As we enter the final week of Matt Brown’s training camp for his fight next Saturday in UFC 111, I thought I’d give a brief overview of his camp as a whole and discuss his upcoming fight and future training with us. I believe this was Matt’s third training camp with us and each time you go through a camp with a fighter, I think it becomes easier to fine tune his program and preparation and everything comes together easier…
This camp was no exception to that generalization and overall Matt’s training camp went well, with no major injuries or setbacks. As I said before, he arrived already in good shape, resting heart rate much lower than it had ever been, so that meant we could spend more time working a bit on strength and power rather than just his conditioning. When he went and had his medicals done last week, they showed his resting heart rate around mid 40s. This is impressive considering he was in the mid 60s when we started training him a few fights back and his conditioning now is no doubt the best I’ve ever seen it.
I think unfortunately in his last fight, the jet lag affected him more than we expected and he probably was more tired in that fight with Wilkes than he would have otherwise been. That trip was his first outside the US and there’s a reason almost all the UK fighters won while those from the US and elsewhere struggled. In fact, I believe Matt was the only fighter from the US who beat a fighter from the UK. Flying halfway across the world and adjusting to 8-12 hour time changes is stressful on the body, period. Fortunately, this time the fight is only on the east coast and a 3 hour time change. Still not easy, but certainly not as difficult as adjusting to an 8 hour time change.
As far as training strategy, it should be pretty obvious to everyone that Matt’s going to want to keep it standing against a guy as good on the ground as Almeida is, so we trained to improve his strength and power against the takedown. The question is going to be how getting down to 170lbs for the first time will affect Ricardo, but we have to expect he’ll be at his best ever and prepare accordingly. I know Ricard also trains with Martin Rooney, who has been getting guys ready to fight for a long time, so we’re certainly going to expect him to be well conditioned and ready to fight hard all 3 rounds.
I think this fight presents a good test for Matt and I’m excited to watch it. Everyone knows Almeida is at his best on the ground going for the submission and Matt likes to stand and throw, so it presents the classic striker vs. grappler match up. Matt did well against his last opponent, who was also good on the ground, but I think Ricardo is a step up in competition and more dangerous on the ground. The key is going to be for Matt to force Ricardo to work his ass off going for the takedown, he can’t let it go to the ground easily or it could be a short night.
Overall, one of Matt’s best assets is his ability to physically and mentally wear his oppoenents down and he’s going to need to do that this fight as well to get the win. Frustrating Ricardo by stuffing the takedown and pushing a very fast pace are obviously his best chances to do that. My guess is that Ricardo will stand with him for awhile to see how it goes, but I expect Matt to get the better of the exchanges and would think we’ll see Matt defending the takedown fairly early on.
In the end, it’s a fight and anything can happen, but I believe Matt is as prepared as he can be and that’s about all you can do in this sport. Ricardo is probably his toughest challenge to date, but if Matt wants to work his way up the ladder in the division he’s obviously going to need to be able to win fights against tough opponents. After this fight, Matt will also be moving here to train with us full time so I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him as he develops his skills as a fighter. His mental toughness is something that can’t really be taught and I think it gives him a bright future in this sport.
For those of you who will be at the fights, feel free to come up and say hi if you see me around. I’ll be getting into NJ on Thursday and will be at the weigh ins on Friday night. Matt’s fight will be broadcast live on Spike TV for free, so make sure to watch it! All of Matt’s fights are exciting and I don’t expect this one to be any different. I’ll take some pics and post them on the site when I get back….