If Mike Brown is serious about going to the next level and get known, he needs to fight at 155. He is the biggest 145 out there, He makes Faber look small and Faber is thinking of moving up to 155. This is the nature of this sport, you want fame and money. If Browns aspiration is staying at 145 and toil in WEC, good for him. If he wants to challenge himself and go for it at this point of his career, 155 is no brainer if he beats FAber again.
There is no way Faber would move to 155, the reason Brown makes Faber look so small is because Faber should be fighting at 135. If anything I believe the WEC will probably be merged with the UFC in a couple years so it will all be moot. The only reason the WEC exists now is to take up a TV spot another promotion could use, but as other MMA companies have gotten deals on other channels it's kind of lost it's purpose.
Faber has already expressed his intent to fight at 155. Whats all these merger talks?? I think youre missing the point. This is business. Every fighters ambition is to fight for the UFC. Now guys like Pulver who has fought at the UFC and see no more future there has opted to go to WEC to regain some kind of glory and possibly earn some money in the process(where he would have gotten the boot from Dana) But guys like Faber, Brown..these guys are at the top and they want to move further careerwise. As for Brown, hes not a young man, he needs to make it now or pretty soon.
Faber has said he might move to 155 or to 135 doesn't mean he'll do either. Every fighters ambition is to get paid and regardless of what his reported purse is you can bet Zuffa is paying him a lot more behind the scenes. As for merger talks in case you didn't know Zuffa the parent company of the UFC also owns the WEC which as I kinda of explained in my previous post was purchased by Zuffa when Versus began looking around for a promotion to run MMA on there channel. Zuffa in an effort to **** block there competition offered Versus the WEC as they were already contractually locked down on basic cable to Spike. The UFC has already merged with the WEC's 205,185, and 170 pound divisions because the duplication made absolutely no sense nor did having guys in the WEC being viewed as minor league fighters as Versus was not interested in being a feeder league for Spike/UFC with whom they are in in direct competition. Hence the WEC's new found focus on 125 (debuting soon), 135, 145, and at least for now 155. Perhaps they will add a couple female divisions who knows? Basically the thing to understand is that Zuffa is experimenting right know trying to figure what will work for the WEC, both in terms of popularity and profits which is why Brown vs. Faber 2 will be a WEC PPV for $39.95, in the end though it makes most sense to just completely merge the two and have the UFC run from 125-HW with the UFC running so many shows and continuing to expand into new countries having 3 more champs will be more lucrative for the UFC and obviously more lucrative for the fighters as no matter how hard Zuffa pushs the WEC it will never be as popular as the UFC. Now to get the thread back on topic... WAR Mike Brown!
He needs to stay at 145 and rule the division if he beats Faber again. Look at the career path of BJ vs that of GSP and Anderson. Get to the top, stay there, become a legend. He is the best featherweight in the world, that it is better than being the 10th best lightweight in the world. Stay in one class, dominate it, go down in history.
IMO Brown takes it agian watch that 1st fight and what jumps out is Browns strength he was bullying Faber when he slammed him down and at another point basically flicked him off him easily hes a very powerful man and makes Faber look weak its like how GSP makes Matt Hughes look like a dang rag doll. Alot is made of Faber throwing that horrible elbow and getting caught IMO he threw the elbow out of desperation he was already dropped with I believe a left hook when he tried to spring up. Faber needs to fight a near perfect fight and thats stay at a certain range where Brown can get his hands on him and let his hands and feet go with the unpredictablity that he was doing early in that fight because that and his sheer quickness and speed was bothering Mike Brown early on. That said even if he does fight that way its going to be hard to fight 5 rounds that way without Brown timing him eventually with a big straight right. If anyone can pull it out its Urijah Faber but I think hes got a lot of work to do here.
