Hello again, fans and friends, and welcome back to “UFC 143 Complete Collection.”
This third entry into my special 11-part miniseries covering the entire UFC 143 card officially brings to a close the first day of “Complete Collection” postings.
So far, I’ve covered both fights scheduled for the UFC’s UFC Prelims LIVE Facebook broadcast. Now it’s time to dive into the first fight of a scheduled four-fight UFC on FX prelims broadcast. It’s a clash of Ultimate Fighter standouts in Matt Brown vs. Chris Cope, so let’s dive right in.
A former training partner of Rich Franklin and Jorge Gurgel, Matt Brown has led an interesting life both inside and outside of the Octagon. A former drug addict, Brown found his calling as a mixed martial artist, although he honestly didn’t find much success.
With a record of 7-6 and with his career more or less over due to money problems, Brown successfully made it onto the seventh season of the popular UFC reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter.
Brown would end up making it to the quarterfinals of the show and losing to Amir Sadollah, the eventual winner of the season.
Since then, Brown has competed in the UFC a remarkable 10 times. Brown’s hit-and-miss history unfortunately followed him to the UFC: he went 1-1 before winning three straight, and followed that up by immediately losing three straight.
After that, he won one and then lost one, meaning that Brown has lost four out of his last five fights.
Brown’s opponent, Chris Cope, gained his fair share of fame and infamy as part of the 13th season of The Ultimate Fighter. Known for his bizarre practice of yelling “WOO!” at random times and for seemingly no reason, Cope found himself at odds with many of his TUF housemates.
Cope would end up making it to the semifinals of his season, eventually losing to Ramsey Nijem via TKO. At the TUF 13 finale event, Cope fought and beat fellow TUF 13 alum Chuck O’Neil. Most recently, Cope was made short work of by the debuting Che Mills, a much-feared and heavily-hyped international veteran who TKO’d Cope in 40 seconds.
In describing Matt Brown as hit-and-miss, I hope it’s not misconstrued that I don’t like him or that I consider him a bad fighter. I actually think Matt Brown is pretty entertaining usually.
But the facts don’t lie, and neither does his official MMA record. With 11 of his 12 wins by stoppage and nine of his 11 losses by stoppage, Brown comes to finish or get finished. And while that’s always entertaining, it’s more or less a coin flip as to whether or not Brown will be doing the finishing or getting finished.
Chris Cope, meanwhile, has a smaller but more stable record of 5-2.
I don’t fault Chris Cope for losing to Che Mills, Che Mills is an underground favorite of mine, and I knew he’d make an example out of somebody whenever the UFC finally decided to give him a shot.
I think Cope is a fighter who honestly fools his opponents into thinking that he sucks, when in actuality he’s good at most things, albeit not great at any one thing.
All factors considered, I think Cope is going to outlast his opponent and get the decision despite Brown’s best efforts to put Cope away. Brown will swing for the fences but keep missing, and Cope will tire him out and then grind him out to get the decision victory.
Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan, and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.
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