Travis Browne Insists He’s ‘Not A Dirty Fighter’
Heavyweight sluggers Travis “Hapa” Browne and Matt Mitrione did battle during the main card of yesterday’s (January 17, 2016) UFC Fight Night 81 from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
The highly-ranked contender in Browne came away with a third round TKO victory, but it didn’t come without its fair share of controversy.
“Hapa” ended up landing a pair of eye pokes on Mitrione, neither of which were caught by the referee. Speaking with MMAFighting after the bout, Browne claimed that he wasn’t a dirty fighter, also admitting that he repeatedly apologized to “Meathead” inside of the cage:
“In the cage I was apologizing up and down to Matt,” said Browne, who won via third-round TKO. “That’s not my game. I’m not a dirty fighter. Even in the fight, I’m like, ‘Matt, man, I’m really sorry, I’m not trying to do that.’ He’s like ‘I’m jumping in on you, I’m alright, that happens.’ You know what I mean? It’s just one of those things where, it’s an accident, you know what I mean?”
Continuing on, “Hapa” said that the two pokes occurred at times where he was simply defending himself and letting his instincts and reactions takeover rather than a conscious effort to foul his opponent:
“If you watch the fight, it’s not like I’m moving toward him trying to paw at him and poke his eye,” Browne said. “It’s more like, I’m trying to back up and hold my hand out. Third round I finally started closing my fist. It’s just part of the game, I guess. There’s no malicious intent behind it.”
After the pokes, Browne admitted that the referee warned him, but it was obviously a tad bit late:
“That’s why the referee’s in there,” said Browne. “He warned me the last time: ‘Next time I’m taking a point.’ I did what I could do to not let that happen again. It was an accident. I don’t know what else to say.”
Mitirione’s eye would further take damage when Browne landed a huge right hand, breaking “Meathead’s” orbital bone in the process.
Eye pokes have definitely become a glaring problem within mixed martial arts (MMA), but is there really any solution to the issue?
