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Mike Brown would never return to title contention. He did continue to fight for the WEC until the promotion merged with the UFC ten years ago before fighting for the UFC for three years and then retiring to coach full-time.
As one of MMA’s most recognizable coaches, Brown seems to be happier as “the man behind the man (or woman),” than he is as “the former WEC champion.”
“It’s hard to say because everything has its own place and everything helps in different ways, but it’s more about the guys I’m with now,” Brown said. “Dustin Poirier winning the interim belt, Joanna defending her belt so many times, Jorge winning the BMF belt, this is where I’m at now. I’m literally training the best fighters on the planet. That’s pretty special.”
Brown would go on to list seemingly every other fighter he coaches with just as much enthusiasm as the previous one. There’s even less ego in the former featherweight king now than there was when he was on top of the division. To this day, Brown has no idea which of his fighters are familiar with his credentials as a fighter because, as he explains, “It never comes up.”
Brown’s voice carries more happiness discussing the generation he’s producing now than it did when discussing the days where he made a mortal out of the WEC’s most popular fighter and he’s never questioned whether or not he got the attention he deserved.
To this day, it’s only been about the fighting.
“That’s not what I looked at or what I cared about,” Brown explained. “At that time, he was the best guy in the world at that weight and then he wasn’t. I was. That, to me, is what’s special. After me it was Aldo and I’m proud I carried that baton.”
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