Sure, Ronda Rousey’s return will be hyped to the brim.
And the upcoming interim featherweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway is sure to be fireworks.
Oh, and Cody …
Sure, Ronda Rousey’s return will be hyped to the brim.
And the upcoming interim featherweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway is sure to be fireworks.
Oh, and Cody Garbrandt challenging Dominick Cruz for bantamweight supremacy is awesome.
But there fights that have no title on the line are really ones that I am looking forward to before we close the door on this very interesting 2016 calendar year.
– First up is Donald Cerrone vs. Matt Brown at UFC 206.
Honestly, Cerrone has placed himself on the short list of contenders since moving up to welterweight and could wait on the sidelines for an eliminator bout. But this is “Cowboy” we are talking about and he has not desire to waste time not competing.
Brown, meanwhile, has lost two straight and four of his last five after stringing together a seven-fight win streak between 2012-14.
– Next, Sage Northcutt and Mickey Gall square off at UFC on FOX 22.
Northcutt showed his mental toughness when he rebounded from his first career loss in July with a decision win over Enrique Marin. In January, the uber-prospect lost to Bryan Barberena via submission.
Gall, of course, ended the dream of Phil “CM Punk” Brooks in the MMA debut for the former WWE superstar. Gall did what most everyone expected him to do: dominate, submitting Brooks in the first round.
– And finally, former heavyweight champions – and opponents – Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez battle it out at UFC 207.
Werdum captured the first meeting when he submitted Velasquez back at UFC 188 in 2015. However, he dropped the title to Stipe Miocic this past May in his first defense before rebounding with a decision over Travis Browne.
Velasquez has battled injuries over his career, but is 5-1 since a loss to Junior dos Santos in his last six. That includes finishes of Browne, dos Santos and twice vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Of course, all of this is contingent on the fighters remaining healthy and making it to their scheduled dates.
MMA is such a competitive, multi-faceted and unpredictable sport that putting together long winning streaks very rarely happen – particularly in the UFC, where many of the sport’s best fighters battle each other on a regular basis. With that in mind, you’d think that compiling a lengthy unbeaten run inside the Octagon would lead to
MMA is such a competitive, multi-faceted and unpredictable sport that putting together long winning streaks very rarely happen – particularly in the UFC, where many of the sport’s best fighters battle each other on a regular basis.
With that in mind, you’d think that compiling a lengthy unbeaten run inside the Octagon would lead to a title shot sooner than later, but unfortunately the record books show that’s not always been the case.
As you’ll see in the pages that follow, there has been numerous examples in recent years of fighters putting together impressive winning streaks in the UFC without ever getting the opportunity to fight the champion of their division.
This is the story of some of those fighters who came so close, yet so far away to winning the belt, some who stubbornly refused to lose until they achieved their dream, and others who to this day continue to add to their unprecedented, record-breaking winning streaks in the hope that one day the blood, sweat and tears that they’ve spilled in the Octagon will finally be rewarded.
Matt Brown
7 Fights (February 2012 – May 2014)
Matt ‘The Immortal’ Brown’s seven fight winning streak between 2012-2014 will go down as one of the most unexpected career resurgences in UFC history, as prior to that he was on the verge of being cut after losing four of his previous five bouts.
A sudden surge in form saw him stop six out his next seven opponents by either TKO or KO, defeating well-respected fighters like Stephen Thompson, Mike Swick, Jordan Mein, Mike Pyle and Erick Silva along the way.
One final hurdle awaited him – a title eliminator fight against Robbie Lawler at UFC On FOX 12, but alas that proved to be a step too far, with Brown losing out by unanimous decision.
Brown has never been able to replicate that form in the years since, slumping to another 1-4 record over the past couple of years.
It looks like UFC 206 is slowly but surely becoming the unofficial “UFC 205 replacement card.”
In addition to Rashad Evans vs. Tim Kennedy being moved to next month’s UFC pay-per-view event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada following a medical issue that …
It looks like UFC 206 is slowly but surely becoming the unofficial “UFC 205 replacement card.”
In addition to Rashad Evans vs. Tim Kennedy being moved to next month’s UFC pay-per-view event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada following a medical issue that came up during Evans’ examination with the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC), Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone’s replacement fight has also been booked for the show.
According to Damon Martin, and later a report by Ariel Helwani at MMAFighting.com, Cerrone will be joining the UFC 206 fight card with a new opponent — “The Immortal” Matt Brown.
