Home Sweet Home for Mike Brown
Jack Encarnacao Sep 7, 2009
QUINCY, Mass. -- Mike Thomas
Brown came home for a wedding.
He left with mixed martial arts approved in his home state, a drained autograph pen, and wide-eyed adulation from the scores who attended a two-hour seminar the featherweight king held Monday at a new American Top Team affiliate south of Boston. The faux-hawked Maine native, who started fighting locally in 2001 after winning a state title in wrestling at Bonny Eagle High School in the town of Standish, happily obliged all photo and signature requests from locals.
His affinity for Dunkin Donuts coffee -- iced, black, no sugar --
might hint at his local roots, but Brown’s heritage doesn’t hit you
over the head like fellow Mainer Tim Sylvia’s
does whenever he speaks, without a single trace of an “R” sound.
Brown has almost entirely dropped his New England accent.
“I lost it somewhere in translation,” Brown, 33, said of the local dialect. “If I get around my old buddies or I’m drinking, it gets worse.”
“I met with the governor, and it’s signed, sealed and delivered,” Brown said. “It’s time to put the WEC in Maine. They’re so hungry for fights, it’s a couple of hours from Boston. The place would be mobbed.”
It would seem too fast a turnaround to stage Brown’s Nov. 11 title defense against Nova Uniao virtuoso Jose Aldo on his home turf, though a venue for the fight has yet to be announced. Brown said he’s been furiously texting WEC matchmakers trying to get the fight somewhere on the east coast.
In addition to where he’ll fight him, Brown has also been thinking about how Aldo stacks up. He sees parallels with the striking speed of Mark Hominick, whom he submitted by heel hook in 2003, and took note of Aldo needed three rounds to put away Jonathan Brookins, a former Oregon State wrestling champion with whom Brown has trained.
“(Brookins) took him down once, then stopped trying to take him down and he tried to box,” Brown said. “Brookins is a tall southpaw, so his striking is much different. I’m a short, right-handed fighter. It’s hard to figure things out, because (Aldo’s) going to punch and kick differently, he’s going to do different things, move in different ways.”
The WEC titlist isn’t crafting a hyper-specific game plan for Aldo, but is following a credo: “Go out there and try to hit him hard, and, if it goes to the ground, somehow try to be on top. Basic. I always win the decision if it goes the distance with that game plan.”
Brown’s ready for anything, even the remote chance that he’ll be fighting in the UFC sometime soon. Dana White said at a press conference last week that he’s considering moving some of the WEC’s ace fighters onto UFC cards, where they’d enjoy greater exposure and share in greater pay-per-view revenue. WEC headliners Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres have been vocal about the compensation conundrum.
“I’d love to go,” Brown said of the UFC, a platform he had a brush with at UFC 47 in 2004, when he was submitted by Genki Sudo. “If they’re looking to do it, I’d rather do it sooner rather than later . . . I need to make money now, or I’m going to have to go back to Home Depot after this is all over.”
Brown said the prevailing mood among WEC’s top earners is that, if they were just 10 to 20 pounds heavier, they would be making a much richer living. The Zuffa brass doesn’t deny that; performance bonuses alone in the UFC are several times higher than in the WEC.
Brown took home $36,000 -- $10K “best fight” bonus included -- in disclosed pay for his thrilling win over Faber in June, a main event that broke the all-time WEC attendance record. By contrast, former WEC fighter Jake Rosholt made nearly double that in bonus money alone at UFC 102, simply because he locked in an arm triangle in a UFC cage instead of a WEC one.
“Those are big differences, and it’s not like we’re less skilled,” Brown said. “We are just as good and work equally as hard as guys getting paid quadruple what we’re getting. But I am grateful, because when I started, I was doing this for free, and I would do it for free. But more money and more name recognition? Why wouldn’t you want that?”
He left with mixed martial arts approved in his home state, a drained autograph pen, and wide-eyed adulation from the scores who attended a two-hour seminar the featherweight king held Monday at a new American Top Team affiliate south of Boston. The faux-hawked Maine native, who started fighting locally in 2001 after winning a state title in wrestling at Bonny Eagle High School in the town of Standish, happily obliged all photo and signature requests from locals.
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“I lost it somewhere in translation,” Brown, 33, said of the local dialect. “If I get around my old buddies or I’m drinking, it gets worse.”
The part-time Portland resident was back home for his best friend’s
wedding, which took place last weekend. Monday, he got a call from
state representative Matthew Peterson, who hosts an MMA podcast
when he’s not legislating. Peterson was pumped because the bill he
introduced to legalize MMA in the state was coming before the
governor for a final signature.
“I met with the governor, and it’s signed, sealed and delivered,” Brown said. “It’s time to put the WEC in Maine. They’re so hungry for fights, it’s a couple of hours from Boston. The place would be mobbed.”
It would seem too fast a turnaround to stage Brown’s Nov. 11 title defense against Nova Uniao virtuoso Jose Aldo on his home turf, though a venue for the fight has yet to be announced. Brown said he’s been furiously texting WEC matchmakers trying to get the fight somewhere on the east coast.
In addition to where he’ll fight him, Brown has also been thinking about how Aldo stacks up. He sees parallels with the striking speed of Mark Hominick, whom he submitted by heel hook in 2003, and took note of Aldo needed three rounds to put away Jonathan Brookins, a former Oregon State wrestling champion with whom Brown has trained.
“(Brookins) took him down once, then stopped trying to take him down and he tried to box,” Brown said. “Brookins is a tall southpaw, so his striking is much different. I’m a short, right-handed fighter. It’s hard to figure things out, because (Aldo’s) going to punch and kick differently, he’s going to do different things, move in different ways.”
The WEC titlist isn’t crafting a hyper-specific game plan for Aldo, but is following a credo: “Go out there and try to hit him hard, and, if it goes to the ground, somehow try to be on top. Basic. I always win the decision if it goes the distance with that game plan.”
Brown’s ready for anything, even the remote chance that he’ll be fighting in the UFC sometime soon. Dana White said at a press conference last week that he’s considering moving some of the WEC’s ace fighters onto UFC cards, where they’d enjoy greater exposure and share in greater pay-per-view revenue. WEC headliners Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres have been vocal about the compensation conundrum.
“I’d love to go,” Brown said of the UFC, a platform he had a brush with at UFC 47 in 2004, when he was submitted by Genki Sudo. “If they’re looking to do it, I’d rather do it sooner rather than later . . . I need to make money now, or I’m going to have to go back to Home Depot after this is all over.”
Brown said the prevailing mood among WEC’s top earners is that, if they were just 10 to 20 pounds heavier, they would be making a much richer living. The Zuffa brass doesn’t deny that; performance bonuses alone in the UFC are several times higher than in the WEC.
Brown took home $36,000 -- $10K “best fight” bonus included -- in disclosed pay for his thrilling win over Faber in June, a main event that broke the all-time WEC attendance record. By contrast, former WEC fighter Jake Rosholt made nearly double that in bonus money alone at UFC 102, simply because he locked in an arm triangle in a UFC cage instead of a WEC one.
“Those are big differences, and it’s not like we’re less skilled,” Brown said. “We are just as good and work equally as hard as guys getting paid quadruple what we’re getting. But I am grateful, because when I started, I was doing this for free, and I would do it for free. But more money and more name recognition? Why wouldn’t you want that?”
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