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“My son does get a bit emotional and a bit nervous when I fight,” said Brown. “He does love watching the UFC, loves the fight game, but when dad fights, I think it’s a little bit different. I’ll tell you this, it was heartbreaking, it was very sad, it wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but that’s life. These things happen. He’s gonna fall in his life, but what is important is that we stand back up, we get back to work and we come back at it. Life’s gonna knock us down, but just like his father, he’s gonna continue to stand up and I’m gonna continue to stand up and I’m gonna set a good example this next fight. Like the song says, ‘Life’s a dance, we learn as we go.’ Either way, we gotta give it a whirl.”
As Brown reels off the lyrics from the John Michael Montgomery hit “Life’s A Dance,” I am a little disappointed that he just said them and didn’t sing them. He laughs, only to give one line with a little vocalizing behind it.
“I learned something from my blue-eyed girl; Sink or swim, you gotta give it a whirl.”
Brown laughs again, in good spirits before one of the biggest fights of his career. That’s another lesson for Kyler, to never let the lows get too low or the highs too high. Good days will always follow bad ones, but only if you keep moving forward. And Brown is well aware that with everything he does, he has a set of important eyes on him.
“I didn’t have a father growing up,” said Brown. “I didn’t have that voice in my ear, that example, and for me to be able to give that to him, it means the world to me, and it would mean the world to me to be able to bounce back here and get this win and get back on the right track. No matter what he chooses to do in his life, he’s gonna have bumps in the road and hopefully he’ll remember some of the lessons I’ve taught him throughout life, and that is that no matter what happens, we have to bounce back and keep moving forward, and as long as we stay the course, things will find a way.”
Fighting is important to Brown. It’s what puts food on the table and it also gives him the drive to reach the goals he set for himself when he turned pro in 2013. But fighting didn’t make the 30-year-old who he is today. For that credit, he looks to his son, admitting that if it wasn’t for Kyler, he likely wouldn’t be where he’s at today.
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