a dominator. The only question is will his body hold up to fight again?

Once he knocked out Gabriel Gonzaga, that brought him great momentum and every fight he fought in was a big deal. When he knocked out Frank Mir, the world was buzzing and thought he was an unstoppable freak of nature. If it wasn’t for him gassing out against Brock Lesnar, he could have continued his dominant streak of finishing every fight in the first round and continue to gain an even bigger following.

The only things that held back Carwin were his injuries and cardio. Despite dieting and working on his speed, he was overmatched against Dos Santos and was outclassed in every area. Even his wrestling advantage wasn’t very beneficial in that fight, due to Dos Santos’ speed and having the ability to use his hips to get out of bad situations. I’m sure it stung in Carwin’s mind that he didn’t want to go out this way. Even though his career has been cut short, he’s worked too hard to go out like that.

I’m sure we’ll see what happens within the next few weeks. Even though he’s been somewhat forgotten about, Carwin is a former interim champion in his own right and was once a big star. Some people could label him as a “flash in the pan”, but nobody can deny that his fights were always a big deal after he beat Gonzaga.

If he were to come back to the UFC, he would add some major star power and possibly someone who can present problems for Cain Velasquez. Other than Josh Barnett, I don’t see anyone in the division that matches up well against Velasquez. Carwin could present that issue, although cardio could ultimately be once again his downfall. That’s one of Velasquez’s biggest strengths, while that has been always be a major issue with Carwin along with his lack of agility.

Still I’d see no problem in bringing Carwin back and testing him against top heavyweights. It would be great to see Carwin fight Overeem in what could be the biggest fight ever in UFC history in terms of physique. Both fighters are such physical specimens, along with having serious one punch knockout power. We were robbed twice in seeing Nelson versus Carwin. That could possibly be revisited and we’ll finally see if Carwin can be the first fighter in the UFC to knockout Nelson. He certainly has the power to do so, even against Nelson’s iron chin or as the great Adam Hunter would say “chins” when referring to Nelson.

We’ll find out how serious Carwin is if he’s looking to make a comeback. This is still something that should get fans excited. Who doesn’t want to see someone, who was a knockout machine during his tenure in the UFC? He’s also a wrestler that wouldn’t get completely manhandled if he fought Velasquez. I’m all for Carwin making a return and he’d be a major asset to a heavyweight division that needs one. They aren’t getting Brock Lesnar back, so this would be the next best heavyweight to bring into the division to setup big fights.

You can follow me on twitter at @Allen_Strk and @MMASucka for all updates & news.