Matt “The Immortal” Brown is from Cincinnati.
I am from Cincinnati.
Therefore I love Matt Brown. However, even if you aren’t fortunate enough to hail from the 513 there’s plenty of reasons to like The Immortal.
He is 7-2 in his last 9 fights at welterweight with four post fight bonuses in that stretch. He sits at #6 in the welterweight rankings and his only two losses in that stretch came to Robbie Lawler and Johny Hendricks aka the only two to hold the belt after Georges St. Pierre retired.
With four post fight bonuses in his last five fights and six of his most recent seven wins coming by knockout, it’s easy to assume that Matt Brown is a flashy fighter.
He isn’t.
Brown doesn’t have the warranty voiding left hand power of Hendricks, the slick jab and counter boxing of Lawler, or the coma inducing wrestling that made GSP such a force. What Matt Brown does have is the combat sports equivalent of casserole; ordinary ingredients that when properly combined make something special.
The “oven” of this (admittedly tortuous) casserole analogy is Matt Brown’s ability to herd opponents into strikes.
Also referred to as “collisions” or “intercepting blows” depending on the pundit, herding is moving an opponent one way and then hitting them with a strike from the opposite direction. The opponent’s own momentum amplifies the power, like the difference between hitting a a parked car and one travelling head on.
Brown greets opponents who circle right with a quick head kick and when they circle left he compliments them on their choice with a long left hook to the chin. Watch him combine both to repeatedly tag Jordan Mein and force him to either stop or change direction in what was undoubtedly the most terrifying 10 seconds of his life at that point.
None of Brown’s strikes knocked Mein down but they did discourage his lateral movement. If a fighter gets their bell rung every time they try to circle, self-preservation instincts take over and their movement is reduced to a vertical axis.
This is important for two reasons.
First is that Matt Brown is a brawler; he is at his best when wading forward and throwing a large volume of power strikes. Lateral movement is the bane of brawlers because it forces them to constantly pivot and slide instead of walking and throwing. Take it away and all of a sudden a fighter must either brawl with a brawler or back into the fence.
Which leads nicely into the second reason stopping lateral movement is important for Matt Brown: he is dynamite in the thai plum.
With Anderson Silva more or less out of the picture more and more pundits say Matt Brown has the best clinch work in the UFC and that claim is far from outlandish. Six of Brown’s last seven wins have been by knockout and his clinch work either set up or was directly responsible for every single one. His effectiveness stems from his variety; dirty boxing, knees, elbows and thunderous trip takedowns are all on the menu.
The best escape from this clinch is ducking out and circling away. A fighter who doesn’t want to move laterally and is backed up to the fence is in serious trouble. After repeatedly being herded into power shots, Mein was reluctant to circle and allowed himself to be walked to the fence where Brown’s clinch work set up the end of the fight.
Brown has tools other than smacking his opponents like a pinball until they stay where he wants. Against Mike “Quick” Swick he smothered the lengthier fighter’s hands and walked him to the fence before releasing his right hand grip to connect with a solid elbow.
Coincidentally the Swick fight ended with a great example of herding.
Brown had landed solid shots from his right side and barely missed with a head kick twice as Swick circled. As a result Swick was wary of anything coming towards the left side of his face. So when Brown threw a lead right straight, Swick instinctively circled to his left only to be greeted by a long left hook that knocked him senseless.
Trivial as it may seem, the length of Brown’s left hook is crucial to his success. It lacks the polish, speed and raw power of a traditional lead hook (Dan Hardy for comparison) but against a circling opponent it is marvelous; any shorter and Swick would have been out of range. And as the knockout shows, less power doesn’t matter if your opponent is circling into the punch.
At UFC 189 Matt Brown will take on Tim “Dirty Bird” Means, a fighter on his own 6-1 streak. And against all odds he will be fighting on the preliminary card. Meaning that you, as a fight fan, can turn to Fox Sports 1 at approximately 9 – 9:15 pm and watch a top 10 ranked exciting fighter go to war.
Who says the best things aren’t free?
