WEC Champ Mike Brown
On March 1,2009 Mike Brown successfully defended his WEC Featherweight Championship belt from Challenger Leonard Garcia.
Brown used his strengths, which are punching power and submission skills to win by submission (choke) and prove that he is a legitimate champion.
Before achieving his dream to become a champion, Brown was a wrestler in high school and college. He then on went to train in boxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Brown recalls watching Royce Gracie dominate the sport. Brown’s wrestling background helped him adapt quicker. The balance and coordination was similar to wrestling.
Brown then went on to get grappling experience by entering amateur grappling tournaments. Later on, Brown went to college at Norwich University and graduated with a BS in Biology. During his college days, Brown’s roommate was looking at a forum, which was looking for fighters for an event in Rhode Island. Brown thought why not try give it a try? One fight led to another, and so on and so forth.
On November 5th 2008 Brown had his second match in the WEC and won the Featherweight championship belt from former champion Urijah Faber. I asked Brown to describe the feeling he had when he won the title.
“It was really fulfilling. I had been training and fighting for a long time. I didn’t get a quick road to a title shot. I had an overall of twenty seven fights to get any kind of a title shot”.
Brown’s original title shot was supposed to be on September, 2008 at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood FL. The fight was rescheduled due to Hurricane Ike threatening to hit the Florida Coast. This was a nightmare for Brown.
” I was really prepared. I put a lot of work into it and trained my butt off . The cancellation was a few days before the show. I put my body through hell. It was time to go to the finish line and fight”.
The fight was postponed for eight weeks, a long time for someone to continue to train. Brown was already over trained so he took a couple of weeks off, then jumped back into another six weeks of hard training.
I asked Brown who would he like to fight next. He said there is a lot of talent in his weight class. He takes one fight at a time and his only focus at that time was Leonard. He anticipates that his next fight will be with Urijah Faber.
It has been a hard journey to for Brown to be the champion but well worth it.
“It’s hard work. Some people think it’s easy. People say they would like to be a pro fighter. It’s such an easy life. Wrong! It’s hard work. It’s not healthy. You get a lot of injuries and it’s bad for your body. By the same token it has its rewards. I’m blessed because there aren’t many people who get to do what they love.”
Browns suggestion for anyone who wants to become a professional MMA fighter is to set your priorities. You can achieve whatever you want to achieve. You just have to make sacrifices. You will be training all day. There will be little or no time for you to have a job. Push and work hard. Keep driving and try to get with a good camp like American Top Team. The best camp in the world.
Hector Feliciano is the founder and Editor of the Martial Arts Times. A fighting enthusiast, He looks forward to sharing his experiences with readers and interacting in the wonderful world of Martial Arts. 
