With a career that spans over a decade and encompasses 34 fights, 36 year-old former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown can be considered a true veteran of the sport, so it wasn’t totally unexpected when he revealed recently that he was contemplating retirement from the sport.
In fact prior to his last fight at UFC 146 last month it looked almost certain that win-or-lose he was going to hang up his gloves, but after an impressive showing in that fight which lead to a unanimous decision victory over Daniel Pineda – a man 10 years his junior – he was left with a tough decision to make.
After giving himself a few weeks to mull it over Brown has come to the decision that he’s not ready to say goodbye to the sport just yet and so he’s announced that he’s signed a new five fight deal with the promotion.
Time will tell if it’s the right decision. Brown definitely hit a slump in form after losing his WEC title to Jose Aldo in 2009. Prior to that he had been on a 10 fight winning streak and looked a dominant force in the division, but his form has been patchy at best since during a period in which he’s gone 4-3.
I’m not convinced he’s ever going to rediscover the form that lead him to the title in the first place, but it’ll be interesting to see just how much he has left in the tank and he won’t be an easy fight for anyone at 145lbs.
