(George Galanis is a freelance writer, MMA fan and BPL contributor.)

In a brutal one-sided main event, Junior dos Santos battered Shane Carwin for 15 minutes to a dominant unanimous decision victory at UFC 131.

From the opening moments of the heavyweight bout it seemed almost as if Junior dos Santos' left hand was sadistically attracted to Shane Carwin's face. 

Dos Santos showed that he's the hardest hitting heavyweight in MMA, winning a fight that the judges scored 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26. He will now get a shot at UFC heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez, whenever Velasquez recovers from the shoulder injury that has sidelined him for the last eight months. 

"Much respect for Cain Velasquez," dos Santos said after winning the No. 1 contender bout at UFC 131. "But Cain, I'm coming for you." 

With the win, dos Santos essentially earned the title shot he'd already been promised after beating Roy Nelson. 

Carwin wasted little time trying to get him to the mat in the first round but, throughout the fight, dos Santos either shrugged off the takedown attempts or popped right back up after being put down. Perhaps most surprisingly, he even managed two takedowns of his own. 

His most dominant moments came in the final minutes of the first round, however. After battering Carwin with jabs and left hooks, dos Santos dropped the former interim heavyweight champion and then hammered him with a barrage of left hands that had referee Herb Dean very close to stopping the fight. Dos Santos even looked up at Dean at one point during the assault, as if wondering what was taking him so long to jump in and wave it off. 

"Yeah, because I was getting tired," dos Santos said in the post-fight press conference. "He didn't stop the fight, so I asked him, 'Hey, stop it, man.' He said: 'Keep going, keep going, keep going.' Then Shane made a good defence, but I think it was the right decision by the referee, because you saw Shane Carwin go back [to] standing and fighting with me. It was a good decision." 

Carwin barely managed to survive the first round, and when he came out for the second, the effects of that barrage were etched into his face. At one point, Dean paused the bout to let the doctor look at his swollen, bloodied face and the cuts around his eyes. Nevertheless, Carwin gamely fought on and finished the fight, perhaps earning a moral victory by proving that he has not only the cardio, but also the fortitude to go the distance. 

"It was a nasty first round and Shane Carwin's a very tough guy," said UFC president Dana White. "When you get big guys in there that are hitting as hard as they both are, it's impressive to see it go three rounds." 

By the time the final bell sounded, though, there was hardly any needed to look at the judges' scorecards to know who the winner was. While dos Santos looked like he'd barely been touched, Carwin had the face of a man who'd been in a high-speed car wreck. 

The victory marked dos Santos' biggest win in his MMA career, but the Brazilian acknowledged that his toughest test would likely come in the form of Velasquez, who's widely considered the world's best heavyweight. 

"I think my biggest challenge is coming, because Cain Velasquez is the champion and he deserves that. He proved he is very good, so I will be ready for him." 

 While Dana White said he was impressed by dos Santos' win, he also added that he thinks the challenger will be in for a different type of fight when he finally gets his chance to fight for the heavyweight title, which White estimated would happen in approximately five months, if all goes according to plan. 

"Let me tell you, I got to say he's going to have his hands full. It's going to be five rounds against Velasquez, and Velasquez will be in his face every minute of it, throwing punches, slamming him on the ground. That fight's going to be a war." 

Velasquez stepped into the Octagon afterward and said he looked forward to the opportunity to fight dos Santos. That fight will be a battle of two power-strikers, with the potential of going down as one of the great UFC title fights. Either way, Dos Santos showed that by beating Carwin he's a force to be reckoned with.