Cutting Room Floor: WEC 145-Pound Champ Mike Thomas Brown

  • Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 3:15 am by Danny Acosta

I recently spoke with Mike Thomas Brown on Fox Sports’ Inside the Cage. Inside the Cage appears on Reno, NV 1450AM and is hosted by Greg Delong with myself as co-host. Here are some gems from the WEC featherweight champion prior to Wednesday’s title defense against Jose Aldo.

On Aldo:

- “He’s a great fighter. It’s gonna be a tough one. It’s a fight that I really look forward to. And man, man he’s fast–good knees, good kicks and we’re gonna throwdown. Someone’s gonna go down.”

- “This one? I really don’t believe its gonna go five [rounds]. I don’t know whose gonna get knocked out, but I know somebody is!”

- “This is an important fight for my legacy. And I’m one of the best in my weight class or I am the best in my weight class and maybe I’ll leave my mark and be the best ever at featherweight.”

- “I don’t know how good he is on the ground. It’s gonna be very interesting. In the five fights that I’ve seen in the WEC, he got taken down only one time and he was only on the ground for like two or three seconds against Jonathan Brookins. It’s an interesting situation. I don’t know how good he is on the ground. His one loss is by submission, I saw that fight. He didn’t look superb on the ground though I know he’s a black belt. I’m gonna test him out. If I get hold of him, he’s gonna be in trouble.”

- “I always try to put my game on them. I swing hard. I try to hurt ‘em with every shot and impose my stuff on the guy. I don’t try to find his weakness and play around his strengths. I try to put my game on them and that’s what I’m gonna do.”

“I literally changed my body over the last few years. I used to be very aggressive and tire myself out because I worked so hard, so fast. I really changed myself where I can go a lot longer. I can go seven or eight rounds without a doubt….and go more.”

- “There’s so many world class jiu-jitsu guys at ATT. It’s the best jiu-jitsu team in the world for MMA guys, no doubt. We have guys like Marcelo Garcia…world champions and black belts are a dime a dozen at American Top Team. Ricardo Liborio. The list is just monstrous.”

On Being a Home Owner: “It’s just something that’s really amazing. I never thought I’d be where I am today. I’m from a small town. I never had a lot of money and stuff. Simple stuff like having my own house in Florida is really cool.”

On Fedor Emelianenko: “I’m actually a huge fight fan. I thought the production was great. And I’m a big Fedor fan. The guy’s a monster. I love watching him fight…Do I think he’s the best in the world? Yeah.”

“You know what’s amazing? He’s never had a bad night, you know? Everyone else has a bad night, you know? Anderson SIlva, all these other guys who you consider pound for pound the best guys, he’s just a guy who, he’s never had a bad night. Even his bad nights, he knocks the guy out.”

- Mike Thomas Brown, a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo Liborio, believes he can hang with anyone in the world but hasn’t become a black belt because he doesn’t train with the gi.

- Mike Thomas Brown watches TV the night before a fight, eats pizza, stays up until around 3a.m. then falls asleep, wakes up at noon, eats oatmeal and waits for fight time.

- Thanks to American Top Team, TapouT, Champion Nutrition, Bush Master Firearms, Prestige Audi Miami, who gave him a good deal on a new car. Check out mikethomasbrown.com for more info on the champion.

The following is an unpublished article written immediately after Brown’s last bout against Urijah Faber at WEC 41 in June 2009.

Featherweight Champion Brown Earns Respects, Takes It

Mike Thomas Brown may be the featherweight division’s kingpin, securing his spot by defeating superstar Urijah Faber decisively for a second time this past Sunday. But it wasn’t long ago—less than two years—that Brown was still in obscurity, still a low-weight fighter with nowhere to go.

Winning the biggest fight in his history and the WEC’s in front of a hostile Sacramento, Calif. crowd conjured up memories of training, competing and personal sacrifice required to reach that pinnacle for the champion, causing the champion to well up with tears.

“It’s an emotional sport for me, so all that hard work, its all that hard work coming out,” he told Fight! Magazine. “It’s been a big part of my life so I think that’s why.”

Perhaps he thought back to his last fight before entering the WEC—a bout against mixed martial arts anomaly Manny Reyes Jr. Brown was working out on weigh-in day to shed pounds when Reyes contacted the Florida promoter. He wanted to fight on twenty-hours notice. The future WEC featherweight champion accepted the challenge, choking out Reyes in less than two minutes.

Or maybe it was back to his lone UFC appearance when Genki Sudo landed a triangle-armbar, or back to Japan when Masakazu Imanari tore his knee apart. It could have been when he first snatched the title away from Faber in November 2008. Whatever ran through Brown’s mind, it was too much emotionally, forcing him to walk away from the microphone in his post-fight interview.

“I never imagined that this many people would care or that I could make a living doing what I love,” he said at WEC 41’s post-fight press conference.

The unanimous decision win was hard fought as Faber, despite a broken hand and a busted hand, fought for all twenty-five minutes, threatening with a choke in the fifth and final round. Arco Arena’s attendance record broke too with 12,682 showing up to jeer Brown and cheer for their hometown hero Faber.

“Its not easy what we do, its not easy to walk out there and put it all out on the line like that,” said Brown, citing he never acted like a villain but was treated like one by fans. “We fight for pride, for money. Our health is on the line. There’s a lot on the line.”

Brown blew kisses to the crowd on his way to the cage. He wasn’t taunting them—he was thanking them. For all the conflicting feelings, they were there to see him in one way or another. Still, he wished for a second they could switch places for just a minute.

A trying battle in the cage, an trench war for respect, everything Brown fights for, “Its not easy.”

Blog. Out.

Follow me on Twitter. Listen to my fight-funny podcast with professional comedian Kris TInkle Rabbit Punch Radio on iTunes or here. Check out my article in the Nov. issue of FIGHT! starring Tito Ortiz on page 92.

E-Mail: danny.acosta@fightmagazine.com
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