Issue 113
April 2014
After brutally destroying a slew of top 10 heavyweights in 2013 to earn not one, but two Fighters Only World MMA Award trophies, Hawaiian bruiser Travis Browne proved he’s a hitman to be reckoned with among the UFC’s big guns.
What a wild ride it’s been for Travis Browne over the past the 18 months. After suffering his first-ever defeat at the hands of Antonio Silva towards the end of 2012 and finishing the year with a 1-1 record, many wondered whether ‘Hapa’ had what it takes to get to the top of the heavyweight mountain.
But Browne must have heard the naysayers’ mutterings because he fired straight back with three first-round knockouts in 2013 against three world-class athletes, catapulting him into heavyweight contention and earning him both the ‘Breakthrough Fighter of the Year’ and ‘Comeback of the Year’ statuettes at the Sixth Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards’ ceremony.
The first of Hapa’s victims was former number-one contender Gabriel Gonzaga at The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale. Being the ground specialist he is, Gonzaga attempted a takedown on Browne as soon as the opening bell rang, but Browne was too wily and unleashed a barrage of now-trademark short elbows from the clinch to the side of Gonzaga’s temple, sending the big Brazilian crashing face first to the Octagon floor.
At first there was some controversy as to whether the blows had actually struck the back of Gonzaga’s head, but Browne was always confident the finish was a legal one.
“I remember hitting him with one, and the referee was standing there and didn’t say anything,” said Browne during the post-fight press conference. “So I hit him with two more and by that time he was done.
“I didn’t feel him fighting anymore, and I try to be respectful in the cage and if I know somebody can’t defend themselves I’m not going to take advantage of that.”
Next on his list was a showdown with former K-1 grand prix heavyweight champion and former Strikeforce heavyweight king Alistair Overeem at UFC Fight Night 26. The general consensus among MMA experts was that Browne’s biggest and best chance would be to take the fight to the floor so he could avoid Overeem’s dangerous stand-up skills.
However, once the bell rang, taking ‘The Reem’ to the floor was probably the last thing on Browne’s mind, because he almost immediately came under fire from a salvo of knees, punches and kicks from his opponent which very nearly ended the fight within the first three minutes.
But Browne bit down on his mouthguard and dug deep, and found his own devastating knockout kick, which connected with Overeem’s jaw with a minute of the opening round remaining, leaving ‘The Reem’ unconscious, and earning Browne his ‘Comeback of the Year’ trophy.
“We looked at Overeem from his K-1 days and pretty much all of his UFC fights and looked for a common denominator, what type of stuff he did and some of his openings and came up with a game,” said Browne after the fight. “I didn’t really execute it when I was laying on the ground crying like a little girl, but when I stood up, all it did was make me angry. I knew I wasn’t going to go back down. I just wasn’t going to go back down, so I started moving forward and executing our gameplan.”
He added: “I was in the fight mentally the entire time which almost made it worse because I could understand what was going on. My body shut down on me when he hit me to the torso and that’s never happened before.
“I was yelling at Mario Yamasaki that I was OK and he kept on telling me to move so I stood up. I got back up and started working my game, which is something I should’ve done in the beginning.”
And it was nearly a case of deja vu when Browne destroyed former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett in just 60 seconds using the same short-elbow attack he employed against Gonzaga back in April.
If anyone was wondering whether or not Travis Browne was truly championship quality before those three wins, they most certainly aren’t wondering now.
