Matt Brown says Georges St-Pierre can’t strike with him
Another day, another fighter who’s certain he can wrest the belt from GSP’s iron grip. Matt ‘The Immortal’ Brown, last seen knocking out Mike Swick in impressive fashion, recently learned that his fight with British striker Dan Hardy was off. He quickly found a new opponent in young and up-and-coming prospect Jordan Mein, who destroyed Dan Miller at last weekend’s UFC 158.
Brown plans to run through Mein on his way to a title shot at 170, which is quickly becoming the holy grail of sorts for the UFC. If and when he gets there, Brown seems supremely confident that he can derail GSP’s long reign as king. Brown is not scared of GSP’s vaunted wrestling, a skill that St-Pierre has used to completely neutralize the gameplans of many a top welterweight. He shared his feelings with Alchemist Radio this week:
“Same old GSP, he does the same thing to everybody. They all know what he is going to do, but they still can’t stop it. I think I can do what he does better and totally stifle his game. I know that sounds kind of crazy especially considering most of my losses have been by submission and I’m not a big credentialed wrestler. I understand that people will laugh when I say that, but it doesn’t bother me, I train with higher level wrestlers than he trains with. I’m honest with myself and I know where I’m at and I know what I can accomplish. I know that I can get there and I can beat him.”
Big words from Brown, who is not particularly known for trash talk. He makes a definite bold claim by stating he will use the ground-and-pound game to better effect than GSP. But he truly believes in his skills, and that his striking is superior to St-Pierre’s:
“For me it’s not just about confidence, I truly know it. I can tell you right now, GSP can’t strike with me. When it comes down to it, he’s going to take you down, maybe punch you a couple of times and keep you down there. When guys like Matt Hughes or Josh Koscheck weren’t able to stop that, then Matt Brown comes along and says he’s going to stop his takedowns, it sounds kind of crazy. It’s just a matter of me performing at the best of my abilities. If I do that I’ll end up beating him.”
Business as usual for the UFC Welterweight Division, with fighter after fighter calling out Georges St-Pierre. However, no one has been able to back up any of the talk and truly mix up the top of the division. We will see if Johny Hendricks can do just that, most likely in the late summer or early fall. But for now, fighters who are very far away from getting into the cage with GSP are calling him out left and right. First Ben Askren, and now Brown. Is there any validity to their highly ambitious statements?
