For the second time in the month of February, 2010 heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter Travis Browne snagged himself a title belt. He explains, “It was the Gladiator Challenge. I fought Aaron Brink. He is a veteran of the sport. He has been around for a long time. He has over 40 fights and I just had to go out there and do what I had to do and send him back into retirement.” The fight that took place on Feb. 21st ended via knockout 35 seconds into round 1. Aaron had just returned to fighting after 2 years in retirement.
“I’m confident in my skills, also in my size and my athletic ability. I just don’t think he knew what to do with me. Whether or not he clinches and I beat him up in the clinch or I did like I did and pick him up and slam him or whether he wants to stand with me, he was going to get knocked out, so either way it was not good news for him.”
Mr. Browne won the Night of Champions Heavyweight title on Feb.5th against Abe Wagner via knockout, 8 seconds into round 1. He said, “I think that fight was a little more satisfying for me. The reason was is because nobody knows of me out there. I was the big underdog. There was a lot of hype around him. I knew going into that fight and my camp knew going into that fight that I was going to just walk through him like I did. Everyone else was saying Travis Browne is going to get his butt kicked and he hasn’t fought anyone that was a real fighter and that kind of stuff. So going into the fight I just knew I wanted to go in there and prove everybody wrong. One of the things that is starting to follow me is that I do not have good hands, because I am a Muay Thai fighter. So I just wanted to go out there and prove to everyone that I do have power in my hands. I think I knocked him out twice in the 8 seconds!”
Travis has won all 9 of his fights so far. All but one ended within seconds. The one that did go all 3 rounds turned out to be a good learning experience for Travis. “That fight that went all 3 rounds; he was a tough fighter. That guy was just durable and he knew how to use the cage. The whole fight I was chasing him and trying to find him. He did a good job of wearing me out. That fight the most helped me to mature as a fighter.” The fight was against Mychal Clark at Bellator Fighting Championships 8 in June of 2009. Travis won by unanimous decision.
Travis tells me, “I’m 6’ 7”. My last fight I weighed in at 261.”
Browne is proud to be a member of the Alliance Training Center located in Chula Vista, CA. “I train with Brandon Vera at the Alliance Training Center. We have a stable force at Alliance. We have Phil Davis, Joey Beltran; Phil just beat Brian Stan in the UFC. Joey beat Rolles Gracie. Krzysztof Soszynski who just beat Stephen Bonner, Brandon Vera, also we have the Nogueira brothers come through. At Alliance Training Center there is not one fighter that can go there and have a good day. There is always somebody there that can catch you and beat you up a little bit. I’m really confident in our camp there is nothing really stopping us right now.”
His management team is NCFC Elite, Inc. “Jeff Clark is my management. He has been doing wanders with me; lining me up, picking the right fights, at this point he has basically helped me mature in the last year. I’ve been professional for about a year now so my maturity level has gone up so much. Also I owe that to Alliance as well. I was up north training with a different crew until about maybe April or May of last year and then once I moved down there I was like wow is this how it’s really done. That is where you learn how much you really want to be in this sport because they train you really hard.”
Travis is ready to sign with the UFC? He said, “2010 is going to be a big year. My manager’s phone is starting to ring off the hook. There are some big organizations that want me to go out and fight for them. We are trying to lock down what promotion is best for me. For me I would like to fight for the most prestigious promotion out there but it all has to make sense as well. I’m young in the sport and I have a lot to offer so we will be making that decision shortly.”
When asked if he could pick an opponent he would like to fight in the near future Travis replied, “The guy that has a big bull’s eye on his back right now is Broke Lesnar. I think there is a new generation of heavyweights coming out. I have to give him credit because he has totally reinvented the game.”
When Travis is not training for a fight he is training dogs! He owns his own company that trains K9’s. “I’m a private company and basically what we do for the military is we go out and we train a dog up to a certain level and then we go ahead and sell them the dog. We help prep them and get them ready for whatever they need to do. That is my job. That is what I do now, it’s fun, but I’m ready to start fighting full time.”
I asked Travis if his family and friends support his fighting career and he said, “My wife supports me. She gets nervous but she goes to the shows and is supportive. My boys are always talking about it- Oh daddies a fighter- right dad? My best friend’s son is a little older and more understands the sport and he says- Uncle Travis you are like a superhero.”
To wrap up the interview the 27 year old gave thanks to his fans. “Thank you for all the support. I know 2010 is going to be a big year.” Impressive is his professional mixed martial arts record of 9 wins with no losses, his size, youth, ambition, and the fact that his last 3 fights added up to 52 second in the cage, 17 seconds was all he needed to claim 2 titles within weeks of each other. I’m thinking his career is about to explode.
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