Matt Brown understands better than most how much fighters always want the chance to continue fighting.
That said, the veteran UFC welterweight believes that coaches need to be willing to save a fighter from themselves, especially when there’s an instance where an athlete is absorbing an obscene amount of damage without offering up much proof that a comeback is possible.
This past weekend at UFC 283, Lauren Murphy absorbed the second-most significant strikes (231) in a three-round fight in UFC history during her battle with Jessica Andrade. There were several moments where it appeared the referee might actually stop the fight and there were numerous calls on social media for Murphy’s coaches to throw in the towel.
After returning from Brazil, Murphy thanked her coaches and defended her decision , saying “it’s an fist fight. Sometimes we get beat up. sometimes it might cause you discomfort — that’s your problem .”
Brown, on the other hand, understands Murphy’s situation because he would also say the exact same things but it doesn’t apply to her coaches.
“That’s a corner’s job,” Brown explained on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “If my corner ever stops a fight, I’m going to get pissed at them. Guess what? I’m also going to thank them later, assuming they made a good, educated decision, and that’s one of their primary jobs as a corner is to see a fight objectively knowing your athlete, knowing if there’s a true path to victory for their athlete.”
Because mixed martial arts has produced some truly remarkable comebacks, Brown says it’s natural for every fighter to believe a win is always possible.
Unfortunately, there are many more instances where athletes suffer undue punishment.
“MMA’s crazy right. It seems like we always have a chance. Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen, there’s that chance,” Brown said. It’s not common, but these guys know corners so well that they are able to tell the difference. They’ve seen them get through these hard practices and come back from injuries and deal with things that are unrealistic for normal people to deal with. The corner is convinced they still have a shot in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds. This is my guy. They’ve still got a chance. I think that’s an egotistical way to look at it.
“You have to look at it objectively and your job as a corner, not your primary job but one of your main jobs is to protect your fighter. You see it in boxing. They stop a fight if there is no clear way to win for the fighter. It’s one thing when there’s no clear path to victory but now there’s not a clear path to victory and you’re taking shots, you have to jump in to stop the fight.”
In his own career, Brown has engaged in some truly epic wars with past opponents and there’s never been a time when he didn’t want the opportunity to go out on his shield.
The 42-year-old veteran has also spent a lot of time as a coach and he knows that sometimes it’s just better to live to fight another day, which is why he’s an advocate for throwing in the towel when certain situations call for it.
“I’m a savage motherf*****,” Brown said. “I want to see head butts brought back. “I want to see naked knuckles. Kicks that knock down opponents are what I long for. All this is great, but I also want to see real coaches who can coach their corners.
” I would not tell my side to stop fighting no matter what. Or, I’d fire you. Again, I would be totally angry, I would frustrated and hateful toward my corner for doing that in the moment but 20 years from now, I’m going to say thank you for doing that.”
When it comes to Murphy’s particular situation, Brown empathizes with his desire to go on, but, given everything that he saw, Brown believes that the fight should not have taken place.
” It was obvious that there wasn’t a way to win and that she kept taking shots. There was no clear route to victory, Brown stated. “With that said, I would have stopped it seeing it on TV.
“There’s things that you see live when you’re five feet away from the action that maybe you don’t see on TV, which is I think is pretty rare and not the case, but if I was in the corner, I would have stopped the fight, yes.”
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Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/1/25/23568866/matt-brown-im-a-savage-motherf-but-i-would-have-stopped-lauren-murphy-vs-jessica-andrade?rand=96749
