Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is set to return this weekend against interim heavyweight champion Shane Carwin in one of the most anticipated heavyweight showdowns of all time. Both fighters have been dominant in their UFC careers, scoring knockout victory after knockout victory en route to the current positions they respectively hold.
However, regardless of the colossal heavyweights looking to send one another into the realm of unconsciousness, Matt Brown believes that the Knockout of the Night award will belong to him after disposing of fellow welterweight Chris Lytle on the evening’s main card.
Yes, that may come as somewhat as a surprise, considering that the talk of the town is this match up ending up as Fight of the Night. Consider each fighter’s history, it would not be a long stretch to believe the UFC already had the bonus checks in the mail. But Brown holds no desire for the Fight of the Night honors. It’s the knockout that he wants.
“You really never know,” Brown says. “You never know what’s going to happen once you are in there. I only see Knockout of the Night.”
A knockout over Lytle, who has only been finished once in his professional career and seems to rather take a liking to being sent to the brink of consciousness while doing the same to his opponent, would not only potentially send Brown to the bank with a few extra grand to support the twins he and his girlfriend are expecting, but it would also scratch the itch of a loss Lytle handed him back in 2007.
Brown is looking to get revenge for the loss, but, in the sport of mixed martial arts, three years ago is a long time, and Brown knows better than to think the same Lytle that he fought before their UFC days will be the one he faces Saturday night. The same, he believes, can be said about him.
“Were such different fighters now,” Brown says. “I think Chris Lytle has a different mindset, and I’m a completely different fighter. I think it’s just going to be a completely different fight with two completely different people in there.”
Whether it be the Lytle he faced years ago, or a new, re-furbished version of the highly-competitive punching bag that punches back, Brown is ready to finish Lytle. He is uncertain when, but, rest assured, he believes he will have that knockout. And it won’t be from a cut.
“Well I wouldn’t be one of the few, I’d be the only (to finish him),” Brown says. “He’s never been stopped before other than a cut, but I do feel that my style matches up correctly with his as far as a stoppage. You just never know (when you will get the stoppage).”
A knockout victory would go a long way in terms of Brown’s efforts to rebuild a winning streak after his three-fight winning streak was cut short at UFC 111 by Ricardo Almeida’s submission prowess, but Brown knows he has the tools at this point in his career to maintain a consistency that was basically nonexistent early in his career.
Before making the move to the UFC via “The Ultimate Fighter”, Brown held an unimpressive 7-6 record after beginning his career with three losses in his first six fights. But those were the days of the full-time job at the construction yard. Now, Brown has officially clocked out and focusing on his MMA career full-time.
“Before, I was never building a career,” Brown says. “It was all about ‘let’s just fight’. Now it’s a full time profession for me and it’s the only thing that I do. I can really focus on the fights. I train properly. I have a better manager, better coaches. I have better everything. When everything around you works better the fight works out better.”
With better means of preparation, Brown is ready to earn a victory over Lytle this weekend on the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 116 and catalyze another run up the welterweight ranks. But he does not plan to do it quietly.
As far as he is concerned, that Knockout of the Night bonus check will be signed, sealed, and delivered to him on Saturday night.
