5 Fighters whose camp changes didn't work out

#1 Matt Brown

Matt Brown has given us some memorable fights but it may be long before he faces a top ranked opponent again

Matt Brown is the most understandable person to be on the list and definitely not the most subtle in terms of the stacked up losses in his career. As a record of 20 wins and 16 losses rightfully points out, Brown has always struggled to maintain stability in terms of stacking up a win streak.

A portion of the answer may lie in him attending a very ordinary camp in Vegas, as he balanced the other side of the coin with a very elite camp with Matt Hume up in Washington. A gym that is home to the UFC Flyweight Champ and the pound for pound best Demetrious Johnson; a man who should need no introduction but usually ends up requiring one.

Brown faced a bunch of logistical issues with splitting training camps in Vegas and Washington and had a hard time being accountable to himself. Not receiving the amount of personal attention that he required also didn't help the cause.

After traversing the bumpy road that has been his career in the last few years, Brown met Duane Ludwig, the former head coach of Team Alpha Male and now the head coach at Elevation Fight Team in Denver, Colorado.

The sort of contagious passion that Duane Ludwig brings to the table has helped many fighters find him exceptionally likeable, as TJ Dillashaw would gladly testify. But cultivating such relationships take time and an acute awareness of the habits, as well as the mindset of the student, for the master to morph it into something of use.

“No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.” - Warren Buffett

Brown joined the camp in desperate times, after losing a hard-fought but one-sided submission loss to the up-and-coming Welterweight contender, Damian Maia. Ludwig and company at Elevation Fight Team sought to fill the major holes in Matt Brown's striking game.

They began by handling Brown's tendency to over-rely on his go-to tactics of forcing a clinch game and dirty boxing, by balancing it out with an emphasis on kicks to maintain distance so he would be able to utilise his strength in boxing exchanges.

A plan that has, unluckily, not borne much fruit as Brown is riding a three-fight losing streak with all of them being finishes. Perhaps fighting an unranked opponent for a tune up fight to get back on track would be a better option than getting back in the mix straight away.