Steve Cantwell

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 WEC
4 UFC
5 Mixed Martial Arts Record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Steve "The Robot" Cantwell (born December 8, 1986) is an American professional mixed martial artist and a brown belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu under Sergio Penha.

He stands 6 ft. 2 in. (187cm) and fights in the light heavyweight division (205 lbs.).

He was the last ever WEC light heavyweight division before the division was dissolved into the UFC and currently fights as a light heavyweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Steve Cantwell made his professional debut on April 23, 2005 against future TUF 6 welterweight competitor, Richie Hightower at a Rage in the Cage event in Glendale, Arizona. Cantwell submitted Hightower with an armbar at 2:45 of the first round.

Cantwell had a 9 month lay off before returning at another Rage in the Cage event where he again won by armbar, this time over Mike Ashford.

For his third professional fight, Cantwell flew over to Slovenia in which he scored a TKO victory over Leonardo Pecanha in the third round.

WEC

In March of 2007, Cantwell was picked up by the ZUFFA operated, WEC organization and slated to face former Marine, Brian Stann at WEC 26. The bout was over quickly as Cantwell got caught with a hard punch just 40 seconds in and the fight was stopped shortly thereafter, handing Cantwell his first professional loss.

A resurgent Cantwell bounced from the loss in his next fight at WEC 29 when he scored himself a 47 second TKO over Justin McElfresh.

At WEC 33, he showed off his well rounded game when he submitted Tim McKenzie with a rear naked choke in just 2:13 of the first round.

The win over McKenzie earned Cantwell a rematch and a title shot against the reigning WEC light heavyweight champion, Brian Stann at WEC 35. The fight showed how much more technically advanced Cantwell was than his opponent as Stann threw the same combination over and over while Cantwell varied his attacks. Cantwell got his timing down on Stann's combo in the second round and dropped and stopped the champion to gain the WEC light heavyweight belt at 4:01 of round 2.

UFC

Following ZUFFA's decision to dissolve the middleweight and light heavyweight classes of the WEC into the UFC in order to focus on the lighter weights in the WEC, Cantwell was transferred over to the UFC.

On December 10, 2008, Cantwell was slated to face Brian Stann for a third time at UFC: Fight for the Troops. A foot injury ruled Stann out however, and Cantwell instead faced Razak Al-Hassan. From the get go, it was noticable that Cantwell was the superior fighter. At the midway point of the first round, Cantwell scored a takedown and moved quickly to mount. Cantwell quickly set up an armbar and locked it on tight. Al-Hassan refused to tap and after something appeared to pop in his elbow, referee Mario Yamasaki called a stop to the bout and awarded Cantwell the technical submission victory.

In the post fight interview, Cantwell alienated fans with comments about how he had always wanted to break somebody's arm like that. He later apologized.

Cantwell will return to the Octagon at UFC 97 when he will take on rising Brazilian, Luiz Cane on the show's main card.