How crazy is it for Brown to want a title shot? Five ways of looking at UFC Fight Night 40

UFC Fight Night 40 might have felt like a long journey at times, but with 13 bouts across three different viewing platforms, we got plenty of MMA action to dissect and discuss. Now that we’ve had some time to think about it, a few thoughts on the UFC’s Saturday night (and Sunday morning) in Cincinnati.

1. “The Immortal” has a question for us, but will he get the answer he wants?

Following his come-from-behind win over an exhausted and battered Erick Silva, Matt Brown stood in the center of the cage and asked his fellow Ohioans who they’d like to see fight for the UFC welterweight title next? What he got in response was the muddled roar of approval you’d expect for a hometown guy coming off a thrilling performance, but the powers that be at the UFC seem slightly more hesitant.

It makes you wonder though, is it really so crazy to give Brown a title shot? Maybe, yeah. On paper, a win over the likes of Silva, who’s been winning one and losing the next since arriving in the UFC, shouldn’t vault any welterweight to the top of the heap. The winner of the upcoming fight between Tyron Woodley and Rory MacDonald will have a much better claim than Brown does. Same for whoever’s left standing after Jake Ellenberger and Robbie Lawler square off. At the same time, try to imagine Brown’s question – who do you want to see fight for a title? – being put to the MMA universe at large, and then try to imagine them howling back, “WOODLEY!!!” Of the available contenders who have not already had a crack at Johny Hendricks, they all lack a certain…oomph.

Not so for Brown. He’s captured our imaginations, with his tales of personal and professional redemption, and also with his gritty, toughest-SOB-in-the-bar fighting style. It’s easy to get behind this guy, especially after that fight with Silva. The hard part is making a logical case for him to leapfrog all those other 170-pounders, as crazy and fun as it might seem in theory.

2. Philippou’s violent – and emotional – return to form

Some fights you almost don’t need to see. You can close your eyes and listen to the sound of punches flying, and you just know somebody is ending the night face-down on the floor. The middleweight co-main event between Constantinos Philippou and Lorenz Larkin was this type of fight, and you could tell it wasn’t going to last long. What you probably couldn’t tell was the extent of the emotional baggage Philippou brought into this fight. As he said at the press conference following his first-round knockout victory, he almost called it quits after two consecutive dismal losses.

“Did you watch my last fight (against Luke Rockhold)?” Philippou said. “Do you blame me? Two fights ago, I spent 12 out of 15 minutes laying on my back (against Francis Carmont) and it was an awful experience for myself and the fans, and I was embarrassed. I came back and my last fight was worse – I got knocked out for the first time in my life. I started wondering if I could keep doing what I was doing. I didn’t know if I still had it in me.”

That’s a lot of pressure to add to the already stressful experience of fighting another man on TV for money. When you consider that Philippou was dealing with all that and still went out there to trade cannonballs with Larkin like he had nothing to lose, it’s even more impressive. It also gives you some perspective on that look of relief and elation and something resembling shock, all of which flashed across his face right after Larkin went down. As if it had been so long since he celebrated a win, he was wondering if he still remembered how.

3. Koch at a crossroads

After dropping two in a row as a featherweight, Erik Koch did what a lot of fighters do when they feel like they have to change something, but aren’t totally sure what: change weight classes. Most guys drop down a division, but Koch went up to lightweight, and he got off to a good start with a first-round TKO of Rafaello Oliveira in February. This time it didn’t go so well, thanks in part to the dynamic striking game of Daron Cruickshank, that little spark plug of a lightweight who always seems undersized for the division, yet still finds a way to put his foot upside people’s heads.

Losing to Cruickshank shouldn’t plunge Koch into panic mode, but it should be cause for concern. Koch started as the “New Breed,” an exciting young work in progress. Now he’s lost three of his last four, and the UFC might be starting to wonder where this project is headed.

4. Maybe don’t kiss the ref on the head when he stops your fight, just saying

First of all, good for Soa Palelei for doing what most of us expected him to do against South African newcomer Ruan Potts. Palelei might not have the full complement of skills you’d like from a UFC heavyweight, but he’s trouble if you let him get on top of you. Potts seemed to lose consciousness almost spontaneously once Palelei seized mount, but once referee Keith Peterson moved in to stop it, he was rewarded(?) with a delicate smooch on the head from Palelei. That’s, uh, well, that’s kind of a weird thing to do.

Then again, Palelei is a guy who not only chose a weirdly sensual country song as his entrance music for a professional prizefight, he liked it so much he sang a few lines of it on the mic after his win. So, yeah, maybe he’s just a weird dude. Let this serve as a warning to other referees.

5. Wineland pays the price for a wide open style

Seems like every time we see former bantamweight title challenger (and WEC titleholder) Eddie Wineland fight, we hear the commentators remark on how low he keeps his hands when the fight stays standing. Usually they shrug it off because, hey, if he makes it work, more power to him. This time, against Johnny Eduardo, it didn’t go so well.

Eduardo’s plan to counter Wineland at the end of an exchange worked pretty darn well, as one right sent Wineland reeling and a follow-up put him down for good. As much fun as it can be to watch Wineland employ that style, it doesn’t seem to be doing his brain any favors. Especially not now that his opponents all know to expect it.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 40, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.