Mike Brown: Record, Net Worth, Weight, Age & More!
Who is Mike Brown?
Mike Brown is an American born Mixed Martial Artist who has made a huge name for himself as both a fighter and a coach. Brown is a UFC veteran and former WEC Featherweight Champion. Since his retirement from active competition in 2014, Brown has been one of the most well known and sought after instructors in the game. He is currently the head MMA coach for American Top Team and the personal coach of UFC Superstar Dustin Poirier.
What this article covers:
- Who is Mike Brown?
- How Old is Mike Brown?
- Mike Brown Fight List
- Mike Brown's Best Fight of All Time
- Mike Brown Record
Mike grew up in a small town called Standish, in western Maine where he was a high school wrestler. Even as a young athlete, Brown showed promise on the mats. He worked hard to become a top talent and in 1992 his hard work paid off when Mike became the 1992 State Champion in his high school weight class as a Junior.
After this standout career in high school, Brown enrolled in Norwich University. Although he hadn’t focused on academics in high school, Mike shifted his focus in college and found that he could balance both at a high level. He was soon known to his coaches as both a strong body and a sharp mind and became a perennial scholar athlete.
After a respectable career on Norwhich’s wrestling squad, Mike Stayed interested in martial arts, shifting his focus to the entirety of combat sports in MMA. As a mixed martial artist, Brown could leverage his high level folkstyle wrestling skills and the new tricks he was learning in submission grappling and striking to become a fearsome fighter.
Mike Brown started his pro fight career in 2001 at age 26, which is fairly old for a fighter to begin their endeavors in the octagon. If anything, however, this proved to be an advantage for the young wrestler who now found himself intelligently submitting and striking with opponents as well as dictating the ground game.
Brown quickly stormed through the toughest opposition that the smaller professional leagues could wrangle up to fight him, earning his way to an impressive 10-1 record. In 2004, just three years after going pro, Brown stepped into the UFC octagon for the first time on UFC 47 to face Genki Sudo. This was his twelfth pro fight.
Although he wasn’t able to come out on top, losing to Sudo via triangle choke, Mike got his first taste of the UFC. He fought hard but was caught in a nasty submission in the first round. About seven years later, Mike would have his hand raised twice in the UFC, on both UFC 133 and UFC 146, where he won by unanimous decision both times.
After his UFC debut, Mike continued to take on all comers in several leagues that were trying to find their way into the spotlight, including AFC, HOOKnSHOOT, BodogFIGHT, and Premier X-treme Fighting. He finally found his home when he made his World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) debut in June of 2008 against Jeff Curran.
In the WEC, Mike continued the reign of terror that had already seen wins over one rising future star in Yves Edwards. After the win over Curran, Brown moved to an impressive 19-4 pro record and found himself standing across from the WEC Featherweight Champion, and one of the biggest names in MMA history, Uriah Faber, on WEC 34.
As the bell rang, Mike raised eyebrows by coming out hard and going after Uriah immediately. He made contact early and had Faber on his back leg looking to defend. Only minutes into the first round, he managed to make contact again and again until the referee was forced to stop the action and declare a TKO via punches. With this win, Mike became an MMA champion and cemented himself as one of the top fighters in the game.
He defended his title against Leonard Garcia in 2009, and his grappling instincts took over. After some introductory exchange on the feet, Garcia found himself tapping to an arm triangle, again only minutes into the first round. This incredibly fast title defense moved Brown to 21-4 and lined up a rematch with the former champ, Uriah, who had earned the right to challenge again quickly.
This time Faber had something different in store for Mike, who had become used to winning championship bouts in the first round. The two went back and forth in a complete war for five rounds, with Faber managing to prove he too belonged in the early rounds. Eventually, though, Mike’s hard nosed wrestling pedigree paid off. As the rounds wore on, he became more and more dominant, eventually claiming a unanimous decision victory in one of his hardest fights to date.
