Matt Brown Fears For The Integrity Of MMA

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nft0PuwtDZs&t=1513s