A young prospect on the rise faces a scrappy veteran riding a four fight win streak Saturday night as Jordan Mein returns to the octagon to battle Matt “The Immortal” Brown.
Mein will look to build off his devastating TKO victory over Dan Miller, while Matt Brown will look to send another up and comer sliding back down the welterweight ladder.
Brown (16-11) is exciting, in your face fighting style have bought him fourteen fights inside the UFC’s octagon, albeit with mixed success. Most likely facing the firing line every time he fights, especially with the UFC cutting so many nowadays, Brown has reeled off four straight victories avoiding the axe with all his might.
His willingness to always move forward tends to lead to exciting fights, but he’s also not afraid to take the fight where he’s best suited to win.
Brown is a well rounded opponent, but isn’t generally above average at any one area. He especially has had trouble with submission defense as nine of his eleven losses have come via submissions, including a run of four out of five fights where he lost by sub. That shouldn’t be an issue for him in this fight however, his striking defense may be.
Mein (27-8) has had a ton of fights for a guy that’s only twenty-three years old. Even though it’s only his second fight in the UFC, he’s a veteran of Strikeforce and has wins over UFC vets such as Joe Riggs and Josh Burkman.
He showed a little bit of everything in his last fight, battling out of a deep submission attempt to end up being the first man to ever stop Dan Miller.
Mein wants to strike, and he’s damn good at it. Accurate as he is powerful, Mein is an absolute menace on the feet and will have a distinct advantage over Brown in that area.
He will need to keep Brown off balance and hit him often, as Brown will undoubtedly keep coming forward.
Mein has had trouble against powerful wrestlers like Tryon Woodley in the past, however Brown isn’t nearly the level of wrestler Woodley is.
In my opinion this fight is pretty much tailor made for Mein to showcase his skills. Brown keeps coming forward, is very hittable, and take downs aren’t a real strength of his. His ground game is decent though, and if Mein isn’t able to keep him from taking him down then his hype will die rather quickly.
Mein should be able to tag Brown early and often, and unlike some of Brown’s other opponents Mein won’t gas out, he’ll just keep hitting him. Brown has never been finished by strikes, but then again either had Dan Miller, Mein by TKO, round three.