MMA

Mike Brown meets Jose Aldo in the main event.

By JAMES BRYDON

sportsnet.ca

In the past 12 months, Mike Brown has captured the WEC’s 145-pound belt from the then-featherweight king Urijah Faber, easily defended it against a dangerous Leonard Garcia, and gone another five rounds with Faber in a victorious rematch.

But Wednesday night in Las Vegas, he could face his toughest test yet.

Why? Because with current No. 1 contender Jose Aldo (15-1), Brown expects the unexpected.

Combined, the two fighters who will meet in the main event of WEC 44 at The Pearl at the Palms, are on an 18-fight win streak (10 in a row for Brown). That includes eight knockouts, with Aldo winning his past five by KO/TKO. Given that, you’d think one would want to focus his preparation on the standup game. Not so with Brown.

“We hear he’s a jiu-jitsu ace,” Brown said on a recent conference call. “But (his recent fights) are all on the feet. I’ve seen some older fights where it went to the ground, but he doesn’t go there that much. Only one way to find out: take it down and test it myself.”

Indeed, Aldo, a 23-year-old from Rio de Janeiro, holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. But it would be hard for anyone to showcase that when one is knocking out his opponent before even one round is in the books. Aldo has done that in his past three fights, each in quicker time than the previous.

It will be hard for Aldo to top his last result however -- at WEC 41 in June, he dispatched of Cub Swanson with an eight-second TKO due to strikes following a spectacular flying knee.

Yet perhaps it's Aldo who should expect anything from his opponent. Brown, a jiu-jitsu brown belt, won his past three via three different methods -- by decision, arm-triangle choke and TKO, earning Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night and Knockout of the Night, respectively, in the process.

The scary thing about Brown, who has never been knocked out himself and hasn’t tasted defeat since December 2005, is he believes he’s only getting better. The Portland, Maine, native, who trained in his home state early in his career, believes he really turned a corner when he joined American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla.

“All my (submission) losses were before I joined ATT,” Brown (22-4) said. “They have the best submission guys in the world. My sub game is probably my strength now, whereas before it was one of my weaknesses.”

Being a 145-pounder and standing five-foot-six, at a gym the size of ATT he naturally has plenty of training partners much bigger than him to grapple with on a daily basis. That makes it much easier to get into the cage with a guy roughly his size -- the couple of inches Aldo will have on him will seem like nothing.

Asked if the added responsibilities of being the WEC champion makes things tougher for him, Brown, 34, said it’s the opposite.

“It’s easier to train as champ because now I’ve got a lot more money and don’t have to work a day job at the same time.”

“I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m ready for wherever this fight takes us,” Brown added. “I think that if I fight like I can, I can beat anybody in the world.”

Brown better hope he fights “like he can” because his challenger isn’t lacking in confidence himself.

“Mike Brown is a very good fighter and I respect him. But I’m going to be even better than I was last time,” Aldo said in a press release Tuesday.

Despite all the possible ways this fight can go, Brown, who said he doesn't normally make predictions, had one for this title fight.

“Someone’s going down in this one,” Brown said. “I (just) have a feeling (someone’s getting knocked out.)”

If that turns out to be the case, it will be a first for either.

NOTES: All fighters made weight Tuesday for the event, with Brown and Aldo both hitting the scale on the number for a championship bout. ... The WEC announced Tuesday it signed a multi-year agreement with Globosat in Brazil to broadcast events on its Combate Brasil channel, beginning with Wednesday's live telecast. ... According to Sherdog.com, a fight between former UFC champions Randy Couture and Mark Coleman is in the works for UFC 109 on Feb. 6, with both having verbally agreed to face each other.