411 MMA Interviews: Mike Brown

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 01.04.2010

The former WEC Featherweight Champion checks in once again with 411mania for an exclusive interview to talk about his upcoming fight with Anthony Morrison at WEC 46 on January 10. Plus, Brown also talks about his loss to Jose Aldo, moving up in weight, and much more.

WEC featherweight fighter, Mike Brown (22-5, MMA; 4-1, WEC), returns to the cage on January 10 to face Anthony Morrison (10-6, MMA) who will be making his WEC debut on the WEC 46 event which will be broadcast live on Versus. Last week we got the opportunity to speak with Mike Brown about his upcoming fight and his run as the top featherweight in the world of MMA.


Mike Brown, the former WEC Featherweight Champion.

Jeffrey Harris: Anthony Morrison will be making his WEC debut with this fight. How important is it to get back out there and win impressively with this fight and hopefully getting back on the road to the title?

Mike Brown: I mean every fight is important, I guess. You know, it's always the one in front of you that's the most important fight of your career. So I'm just training as hard as I can and hoping to get a victory as always, training my ass off and hopefully it will go my way.

JH: After your fight with current WEC Featherweight Champion, Jose Aldo, where he beat you for the title, what are your thoughts of Jose Aldo as champion right now?

MB: I think he's good. He's not easy to beat. He's a guy you got to come in and you got to have a good night and you better be on because the kid's tough. He's got good striking. He's fast. He's the whole package, man. He's good.

JH: You mentioned in a previous interview with Sherdog that you were injured before the fight and weren't feeling yourself. Can you expand on that at all?

MB: Well you know, I wasn't injured, I just had a bad cut. So it wasn't like my abilities were changed. My body was functioning properly . . . Mentally, I was a little messed up, you know worried about the fight a little bit, but physically, I was fine.

JH: Was there anything specific about Jose Aldo that took you by surprise?

MB: His takedown defense was better than I thought it was going to be. But you know, the quickness, I knew he was going to be pretty quick. I knew he was going to be a good striker, so that didn't surprise me. I knew going in it was going to be a tough fight and I had to fight really well to win. It wasn't a surprise how good he was, I knew it was going to be tough.

JH: A couple months later, and now with a little perspective, have you gone back to look at Aldo's fights and do you see any weaknesses in his game that perhaps you if you fought him again or other fighters could exploit?

MB: Well he's good. You got to have a good night and be on and things have to go your way. Me, I would come out more aggressive. I think I came out a little too tentative and slower paced and kind of paced it for a 5 round fight when I should've just come out sprinting out of the gate. That's what I would do if I could do the fight differently, but without guaranteed success, I don't know. When you lose, you always have to come up with a plan and change things around. That's what I would do.

JH: Have you done anything like that for your upcoming fight with Anthony Morrison?

MB: Yeah, I mean I'm getting back to my old, aggressive style. And the pacing is different from going to a 5-rounder to a 3-rounder, so I could come out running faster out the gate instead of pacing for a 25 minute fight.

JH: I think you mentioned earlier you had 4 weeks to get ready for the fight with Morrison. Is that a quick turnaround for you, or have you ever had to prepare for a fight quicker than that?

MB: I mean that's pretty normal. I never get completely out of shape. I'm always in the gym. So it's not hard for me to get into shape . . . I actually, I train a long time like an 8 week camp, I always peak too early and start getting run down. So I train like a 4 week camp, it's actually better for me.

JH: When you are working out and preparing for a fight, do you personally not have to worry about your eating habits as much, so you can eat some McDonald's quarter pounders and fries?

MB: I mean, I don't usually eat that poorly. But [Brad] Pickett had just fought and won, and he wanted that so I'm like I'm going to eat it too. I eat fairly well most of the time, but I can eat what I want. I'll burn it off. But I like to eat what I like. I eat a lot meat because I like meat like I'm eating steak tonight with broccoli just because that's what I like. The worst thing I eat probably on a regular basis is chicken wings. I love chicken wings.

