David Hojak: ... will pay good money to watch Carwin devastate MirOn ESPN SportsCenter Wednesday, Brock Lesnar appeared for the first time in front of public media to offer insights on his recovery process spanning the last several months, including addressing rumors that he’s staring down possibilities of never fighting again, and dispelling rumors that have somehow come to fruition since his mysterious disappearance in July of 2009.

As Brock confirmed for fans that he’d be returning as the formal UFC Heavyweight Champion around the middle of this year, attention quickly shifted to the debacle that’s come of his absence. Shane Carwin is winning fights convincingly despite no obvious timeline for a title shot. Frank Mir recently submitted Cheick Kongo at UFC 106, which puts him right back on the winning track. The two will fight at UFC 111 in March. However, one looming question that inevitably came up today addressed the status of the UFC heavyweight championship title, sitting dormant since July of 2009, when Brock last defended it against Frank Mir.

"Let's be clear with that," Lesnar straightforwardly answered inquiring analysts. "I am still the UFC heavyweight champion."

Rumors initially circulated within some circles that the fight between Mir and Carwin would offer claim to interim championship status for the winner in Brock’s absence, and some took this as an obscure signal of the champion’s health status to a negative end.

However, it would seem that the move is being made with more regard to the status of the title than the status of any competitor’s health. Concessions are being made to both Carwin and Mir, contenders who’ve raised the bar for others in their division without any clear indication of their own title contention.

"Because he's been out so long and we were so unsure on what was going to happen, we have a fight in Newark, NJ on March 27 and undefeated Shane Carwin is going to fight the former heavyweight champion, Frank Mir,” UFC President Dana White said during the SportsCenter broadcast, “and the winner of that fight will be the interim champion and will face Brock Lesnar this summer," White said.

Though White expressed that his intentions were to place the winner of the Mir/Carwin fight against Brock to ultimately determine title status, White has forethought the possibility of further inhibitions due to the health of his fighters, and has made good with a back-up plan.

Should either Carwin or Mir endure any sort of ailment that should exclude them from a future contest with Lesnar, White’s stated that the winner of the forthcoming bout between Price FC-veteran Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira and Cain Velasquez would instead earn the shot at Brock’s title. No elaboration was issued on the potential of an interim tltle-holder relinquishing this pseudo-status as a result of exclusion due to health, nor was any potential roadmap laid out for alternately establishing the winner of the Nogueira/Velasquez fight as an interim title holder.

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