UFC Fight Night 110's Derek Brunson wants to go 'Cowboy' route, welcomes Antonio Carlos

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – UFC middleweight Derek Brunson spent a lot of time feeling sorry for himself after a pair of losses, respectively, against Robert Whittaker and Anderson Silva.

“It definitely sucked being home for a while,” he said.

So after a quick win on Saturday brought back memories of his prior resume, Brunson is ready to put as much distance between him and his setbacks as possible.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve fought four guys ranked ahead of me, so at this point, I just want to get out there and get more experience,” Brunson (17-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) said after stopping Dan Kelly (13-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in the FS1-televised co-headliner of UFC Fight Night 110 at Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.

Before the dual setbacks, Brunson had won five straight with four consecutive first-round finishes. That sapped his title run, but he thinks he can rebuild quickly.

Already lining up to face him is Antonio Carlos Junior, who called out the winner of Saturday’s fight. The winner of “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3” is 4-2 with one no-contest since his reality show win.

“If a guy is calling me out and it makes sense, if you have a good record in the UFC – I mean, I think he’s 6-2 in the UFC – that’s good enough,” Brunson said.

Even if it took him a second to get the Brazilian’s name right in his post-fight interview, he is game to take the matchup and stay busy, he said, “Kinda like (Donald) ‘Cowboy’ (Cerrone).”

After several years of commuting to the famed Jackson-Winkeljohn Academy in Albuquerque, N.M., Brunson is trying to make his training camps more manageable. He’s also practicing not to rush in and get too eager against opponents, which led to a knockout loss against Whittaker this past November.

A loss to Silva, Brunson chalks that up to faulty judging.

“When you go into a fight and you’ve got the stats, it’s very clear,” he said. “The guy barely hit me in that fight. I hit him, I took him down – I didn’t finish on some of my takedowns, but I definitely should have gotten the decision.”

Whittaker (18-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) is now scheduled to fight for the UFC interim middleweight title next month at UFC 213 against Yoel Romero (13-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC), another opponent Brunson availed himself well against before getting caught with a punch.

Asked who he favored in the fight, Brunson referenced the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which caught Romero with a banned substance post-fight and later settled for a six-month sentence when a tainted supplement was discovered.

Long a voice against doping in MMA, Brunson feels like he simply faced off with Romero at the wrong time.

“I like USADA,” he said. “USADA’s putting a hold on a lot of guys. You look at that fight with Romero, (and) I kick myself.”

But the good news for Brunson is he’s back on the right foot. And however the promotion and fans assess his career to date, he plans to prove he’s still a title contender.

“I performed five or six fights,” he said. “I think it should be judged fairly.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 110, check out the UFC Events section of the site.