UFC 145 Results: What We Learned in Matt Brown's Win over Stephen Thompson

Matt Brown absolutely worked over Stephen Thompson at UFC 145 en route to a unanimous decision win.

Except for a few big kicks from Thompson, the fight was never really close or never really in contention. Here's a look at what exactly we learned from this uneven fight. 

Always Take the Veteran When Unsure

There were a lot of questions coming into this fight. We knew exactly what style each fighter wanted, but we didn't know which would win out.

Brown was the superior fighter on the ground while Thompson could literally knock out a kangaroo with one of his standing kicks.

If the fight went to the ground, Brown would win. If the fighters stayed upright, Thompson would come out on top. Pretty simple, but still tough to predict.

In this case, it was the veteran Brown who controlled the fight and got exactly what he wanted. The more experienced fighter got Thompson to the ground in every round and absolutely dominated him while down there. It wasn't even close.

Matt Brown Is Seriously Tough

OK, I've been going on about how much Brown dominated the fight, but there was a point in the second round when things looked unsure.

Thompson landed a few big kicks and then some punches, and Brown was wobbling. It looked like he was going to succumb to the big blow at any second, but he somehow held off Thompson for about two minutes. 

Brown was seriously hurting and seriously tired, yet he still got Thompson to the ground. That speaks to Thompson's ability, but it also shows how tough-as-nails Brown really is.

It was impressive. 

Stephen Thompson's Ground Defense Is Horrendous

Brown deserves a lot of credit for the job he did, but Thompson looked terrible at times. Wonderboy is still relatively new to UFC, and it looked like it.

There were times when Brown looked really tired, and his attempted takedowns were both slow and clumsy. Something Thompson should have been able to counter, right?

Wrong.

Thompson got taken down on almost every attempt by Brown, whether it was a good or bad one. Once that started happening, it was all over. Standing up, Thompson is scary dangerous, or maybe even scary and dangerous.

But he must get better at defending takedowns. 

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