UFC 139: Matt Brown Ready To Continue Journey Up The Ladder

Matt Brown

Matt Brown discusses opponent Seth Bacyznski

To Matt  Brown, every fight is another step on his path to the UFC welterweight title.

This weekend, “The Ultimate Fighter 7” contestant is ready to proceed forward on his journey, meeting “The Ultimate Fighter 11” competitor Seth Baczynski on the preliminary card of UFC 139.

Brown says he will enter this fight happy with his camp and all the preparation that went into training to fight the tall Baczynski and the 22-fight veteran is confident that he will be better in every aspect of the contest.

“I think the biggest problem with him is that he’s really big,” Brown told HeavyMMA.com. “He’s a tall 170 (lb. fighter), probably would be even decent-sized at 185 lbs. So to me, that’s the biggest problem.”

“Honestly, I think I’m better than this guy in all areas. But it’s hard to say. You never know where a fight’s going to go. I’ve trained in all areas and I’m prepared for whatever happens. I’m confident. It doesn’t really matter what happens. I can just go with the flow of the fight and I expect to dominate every portion of this fight.”

While Brown prepares to earn his second consecutive victory, it was not long ago that the entertaining 170 lb. fighter found himself on the losing end of three straight contests.

After winning three bouts in a row between November of 2008 and 2009, he was defeated by Ricardo Almeida, Chris Lytle, and Brian Foster, all via submission, leaving him with a disappointing winless 2010. Brown was disappointed in what was his worst year of his entire career as a mixed martial artist, but he never lost faith in his ability to come back stronger, believing that fixing his mistakes would get him back on the winning track.

“I never once questioned if I wanted to keep doing MMA,” Brown said, regarding last year’s rough patch. “You’re not defeated until you accept defeat, so I just keep on the path. I didn’t let it get me down. It was just mistakes that I made. You know, I didn’t get beat badly enough and I didn’t think it was anything my opponent’s did special. It was just the mistakes that I made myself. I’ve just been working on getting back to the gym and fixing those mistakes and not making them again.”

“I always believed I was going to be back. It’s always tough to have a loss, but it’s all just a path. Losing just tells you you’re not doing the right thing; errors you’re making during your preparation or during the fight. It doesn’t mean I need to hang them up or whatever. I just try to stay positive.”

And Brown certainly did fix his mistakes and improve himself following the losses, as he earned a unanimous decision victory against John Howard this past June in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The win, his first since UFC 105, was a much-needed one for him, due to the fact that another loss would have had him looking for work elsewhere. But Brown was simply confident he could get the job done, and says it was a great relief when he had his hand raised at the “UFC on Versus” event.

“It was a good feeling. It was a big relief. A lot of us, when we fight, it’s something I try not to do, but we just naturally do this. We base our own self worth on our wins and our losses. It’s something I really try not to do, but when you win you obviously have a good feeling about yourself and it’s good to come home to a happy family and celebrate. So it’s just a big relief.”

Now that he is back in the win column, Brown is looking to stay in that column for as long as possible. No, a win over Baczynski Saturday will not turn him into an overnight contender, but the Ohio native is focused on following his path upwards towards the welterweight title at some point in time.

Aware of the work ahead of him, Brown embraces the grind day in and day out, as he attempts to climb back into contention.

“I believe I have the right things within myself to become champion one day and be the best in the world,” said Brown. “And that’s what I strive towards every day.”