JH: Where and who have you been training with for your next fight?

MB: At Coconut Creek, that's ATT headquarters, Ricardo Liborio's the head coach. Marcos Da Matta, he's the one really overseeing all my jiu-jitsu and all my sparring. I got a couple striking coaches: Katel [Kubis] from Brazil; Chutiphat [Runsgawang] from Thailand; and Howard Davis, Jr. So I've got an army of coaches overlooking me, honestly.

JH: Do you like to study tape a lot? I know it's different for a lot of fighters.

MB: I do to get an idea of what their game is like, but I don't over-analyze every detail or anything like that. I basically see what kind of game they got. Are they quick, fast, slow, if they are south paw, right handed, wrestler, or jiu-jitsu guy. What their kind of favorite stuff is, what they're most dangerous at or if they have any big holes. But you can't over-analyze it either because everybody changes and adapts and I think it's important to put your game on them, not necessarily to train around their game completely.

JH: After you came into the WEC, you knocked out Urijah Faber to win the title, and after that I got the feeling that a lot of people wanted to doubt you and called your win a lucky fluke. Then you defended your title against Leonard Garcia, who is a tough guy that had never been finished in his career before, and you submitted him and dominated him early in the first round. And then you had the rematch with Urijah Faber, and you guys went the distance in probably one of the best fights of the year. And I think even after that, people still wanted to doubt you as champion. Did you ever get that feeling at all from your critics?

MB: After I won the title, a little bit, but with each defense that solidified me. The Leonard Garcia fight solidified me a lot. I needed that one defense and I really put the punctuation mark on the win too. I really looked sharp. I finished Leonard; I'm the only guy to ever do that. It was an impressive win, you know. And then, I showed I can go back to grinding too. I had a long, 5 round fight with Urijah and that just showed that I can do both. I can come out sprinting, or I can go the distance. So I think that I showed that I can fight pretty well, and I showed some diversity in those fights. Some knockouts, some submissions, some decisions.

JH: Being that the rematch with Urijah Faber was in Sacramento on his home turf, was there any frustration on your part in how hostile the crowd was? Did it ever get to you maybe before the fight or after the fight?

MB: I dunno. Actually, I think it makes me fight better. It gets me more emotional. It makes me a little more fired up when people are negative towards me. It makes me kind of want to fight -- you know when everyone cheers for me and stuff it almost makes me more nervous. I don't want to let people down, but if I hear the negativity it almost challenges me and makes me want to actually fight fight.

JH: Did you ever get to watch the rematch because a lot of fans were critical of Kenny Florian's commentary during the fight and thought it was one-sided. Did you feel the same, and did Kenny Florian ever apologize to you?

MB: No, he didn't say anything . . . I mean I thought the commentary was one-sided too. I don't know if that was WEC influencing him or he's just a big Faber fan or that's the way he saw it, I don't know. But I thought it was kind of biased commentary.


Brown wins his first WEC Featherweight Championship over reigning title holder, Urijah Faber, at WEC 36.

JH: How did you feel about becoming an action figure and when you found out that would happen?

MB: It's cool as hell man. It's really a dream come true just everything that's happened from just being a pro fighter to winning the title to just the small things like that. It's kind of neat. Growing up as a kid, I'm from a small town, would usually never expect that stuff. So it's really to see it all come together and look around sometimes and go wow, life's pretty neat.

JH: Did you ever think it was eerie and you and your opponent, Jose Aldo, debuted in the WEC on the same show, WEC 34. You came in riding a 6 fight win streak, and you beat Jeff Curran. On the same show, Jose Aldo made his WEC debut and won his first fight as well. Did you ever notice that?

MB: I didn't realize that. Maybe recently, I just saw. But no, I never thought about it until just now. I didn't know . . . oh yeah, he beat [Alexandre Franca] Nogueira that night. I forgot about that. Nogueira's very good. Nogueira you knew for a long time before a lot of people followed the 145 pound weight class . . . he was considered the #1 145 pounder, he had the Shooto title for years.

