COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – American Top Team’s Mike Brown has accomplished some great things as a coach, but UFC 261 could be where his greatest accomplishment takes place.
Brown will be in the corner of Jorge Masvidal, who rematches welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in Saturday’s main event, which takes place at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville and streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view.
Masvidal (35-14 MMA, 12-7 UFC), who’s gone from fighting in backyards to the biggest stage, has emerged as one of the UFC’s most prominent stars but is yet to win a title. After falling short on just six days’ notice against Usman (18-1 MMA, 13-0 UFC) in their first outing last July, Masvidal will get another crack with a lot more time to prepare, which Brown thinks will make all the difference.
“It’s night and day,” Brown told MMA Junkie. “Everyone has to understand how difficult it is to fight in a world class fight like this for five rounds. You have to be in your best shape, and that’s impossible to make happen in six days. Especially when you have to fly across the world and make weight. Obviously in the first fight, conditioning was the issue. You could see Jorge had all the skills to deliver. He was able to out-strike him. Anytime he was taken down he was able to get back to his feet fairly quickly.
“On the short notice with the massive weight cut, he didn’t have the gas. … He was resting on the cage when he shouldn’t have been, but he needed to. That’s what happens when you’re in that situation, but Jorge is a confident guy. He still believed that, ‘Hey, I can fly over there and get this guy out of there in the first round, and I’ll do my thing.’ He took a chance, and it didn’t happen. But now he has the full camp, and he’s ready to make it happen.”
One of the most beloved fighters on the roster, Masvidal had a breakout 2019, which consisted of three big finishes en route to capturing the inaugural “BMF” title against Nate Diaz. Brown is happy to finally see Masvidal get his due, but if “Gamebred” can win a title in front of a sold-out crowd in his home state of Florida, it would be his crowning moment, too.
“I would say 90 percent of MMA fans are gonna rejoice and be super pumped,” Brown said. “This is the story everybody wants to hear. This is a guy who has put in the time more than anybody, a guy with more than 50 fights and fought for peanuts for years and years and was always so skilled, and sometimes a little bit of luck is involved with how things fall.
“Finally he catches a couple of breaks and, boom, here he is now, one of the biggest stars in the sport and ready to win the UFC title after 50 fights. It’s like the craziest journey of any fighter ever, and it’s gonna be something special. It’ll be the most special night of my coaching career for sure, and I can’t wait.”
Why Jorge Masvidal UFC title win would be ‘most special night’ of Mike Brown’s coaching career