Cerrone was scheduled to fight former TUF Champion Kelvin Gastelum tomorrow night until Gastelum badly missed weight at this morning’s official UFC 205 weigh-ins. As a result, UFC pulled the fight from tomorrow’s card in New York City, and UFC President Dana White vowed to never let Gastelum fight at 170-pounds again.
Featuring Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson 2 for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, Anthony Pettis vs. Max Holloway, the aforementioned Rashad Evans vs. Tim Kennedy and now Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone vs. Matt Brown fights, UFC 206: Cormier vs. Johnson is scheduled to take place on Saturday, December 10th from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Join us here at MMANews.com on 12/10 for live round-by-round results coverage of the UFC 206 pay-per-view.
Cowboy Cerrone vs. Matt Brown in the works for UFC 206 in Toronto. Verbally agreed. Full story coming soon to FOX Sports. #UFC
Surging welterweight contender Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone was originally set to meet No. 5-ranked Kelvin Gastelum on the main card of this weekend’s (Nov. 12, 2016) UFC 205 from New York, but the bout was scrapped earlier this morning after Gastelum failed to make wait. Cerrone, who was visibly angry about the situation, may not have
Surging welterweight contender Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone was originally set to meet No. 5-ranked Kelvin Gastelum on the main card of this weekend’s (Nov. 12, 2016) UFC 205 from New York, but the bout was scrapped earlier this morning after Gastelum failed to make wait. Cerrone, who was visibly angry about the situation, may not have to wait too long to fight, however, as the promotion is targeting a bout for him at Dec. 10’s UFC 206 according to MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani:
UFC currently working on rebooking Donald Cerrone on UFC 206 in Toronto, per sources. Could have it wrapped up soon.
Brown has hit some rough times as of late, losing three of his last four bouts including consecutive losses to Demian Maia and Jake Ellenberger. “The Immortal” is currently scheduled to fight Tarec Saffiedine at Dec. 30’s UFC 207 from Las Vegas, but apparently the UFC has greater interest in him fighting Cerrone.
“Cowboy” has won three straight since moving up to 170-pounds including finishes over Alex Oliveira, Patrick Cote and Rick Story.
UFC 207 is set to go down from Toronto, Canada with the card being headlined by a light heavyweight title rematch between champion Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson.
During his appearance on Monday’s edition of Ariel Helwani’s MMAFighting.com show, “The MMA Hour,” UFC Welterweight contender Matt Brown turned heads when he publicly related to Ronda Rousey’s comments about wanting to c…
https://youtu.be/M48zsQkpcms
During his appearance on Monday’s edition of Ariel Helwani’s MMAFighting.com show, “The MMA Hour,” UFC Welterweight contender Matt Brown turned heads when he publicly related to Ronda Rousey’s comments about wanting to commit suicide after her loss to Holly Holm when he was stopped by Jake Ellenberger in his last fight.
Brown explained to Helwani why wins and losses aren’t the main focus for him in fights, claiming he just likes to know on Sunday that he gave it his all. As “The Immortal” told Helwani on Monday, his quick stoppage loss to the longtime veteran bothered him more than than most of his losses inside the Octagon.
“That was probably the toughest loss of my career and I’ll tell you why,” Brown told Helwani regarding his first-round TKO loss to Ellenberger at UFC 201 back in July. “My reasoning is that wins and losses have never been a huge thing to me, they have never been the primary focus. I just want to do the best I can, and be happy with myself on Sunday because I know I gave it my all, win or lose. That one I felt I didn’t give it all I had. I think I took it way for granted, and I didn’t show Jake enough respect and I learned the hard way.”
As Brown continued, he made the headline-grabbing comments about relating to Rousey’s reaction to her first Octagon loss to Holm, explaining that suicide did run through his thoughts while he was dealing with the crushing defeat.
“I delt with it really tough,” Brown said. “It was a tough one. You know, I probably felt like Ronda Rousey; I wanted to kill myself, which is after every loss, you know, we’re all the same. But you know what, I have three kids and I had to come home and be a role model to them. I had to get up the next morning and make breakfast, and show them that no matter how many times you get taken down, you get your ass up and do it again.
“Well, my point I guess is that you really do feel like you want to kill yourself. You feel like that low of a person. You get beat up like that in front of millions of people, your friends and family. You know, it’s not right to feel that way, and you shouldn’t feel that way, but you do feel that way. I’m fortunately mature enough to be able to handle those feelings and not act on them, obviously, but of course I guess it’s more of an expression that you really do feel that low at that time.”
Check out the complete Matt Brown interview with Ariel Helwani from Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour” at MMAFighting.com.
