Brown: ‘Someone’s going down’
Nov 17, 2009 | by MattE | No Comments
MATT ERICKSON
matt.erickson@nwi.com, (219) 933-3275
Mike Brown has been champion for a year, and in some ways, he’s still flying under the radar.
The native of Maine upset Urijah Faber last November to win World Extreme Cagefighting’s featherweight (145 pounds) title, and he promptly had to fight off the “lucky punch” comments.
His first title defense, in opponent Leonard Garcia’s home state of Texas, was on enemy ground — but even after a first-round submission victory, many critics still put Faber ahead of him in the division.
When he again beat Faber this past June, this time in a five-round war that was instantly called one of the WEC’s best fights of all time and a certain Fight of the Year candidate, Brown finally started getting some respect.
Until, that is, everyone was reminded his next test would be Jose Aldo, owner of five straight TKO victories, including a record eight-second knockout of Cub Swanson in June.
Brown puts his WEC featherweight strap on the line tonight in Las Vegas at WEC 44 for the third time as champion, and he’s just a slight favorite over Aldo. But Brown said that bothers him none.
“It’s a little bit different (this fight), I was an underdog in a lot of my last fights,” Brown said. “I might be a favorite — but some people think I’m not a favorite. It’s gonna be interesting. I do have a little momentum on my side this time. It feels nice for a change.”
In Aldo, Brown goes up against a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. But gameplanning for him has been difficult since Aldo has proven to be a formidable striker since joining the WEC and his jiu-jitsu skills haven’t been showcased. Brown said Aldo presents a unique set of challenges — almost a best-of between Faber, Garcia and even Chicago-area fighter Jeff Curran.
“There are many great fighters that I’ve fought, so he has his own difficulties,” Brown said. “He’s got great knees and the best striking of (Garcia and Faber). Leonard might hit harder, but he’s not as technical. Jose might have good jiu-jitsu, but we haven’t seen it. It looks like it’s difficult to take him down. There’s only one way to find out — if I can get him there and test it myslef. That’s the only way.”
Should the fight go to the ground, Brown’s wrestling background could come into play. But though he’s known as a powerful standup fighter, Brown said his training at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla., has made him a more solid jiu-jitsu player than most realize.
“All my submission losses are before I joined ATT,” Brown said. “I was training in Maine, and I wasn’t with the caliber of jiu-jitsu guys we have here. We have the best submission guys in the world. Since I joined the team, I’m 12-1 and the only loss was when I got caught in a leglock and tore my ACL. Now I’m with so many great world-class black belts, that’s my strength now. As a team, our strength is jiu-jitsu. But we’ve got great strikers, too — I’ve been training a lot with Thiago Alves for this fight.”
Still, the consensus — from Brown to Aldo, from WEC general manager Reed Harris to most fans — is that someone is going to get knocked out.
“If Mike beats Jose Aldo, I think he’ll be considered the greatest featherweight in the history of MMA,” Harris said. “He’s never been knocked out. Jose Aldo — no one really knows how good he is. He’s gone through everybody in our (featherweight) division. Mike Brown said he’s not sure what’s gonna happen, but somebody’s going down.”
Aldo, through his translator, said he’s been putting in the training necessary for a five-round title fight instead of a three-round non-title bout, and that the odds are good the fight ends with a knockout.
“I respect Mike very much,” Aldo said through the translator. “I’ve been training really hard for the fight and I’m ready for whatever happens. And I agree with Mike that someone’s going down in the fight. Both of us have a pretty good chance to knock each other out, but Mike’s pretty hard to knock out.”
Brown, who said he has been able to become more focused on the sport in the last year since becoming champion because he was able to quit his day job, said he respects his opponent’s love of mixed martial arts.
“I think he’s emotional,” Brown said. “He gets excited when he wins, and that’s great. He’s very passionate about what he does. You see true excitement in him. I’m a fight fan. If I wasn’t fighting (tonight), I’d be amped to see this fight.”
Amped might be an understatement.
“Reed is 100 percent correct — someone’s going down in this one, that’s for sure,” Brown said. If I fight like I can, I’ll beat anyone in the world — no doubt about it. But there’s only one way to find out, and that’s get in there and throw down. It’s a crazy sport, and you never know what’s going to happen … but someone’s going down.”
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WEC 44: Brown vs. Aldo
When: Today, 8 p.m.
Where: The Pearl at The Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas
TV: Versus (cable)
Live coverage: nwi.com/mma, caged-in.com
Main card
• Champion Mike Brown (22-4) vs. Jose Aldo (15-1), for WEC featherweight championship
• 145: Manny Gamburyan (11-5) vs. Leonard Garcia (17-4)
• 155: Rob McCulough (17-5) vs. Karen Darabedyan (8-1)
• 155: Danny Castillo (8-1) vs. Shane Roller (6-2)
Preliminary card
• 155: Kamal Shalorus (4-0-1) vs. Will Kerr (8-1)
• 145: Diego Nunes (13-0) vs. LC Davis (14-2)
• Cub Swanson (13-3) vs. John Franchi (5-1)
• Antonio Banuelos (17-5) vs. Kenji Osawa (15-8-2)
• Ricardo Lamas (6-1) vs. James Krause (10-1)
• Seth Dikun (7-3) vs. Frank Gomez (7-1)
» Tagged: WEC
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