LAS VEGAS – Randy Brown, for a proverbial minute, thought he had a dance date with Carlos Prates. It was, he surmised, a chance to see what all the hype was about.
The way Brown told it Wednesday at a media day for UFC 310, he was asked if he wanted to fight Prates, and he said yes – when he thought the fight was Saturday. When he was told it would be three weeks ago in New York, he passed on the date, but wanted the matchup.
Then Prates, Brown said, passed on a meeting for Saturday, and that was that.
For now, he hopes. Prates said he fancies Brown an easy matchup, and Brown very much would be interested in a dispute of that claim against the Brazilian with four straight bonus-winning knockouts to open his UFC tenure, including one against welterweight gatekeeper Neil Magny a month ago.
“He’s just talking sh*t – he knows that’s not true (that I’m easy),” Brown told MMA Junkie. “… Me and Magny are not the same. I tried to fight Magny for years, and now he’s on a decline. Me and Magny are not the same. Prates (has) got his hype. He’s coming along right now. He’s a good fighter. Shout out to him.
“But I’ve been in this game for how long? There’s a reason I’m still here. There’s a reason I’ve never lost two fights in a row – always showing up, always putting on performances. These guys come and they go, man. Let’s see where he’s at next year. Let’s see what happens two, three years from now.”
With Prates (21-6 MMA, 4-0 UFC) on the backburner for the time being, Brown (19-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) on Saturday will turn his attention to Bryan Battle (12-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC) on the UFC 310 (pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+) prelims at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Brown is pushing up on two years since his most recent loss, a first-round submission to Jack Della Maddalena. But since then, he’s got three straight wins over Wellington Turman, a bonus-winning KO of Muslim Salikhov and, in June, a decision over Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos to give him seven wins in his past eight fights.
The winning streaks are nothing new to Brown. But what he’s trying to avoid are the setbacks that put him back to the middle of the pack.
“I get the momentum, and then I fight a guy and get set back,” Brown said. “I go on another four-, five-fight win streak or whatever and then, every time the breakthrough moment happens, it’s like I get set back. The casual (fans) don’t really get to see me. They only see me in those moments where I maybe came up short. But if you’ve tapped into the sport correctly, you know what time it is when Randy Brown’s on the cards.”
Battle is more than a 2-1 favorite against Brown. That’s not something Brown is accustomed to in recent years, when he’s only been an underdog to Maddalena and Vicente Luque.
Brown said he knows why Battle is getting love from the pundits, but also said he has a plan to disrupt things.
“I think he’s a tremendous athlete. I think he’s a tremendous martial artist,” Brown said. “I think he puts it together well – I’m most impressed with his durability, his ability to take damage and continue to move forward. He’s a grinder.
“With that being said, I’ve seen him before. I think this is one of those fights where he’s going to run into someone that’s more experienced and has seen it all before, and that’s going to really be a shocker for him when he experiences there’s levels to this ultimately. With all due respect – respectfully – there’s levels to this. I think that he’ll feel that comes out (Saturday).”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Randy Brown not sure what all the Carlos Prates hype is about after failed booking
