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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Matt Brown is currently enjoying one of the more surprising resurgences ever seen in the UFC, winning five straight fights in the Octagon in the past 18 months after nearly being released. He's won those fights in massively exciting fashion as well, which has gotten him some prominent placement on big fight cards in his past few outings.
That continues next month, as he'll take on Thiago Alves at UFC on Fox 8, and a sixth straight win could start bringing him into discussion for the title picture. The welterweight division's title won't be on the line again until this November, when Georges St-Pierre takes on Johny Hendricks, and Brown commented on that fight this week in an interview with BleacherReport.com.
"I can see Hendricks catching him, giving [GSP] some problems early. But, Hendricks seems pretty linear, simple, straightforward in his approach to fighting... all of his knockouts came from the same punch, the same set ups," Brown commented. "Unless he brings something new to the table, I'd say GSP is prepared. It's really hard to imagine Hendricks even being able to outwrestle St-Pierre. GSP by decision ... [he] ain't submitting or TKO-ing anybody."
With Brown expecting St-Pierre to win, that could also mean an eventual meeting between he and the long-reigning UFC Champ. Despite having lost five times inside the Octagon, Brown feels he's a completely different fighter in 2013, and he's wholly confident in how a fight between he and St-Pierre would play out.
"I would rather beat GSP (as opposed to Hendricks) since he's probably going to be a hall-of-famer, a living legend: I want to beat the legend," Brown said. "GSP would not stand with me and would definitely look to take me down, but my wrestling is on a completely different level from what people have seen from me. I've been training with the Ohio ROTC wrestling team (in Columbus, Ohio) for years now, guys with Olympic aspirations, the best wrestling team in America. I don't think GSP can wrestle as well as any of those guys."
"I think he'd be scared to get close enough to hit me because I'm not going to avoid anything he throws," Brown continued. "I'm going to step right in the pocket and throw down. He's not going to have any option but to be on the feet with me. Even if he has the skills to stand, he would not be able to handle my pressure, tenacity and desire to win. I think I'm one of the worst match ups for GSP."
"Everyone thinks I'm delusional and crazy for thinking that, but I know who I am. If I go in there the best I can be, I know I'd destroy GSP. When I come in against GSP, I'm going in to take the belt from him, I'm not going to play around with the world title on the line. I'm 110% confident, if I show up at my best, he does not stand a chance in hell against me. This match up with Thiago is a far tougher match up for me than GSP."
Penick's Analysis: On its face it's a ridiculous notion, because St-Pierre's been far and away the best fighter in the division for years, and Brown's had a serious weakness in his game which is ripe for exploitation by the Champ. He says his wrestling is a lot better than it used to be, and he doesn't believe St-Pierre can be as good a wrestler as those he's already training with, but St-Pierre sets up his wrestling very different than most. And if St-Pierre got Brown to the ground, it'd be reasonable to believe he could finish him there, given Brown has lost nine times by submission in his career. Brown's brawling striking game is as dangerous as anyone at 170 lbs., and he'd definitely be a handful for St-Pierre if the fight took place exclusively on the feet, but we haven't seen the evidence out of either of them to suggest that the fight would go the way Brown believes it will. Still, a fighter's got to have confidence in himself right? He's been surprising people in this last year, and if he continues that stretch, maybe he'll get a chance to pull off his biggest surprise yet.
[GSP art by Travis Beaven (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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