Matt Brown didn’t get to fight at UFC 100 or UFC 200, but he’s hoping UFC 300 might have a spot open for him.
The veteran welterweight with the most knockouts in the history of the division revealed on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer, which drops Tuesday, that he spoke to the UFC about potentially returning on the April 13 card taking place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. While nothing is set in stone yet, Brown says UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby was receptive to the idea, although he couldn’t say for certain where he’d end up on what’s expected to end up as an incredibly stacked card.
“I’m working on it,” Brown said. “I talked to Sean [Shelby] and said ‘I’d like to be on it.’ That’s as far as I’ve got so far.
“We talked a little bit. To sum it up as easy as I can, he said basically he can more or less guarantee me a spot on 300 — he didn’t use the word guarantee — but the placement, I could get a higher place on a different card potentially, if that makes sense. Being that it’s 300, you might end up a little lower than you want to be where as you might get on a different card and be higher. So which one do you do?”
Brown, who is coming off a knockout over Court McGee in his last outing this past May, hasn’t decided exactly what he’ll do, but he definitely welcomes the chance to compete on a historic card like UFC 300, which also falls in line with an ideal time to fight again.
It’s likely that Brown would end up on the preliminary card, especially with UFC 300 expected to feature several marquee fights at the top, but he admits that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“The only thing is when you are the first fight on the prelims, you know exactly when you’re going to fight so you know when to warm up,” Brown explained. “You get out of there early and you get to hang and chill. I get paid the same.
“I’m there to fight and try to smash a f****** elbow through somebody’s forehead. That’s what I’m going to do no matter whether it’s in my backyard or UFC 300.”
Brown didn’t speak to the UFC about any specific opponents because ultimately he just fights whoever gets put in front of him.
The opponent doesn’t matter as much as the timing so Brown now just awaits final word on an actual offer so he can decide his next move.
“I’m down for whatever,” Brown said. “I don’t really question a whole lot. They throw me an opponent and I say let’s go.
“They’ll probably get back to me pretty soon. I’m already ramping up, getting in shape. Unfortunately, I had a staph infection this week so that kind of threw things off the loop a lot but getting back into it and starting to get the weight down, training hard. We’ll see what happens.”
