Matt Brown takes care of business in and out of the cage.
MMAMadness.com’s Cameron Gidari recently had a chance to chat with “The Immortal” Matt Brown about life and MMA.
MMAMadness.com: You’ve been signing autographs all morning. How does your hand feel?
Matt Brown: My hand’s alright, but my legs are tired. Other than that I’m fine.
Madness.com: You recently held a benefit to help raise funds for your father’s medical expenses. How was the turn out?
MB: It went real well. We had about 500 people show up for the event. Which is a good turn out considering there are only 7,000 people [in Jamestown, OH]. We were also able to collect a good amount of money.
Madness: What are doing since your last fight?
MB: Just training, always training hard. It’s not too bad. I actually have a partially torn meniscus so that’s what’s bothering me.
Madness: So when is your next fight going to be?
MB: November [UFC 105]… against James Wilks. He was one of the winners of the past season of the The Ultimate Fighter.
Madness: It feels like we see you in the octagon every other month.
MB: Before I was in the UFC, I used to fight every month. Sometimes two times a month. Sometimes three weeks in a row. I did that a few times. The UFC pays more so you can afford to not fight as much and you obviously have much tougher opponents so you want to take your time and make sure you’re fully prepared.
Madness: Your last loss [to Dong Hyun Kim] was somewhat controversial, a lot of people thought you won it. What do you take from that fight going forward?
MB: Dong Hyun Kim was an internationally renowned superstar, undefeated. He came into the UFC as a prospect to compete for the title. You respect anyone who could be fighting for the title within five fights. I’ve fought guys that tough before, but on the big stage like that, on the main card in front of that many people… It was just a good feeling, whether or not I won the fight. It gave me a big confidence boost just to know that… I can compete with whoever it is. This is where I belong. You can’t help but wonder if you can compete with the guys at level. I always believed that I could, but until you do it, you don’t know for sure. That I did do it made me feel a lot better, made me confident as a fighter.
Madness: What’s your training regiment like when you’re not training for a specific opponent?
MB: I do pretty much the exact same training. The only difference is I increase the intensity, increase the cardio, so that when it comes time for a fight, I can focus more on cardio and less on skills. I try to increase my skills. I don’t like the feeling of coming into a camp out of shape and have to get into shape for my fight. I want to be already ready to roll. I did that in [November, against Ryan Thomas] and I was completely out of shape. I fought on two weeks notice. I wasn’t actually in terrible shape, but I wasn’t watching my weight. I was like 195 or maybe a little bit over. It affected my shape terribly.
Madness: Anyone in the division that you would like to be matched up with?
MB: It’s a hard question. I don’t care who I fight really. I just want a good, competitive fight. There’s nobody in particular really. I just want to get in there and get better and keep fighting and just have good fights.
Matt Brown is currently finalizing an account so that donations can be made in order to continue to help raise funds. Keep an eye out for his new site that will launch in the near future for more news at www.theimmortalmattbrown.us