Mike’s third title defense was against an absolute monster: the 16-1 Jose Aldo. Although he wasn’t able to come out on top in this match, it proved again that Mike Brown could stand with the toughest fighters on the planet. Brown would fight a few more big names in the WEC, including Manny Gamburyan, before fighting his last five fights in the UFC.
While fighting out his UFC contract, Brown collected victories over Daniel Pineda and Nam Phan in 2011 and 2012. His final fight was against Steven Siler in 2013 and he retired after that to focus on coaching.
Oftentimes, the story ends here for fighters but not so for Mike. Having built a positive reputation among fighters and trainers, Brown sought to make the transition from competing to coaching by joining American Top Team as their MMA coach. It’s here, working under the legendary Conan Silveira, that Brown has made perhaps his biggest impact.
He was an academic standout while wrestling college, and a relatively mature 26 when he turned pro, so it's perhaps no surprise that Brown’s intellect led him to find his stride in coaching and leave an outsized impact on the game. He was named Coach of the Year on four separate occasions and has led several top tier athletes, including current star Dustin Poirier, to success.
How Old is Mike Brown?
Mike Brown was born on the 8th of September in 1975. He is 47 years old as of 2022.
Mike Brown Family
Mike keeps to himself in interviews, preferring to focus on the sport.
How Much is Mike Brown Worth?
Mike Brown’s net worth is not public information.
How Tall is Mike Brown?
Mike Brown is 5’6”, which is about average for a featherweight fighter.
How Much Does Mike Brown Weigh?
Mike Brown competed most frequently as a featherweight, which is capped at 145 pounds. He also moved up to lightweight, or 155 pounds, for a time.
Mike Brown Fight List
Mike Brown has an extensive competition record and an even more impressive list of professional athletes that he’s coached. Before he ever got into MMA, he was an accomplished high school state champion wrestler and a folkstyle wrestler in college as well. Rather than a fight-by-fight breakdown, let's look at his overall accomplishments in the sport:
Absolute Fighting Championship (AFC)
- AFC Featherweight Champion
World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC)
- WEC Featherweight Champion
- 2x Successful Title Defenses
- Fight of the Night (vs. Uriah Faber)
- Knockout of the Night (vs. Uriah Faber)
- Submission of the Night (vs. Leonard Garcia)
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
- Finished career in UFC
- Corner’s Dustin Poirier
- MMA Coach at American Top Team
Mike Brown's Best Fight of All Time
Mike Brown’s best fight of all time would have to be his first WEC title match against Uriah Faber in 2008. Faber was better known, but Brown was deadlier on that night. He managed to knock out Uriah in the first round and become the WEC Featherweight Champion, a title he would defend twice and hold for over a year.
Who Did Mike Brown Lose To?
Mike Brown lost via kneebar to a man you do not want to play legs with: Masakazu Imanari. The match took place on DEEP: 22 and the kneebar was so deep that in nearly ended Mike’s Career. This loss stands out as the most dramatic of his career for the severity of the injury that followed.
Mike Brown Record
Mike Brown has a professional MMA record of 26-9. His fighters at American Top Team, like Dustin Poirier, have many more wins than he ever could have amassed himself as just one person.
Mike Brown Injuries
Mike’s biggest injury came at the hands of leglock master Imanari, who nearly destroyed his knee in 2005 with a rolling kneebar. The velocity and movement that exist in that technique make the potential for damage incredibly high and, unfortunately for Mike, Imanari is a master of unlocking that potential. Although the injury cost him 6 months of training time, he fought through it to continue competing for 8 more years.
Is Mike Brown Retired?
Mike Brown retired from professional fighting in 2013 after his final match in the UFC, but now coaches professional fighters himself at American Top Team. One of his most well known and successful students is “Diamond” Dustin Poirier.
When he’s not watching tape for his athletes or teaching a class at Top Team, Mike can be found teaming up with others to help spread knowledge of the game to others. He’s recently gotten together with Dynamic Striking to produce a series on what it takes to outmaneuver your opponent against the cage. Make sure to check out his “Offensive Wall Control for MMA” today. In it, you’ll find tips on how to bully your opponent against the cage from one of the top coaches in the MMA world today.
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