UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier advises Matt Brown to stick to his retirement plans.
TUF 7 alum Matt Brown was on a three-fight stoppage skid heading into his co-headliner fight against Diego Sanchez on Saturday night in Norfolk, Virginia. But that losing streak ended in one fell swoop via an elbow strike from hell, marking Brown’s first knockout win in three years.
“The Immortal”, now 36 years of age, originally planned for this fight against Sanchez to be the last one of his 12-year professional career. But after the invigorating win, he is now having seconds thoughts especially since more people have encouraged him to carry on with his career.
“I’ve definitely had more people tell me not to retire than to retire, that’s for sure,” Brown said during the post-fight press conference. “But to be honest, nobody other than me and my family really has any bearing on that and close friends. So I’m not even going to allow anybody else’s opinions to get into my mind like that.”
Both Sanchez and Brown are in the same situation, being ageing veteran fighters who have taken way too many beatings for their own good but refuse to hang it up just yet. From a competitor’s standpoint, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is very familiar with the situation and advises Brown stick to his original plans.
Matt Brown will fight again, it’s a tale as old as time. Guy wants to walk away and then has awesome performance and he stays. Perfect ending Matt, I’d say walk away. You have talked of retirement so it’s too late to stay Brother.
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) November 12, 2017
Brown says the one thing that would urge him to carry on with his career would be a chance to fight for a title, something he has not done in his nine-year UFC run.