The Mike Thomas Brown Story: Making an Impact

With the stadium packed and the fans going wild, Mike Thomas Brown was feeling the pressure and the stress of having to fight one of the best fighters in the world in WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber at WEC 36. Faber was considered by many fans to be one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, and nobody was giving Brown much of a chance.

Still, two minutes and 23 seconds later, Mike Thomas Brown had done the impossible and had captured the WEC featherweight championship.

The story of Mike Thomas Brown does not start in a WEC cage, but it began on September 8, 1975 in Portland, Maine. Brown later wrestled for Bonny Eagle High School in Maine where he won a state championship in 1992. Brown had a hard time in school, but his dedication to wrestling got him to Norwich University where he continued to evolve as an athlete.

Mike's coach said that he was one of the smartest and strongest wrestlers at Norwich, qualities that Mike Brown brought with him in the cage several years later.

Brown began his MMA career in 2001 with two straight wins until losing to Hermes Franca in his third fight. After the loss, Brown won his next seven fights which gave him the opportunity to fight under the brightest lights there are, the UFC.

Mike Brown had the chance of fighting on the same card as Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell when he fought "The Neo Samurai" Genki Sudo at UFC 47. Brown was ready to make an immediate impact in the world of MMA, but that had to wait because Sudo's experience got him a triangle choke win against Brown in the very first round.

Brown then fought current UFC fighter Joe Lauzon in a smaller Massachusetts organization and ended up losing a second time in a row by submission. Brown was able to rack up three straight wins after the Lauzon loss and was then matched up against Masazaku Imanari in Tokyo, Japan.

Brown got leg locked in the second round and Imanari dislocated Mike's knee pretty badly. Coming off this near career ending injury, Brown resurrected his dedication to MMA and won his next six fights which gave him a WEC contract and a shot at Jeff Curran at WEC 34.

Brown went on to dominate Curran for three rounds and won a unanimous decision and then was given the opportunity to challenge, and beat, WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber at WEC 36.

For a guy that most fans didn't really know about, Mike Brown did it. He went on to defend the title against Leonard Garcia and defeated Urijah Faber in a rematch at WEC 41 to prove to everybody that he was here to stay.

Now considered by a lot of fans to be worthy of the pound for pound list, Mike Thomas Brown didn't get it easy, but he made an impact like no other when the dust settled.