FC welterweight contender, Matt Brown, discusses motivation, fights without rounds and aliens in this exclusive interview.
Last weekend, at UFC On FOX 7, we saw welterweight contender, Matt Brown, take his fifth straight win inside the octagon when he faced super tough Strikeforce almunus, Jordan Mein. He again put an exclamation point on a fight by producing another fantastic stoppage. As a matter of fact, of those five successive wins, only one has gone the distance. At a juncture in UFC history where it seems that anyone can be on the chopping block, Brown seems to have found the recipe for longevity. Win and win big.
One of the things that seemed to exasperate Brown at the post fight press conference, was the flow of questions asking if he wanted a title shot at some point. It goes without saying that he does, as one would assume all fighters do. The road to Georges St. Pierre is the one that ever welterweight in the world wants to travel, whether they're in the UFC or not.
Last week, UFC commentator, Joe Rogan featured GSP as a guest on his popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. During the hour long segment, St. Pierre voiced his fear of alien abduction, recounted some of his scariest nightmares, discussed some incidents where he loses large blocks of time, and would prefer if fights had no rounds. It was an interesting interview, to say the least, so when I sat down with Matt Brown, it was one of my talking points with him.
While he's not of a mind to be fearful of alien abduction, nor does he lose time, he definitely agreed with Georges on his desire to do away with the rounds in a fight. Here's what he had to say:
I'm completely indifferent. I don't believe or not believe in aliens. I'm the same way with religion and God. I have no reason to believe and no reason not to believe. If I don't see something for myself, then I'm not going to believe it. At the same time, we're such a small speck in the universe, there's no reason not to believe that there might be something else out there.
He's (GSP) just a weirdo [laughs]. I don't see it as a kink in his armor, though. What we're doing is a little bit weird, you know. What we do to our bodies every day is weird, relatively speaking.
I'm totally in agreement with him on the no rounds thing. I've said that for years and years. There's nothing I hate more in a fight, then having to sit down in the middle of a goddamned fight. I'm with him 100% on that.
Even though his ultimate goal is to get a shot at the welterweight title, Matt says that's not his foremost thought. He says it's all about doing his best, and taking his career one fight at a time, rather than speculating.
The goal is obviously to get a title shot, but even though that's the goal, I don't think about that goal specifically. I don't think about where I'm at or anything. I just think about doing the best I can in each fight. I believe that if I do that, the title shot will come.
A lot of people put me as the underdog in fights, and that just motivates me. You're going in there with a chip on your shoulder and you've got something to prove. It's another one of those things that I try not to get caught up in and think about too much.
When it comes to fighters that have had lengthy careers, we sometimes see them devolve over time. They don't grow with the sport. Everyone can think of that guy that used to be a killer in the cage, but struggles with every outing now. Brown believes that staying humble is the key to his own evolution and personal growth.
I never changed one thing in particular. I think it's more about going to the gym every day and staying humble and willing to learn. I've always been that way and hopefully, I always stay that way. I plan to be back in the gym working on some mistakes I made in the fight. There are some things I need to fix, and things I didn't get to work on during the camp. There are always tons of things that can be fine tuned. Any time you get complacent, that's the true killer of careers.
One thing Matt believes has helped him to avoid that dreaded complacency, is the fact that he doesn't really have a home camp. Since the dawn of his career, he's been the traveling man, going from gym to gym, working with numerous athletes. That fresh approach for each camp may just be the thing other fighters need to consider, to keep their own fight games from becoming stale and easily overcome in the cage.
I've been to tons of gyms. There's good and points to it. One of the things that I guess could be considered negative is that I don't really have a home base and I don't have a lot of training partners or coaches that I've trained with for years and years. They are few and far between. It works out for me, though.
I've been going to lots of different gyms over the course of my whole career. I get to see all the different views and philsophies on training. I get to see how everyone applies strategy to get to their end goal. It definitely helps that I can see all these different ways and then put them together in a way that works for me.
Motivation is key in every fighter's career. An unmotivated fighter will never get to the top. For many, the most driving factor is financial security and stability. For Matt, that factor is a constantly changing design. Right now, it's about personal best.
For me, it's taken on many different shapes and forms. You always have to find that next motivation as you go along. At this point, it's more about being the best that I can be. I want to see how far I can take this. For me, it's evolving a little bit, because after last weekend, there is now sudden talk of me getting a title shot. I know that there are thousands of people out there that probably think that's ridiculous. Those are the ones that I want to prove myself to.