The UFC has evolved dramatically since its inception in 1993, seeing the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) establish itself as one of the fastest growing phenomenons across the world today. One man who knows quite a bit about the evolution of the UFC after having been with the promotion for nearly a decade is No.
The UFC has evolved dramatically since its inception in 1993, seeing the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) establish itself as one of the fastest growing phenomenons across the world today.
One man who knows quite a bit about the evolution of the UFC after having been with the promotion for nearly a decade is No. 14-ranked welterweight ‘The Immortal’ Matt Brown.
Brown recently joined me this past week on the Right Hook Radio podcast to discuss the current state of the UFC, as to where ‘The Immortal’ took the opportunity to express his concerns with the integrity of the sport of MMA as a whole:
“The only changes I think I’d like to see, and not even necessarily change, but I think they’re kind of straying away a little bit from the integrity of the sport. In terms of — well I think like Conor not defending his title is exactly what I’m talking about. Just maintaining the purity of the sport, even like Maia getting the title shot. There is no question that he deserves the title shot. That’s the only thing I’d be concerned about — I don’t care as much about the corporate side and the business side of things, even though that’s important also. But that’s a whole different subject. I only really care about the integrity, I want people who deserve to get the fights that they should get, to get them.
“I care about — that’s the great thing about the UFC that’s always been, when you earn your way to get a fight, you get that fight. In boxing it’s ridiculous, you see these guys going 20-0 and nobody has even heard of them, these world title holders who nobody has even heard of. And rightfully so because they haven’t fought anybody, they’ve just been fed these cans. In the UFC it’s different, it doesn’t work that way. That’s what I wanna maintain, I don’t wanna see the integrity lost in the competition.”
The UFC recently had a test run with allowing former professional wrestlers try their hand inside the Octagon, as former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star CM Punk was given a UFC contract and was given the opportunity to fight Mickey Gall on the main card of UFC 203.
Punk, who dedicated over a year of his life to train for his first MMA fight in Cleveland, was made quick work of at the hands of the 24-year-old Gall, as ‘The Cult of Personality’ was subsequently choked out after two minutes in the first round of the contest.
While Brown understands the UFC’s move to bring in the former professional wrestling star in order to help further grow the sport, the Elevation Fight Team member believes it can be done organically and without damaging the sport’s integrity in the process:
“That’s probably an even better example. To me that’s just brick by brick just taking down the integrity of the sport. You wouldn’t see that in any other — I’d like to see the sport grow organically, grass-roots. It’s going to grow, people relate to fighting, we don’t need CM Punk to grow our sport. I believe that very strongly. But who am I to say? I’m not in a position to be making these calls, and I don’t blame them for doing what they do but that’s the only thing that I want to — that’s the number one main thing on my mind when I think of what I want with this sport overall to happen.”
One man who currently sits atop the UFC as a result of his unparalleled ability to trash talk on the mic and drive ticket sales, is featherweight champion Conor McGregor. McGregor has yet to defend his 145-pound title that he won nearly a year ago, and has instead embarked on a tenure at Brown’s home of welterweight in his feud with Nate Diaz.
Now McGregor has the opportunity to challenge for a second UFC title, in attempt to become the first man in UFC history to hold two belts in different weight classes at the same time, while still not having defended the 145-pound title that he currently sports. When asked if he feels fighters such as McGregor get a bit more leeway due to their ability to sell tickets, Brown had this to say:
“Yeah and deservedly so, but I think it can be done without sacrificing the integrity. Like he didn’t need to go up to 170, he didn’t need to fight Nate Diaz twice, he didn’t need to not defend his title as long as he’s had it. Things like that I guess when you talk about Conor specifically.
“And I don’t blame Conor at all, and I don’t blame the UFC at all, it’s just — I’m not a business man, I’m no-one to be sitting here and talking about what they should or shouldn’t be doing, but I only look at it from one perspective and that perspective is from integrity. I just don’t wanna see it get lost, and I don’t wanna see it disintegrate at all.”
When it comes to who Brown believes is the most deserving of a title shot in the UFC based purely off of their results inside the Octagon, ‘The Immortal’ points to No. 3-ranked Demian Maia who is currently riding an impressive six-fight win streak (that includes a third round submission win over Brown in May):
“I thought he should’ve got the shot after he beat me. He probably was even deserved so before that, but he was still taking fights with guys like me and Condit, and beat both of us. To say he doesn’t deserve a title shot is ridiculous. There’s probably not a more deserving person of a title shot in the UFC right now. Maybe Max Holloway might be number two?”
Brown will meet Tarec Saffiedine at UFC 207 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 30, 2016.
You can listen to Brown’s full interview on Right Hook Radio here:
