Matt Brown was never much for huge, elaborate celebrations after any of his wins, but he understands fighters like Paddy Pimblett raising a little hell after he scored the biggest victory of his career when he finished Michael Chandler at UFC 314.
But Brown draws the line at completely abusing your body, and potentially sacrificing future gains, which is the biggest criticism he could aim at Pimblett after the Liverpool native revealed that he gained over 40 pounds in the days following his fight against Chandler. While Pimblett has often talked about packing on the pounds after all of his fights but then always getting everything back in order when it’s time to perform, Brown cautions him that strategy is almost certainly going to backfire on him eventually.
“If I were his coach, I would have some concern,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “What I tell all of my fighters is we have a short window here. You might be doing this for 15 to 20 years at most. There’s a lot that you can get out of it. Why not squeeze all the f*cking juice out that you can? It’s not a ton of suffering to not put on f*cking 40 pounds after a fight. You can enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself with some moderation and then be back in the gym next week. Nothing wrong with that.
“You’ve got to have a good, relaxed mind when you’re training and going through this journey, but particularly when we’re young, we feel invincible. We forget how short all this is. When you’re 20, you don’t ever feel like you’re going to be 40 in your life. When you’re 30, you never feel like you’re going to be 50. Like that day’s just never going to come. I can just do whatever I do right now, just live in the moment.”
While Pimblett’s ability to gain and then lose the weight for his fights hasn’t affected any of his performances in the UFC yet, Brown knows that the 30-year-old lightweight is just now jumping into the deep end of arguably the toughest division in the sport.
Beating Chandler was a huge addition to his resume, but there are plenty of top lightweight contenders ahead of Pimblett in the rankings that he still has to go through before getting to a potential title shot.
“We push so hard to get something, and then we get it ,and we just relax,” Brown said. “It’s not a good way to look at it. He’s in an absolute savage division, too. He better keep his eyes on the prize because he’s in for some bloodthirsty motherf*ckers now.
“You’re not in LFA, Cage Warriors, wherever he came from. You’re in with the top motherf*ckers in the world now, especially when you’re talking the 155 division. They’re absolute savages in that division.”
Brown says during his own career that strict discipline was a huge part of what allowed him to spend the better part of 15 years with the UFC.
There are always exceptions to the rule, but Brown knows from personal experience that the athletes who are able to skate through without putting forth as much effort are far unnumbered by those who have their full, devoted focus on fighting and winning.
“To me, everyday that you’re not in the gym, everyday that you’re a little bit overweight, everyday you’re not getting the most out of yourself, someone else is,” Brown said. “We’ve seen the disciplined champions like [Georges St-Pierre]. I think is a great example of just an uber disciplined champion and look at how great he became. We’ve also seen the opposite like a Jon Jones, I don’t know his training, but my assumption is he’s less disciplined than GSP, and he still achieved great things but did he achieve that in spite of his training or is he just simply that f*cking good? That’s what I assume.
“We’re not all Jon Jones. What would Jon Jones have done had he not done some of that shit? Maybe he would have had all finishes … it’s just squeezing all the juice and maximizing yourself to be the greatest that you can possibly be. I believe I did that with myself personally. I didn’t even start training until I was 24 years old. I was in the UFC in four years. I think it was because of that mentality. I just gave everything I could everyday.”
For all the success Pimblett has found so far in his UFC career, Brown cautions him that praise today can quickly turn to disdain tomorrow if he loses and suddenly packing on 40-plus pounds between fights becomes a cautionary tale rather than a laughing matter.
“You’ve got to keep your f*cking eyes on the prize,” Brown said. “If I were his coach, I would be concerned. Like bro, you can’t be living this way. You’re so close. Let’s not climb up this far and then start chilling once we almost get to the summit.
“Now is not the time to relax. Now’s not the time to have fun. Now’s the time to double down. Now it’s crunch time. Double down on what you’ve been doing. Do more. Do it better. Do it harder.”
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio
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