Matt 'The Immortal' Brown
UFC veteran Matt ‘The Immortal’ Brown (13-11) is set to face promotion sophomore Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson (6-0) this weekend on the preliminary card of the UFC 145 pay-per-view event.
Fans will get a chance to see the two fight on the FX broadcasted prelim card on April 21, 2012 from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
Brown is looking to build on a recent second round TKO win over Chris Cope this past February by earning a second straight victory by defeating ‘Wonderboy’ this Saturday.
Despite an impressive kickboxing pedigree on paper, Brown tells UFC.com that he isn’t impressed calling Thompson’s kickboxing “overrated” feeling that his opponent is facing a “true fighter” for the first time in his career.
“He brings a lot of techniques that are not seen every day and he does them very well,” admits Brown. “It’s like I’ve said from the beginning, I don’t think he’s faced the best guys in his kickboxing career or in MMA. He hasn’t faced nobody really tough. I think his kickboxing is overrated – all the hype – and he’s overrated altogether. This I think will be the first time he’s facing a true fighter and a true professional. I’m coming in and looking to put it on him and looking to break him and see if he can handle a real fight.”
To put it mildly, Brown believes there are mitigating factors that favored “Wonderboy,” like Thompson’s wealth of experience coupled with (Dan) Stittgen taking the fight on short notice. “Even if he had a full training camp, your first UFC is scary s**t and Thompson is not the kind of guy you prepare for in a week or two,” explains Brown, who is an Octagon veteran that has never been knocked out and won’t be fazed by fancy records or famous training partners. “The guy came in on short notice, it was his first UFC fight, he probably had never seen Stephen Thompson fight before, he probably had Googled his name and seen 60-0 kickboxing, trained with GSP, blah blah blah, and all the hype. He was probably scared out of his mind. Believe me, the UFC is an intense experience.”
“I want to show the world that his kickboxing ain’t what everybody makes it out to be. I think my Muay Thai is better than his kickboxing. I’ve said it before, I think Muay Thai beats Karate nine out of 10 times and I’m set out to prove that when we get into the cage.”