JH: Now that WEC has renewed it's deal with Versus, what do you think they need to do get more people watching you guys and hopefully more money coming in as well? Be it from video games, endorsements, more promotion from ZUFFA and the UFC, or PPV?

MB: Promote it more and also PPV would help a lot. And also getting back on DirecTV. Getting the Versus channel into more homes. Not everybody has it. A lot more people have Spike TV so more people are watching that. So you got to get that channel in more homes, and PPV of course will generate a lot of revenue for the little guys and hopefully we'll start making the money we deserve.

JH: I think you said you could make 155 again no problem. While right now, you are definitely forging a legacy at 145, I think Jamie Varner (WEC Lightweight Champion) said on Inside MMA he'd be open to fighting you at a catch weight fight. Would that be something that would ever interest you?

MB: Honestly, not right now. I was having a good run at '45, and I was thinking about stuff like that if I had knocked off all the contenders. But I'm back in the spot or I'm looking to get back to the title. So I got plenty of work cut out for me in my own weight class. Way down in the future, I wouldn't mind moving up if there were some good opportunities to make some money for some big fights. But I have enough on my plate right now to deal with in my own weight class than to worry about '55.

JH: Not to look past Morrison, after that last fight with Faber, it sounded like a lot fans still wanted to see a third match with you and Faber even though you decisively beat him twice. Would ever want to fight Faber again for a third fight?

MB: Right now, I don't have any interest. I have a lot of things that I want to do. There a lot of fights that I want, and it's not something that I'm chasing right now. If it's a title or something, then that's where I want to be. But I'm not super into rematches. That's the only rematch I've ever had before. There are plenty of guys out there to fight. I'm not worried about that fight . . . I just want to take one at a time and get after the title, try to weed my way, and make it back to the top of mountain. I never like to call anybody out or, "I want to fight this guy or that guy." I'm just trying to make my little slot and weed my way to the top.

JH: Being a longtime veteran and being in your 30's, what do you think of some of these younger guys who come into the sport and are already well versed at so many things like these Jose Aldo types, and another WEC featherweight like Josh Grispi? These guys in their early 20's who are already experienced veterans and so good and well rounded.

MB: It's amazing, they're getting . . . every few months the kids are younger and better. 18 and 19 year old kids that are just monster, world-class fighters already. They don't waste their time on anything that doesn't need to be learned, they just train strictly mixed martial arts but not necessarily the components of it, the training for MMA fights.

JH: How old were you when you got into MMA?

MB: Well I didn't have my first pro fight until I was 26, so I was older, you know. The sport wasn't really around much. Even then, there was no money to be made . . . I had my first fight in 2001. For a little guy at 155, that's when the UFC was getting rid of their belt at '55. There was no 145 title anywhere. You couldn't make a living at it.

JH: Business being what it was, what kept you in it? Was it the spirit of the competition?

MB: I just love it. I love the sport. I was doing it for free. I would do it for free, I mean I don't know I would've done it this long for free, but I don't think there's anything greater in the world than the sport of MMA. So that's why I stuck with it and that's why I do it because it's what I love.

JH: Anybody or any sponsors you would like to thank?

MB: Yes of course, please: Champion Nutrition; Tapout; Bushmaster Firearms; and Prestige Audi, my new sponsor. My website's MikeThomasBrown.com.

JH: Thank you so much for your time and answering all my questions. Good luck for your next fight.

MB: Thanks so much man, you know. Just taking one at a time, and trying to find my slot.



Thank you to Mike Brown for taking the time to speak with us. Remember to check out 411mania.com/mma for the best and quickest live play-by-play coverage of WEC 46 on the web. Also, you can find us easier by bookmarking us to your favorite places or saving us as your homepage to get your quickest fix on MMA, wrestling, boxing, videogames, movies, entertainment, and politics. You can also follow 411mania on Twitter:

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