Matt Brown: Patchy Mix found out UFC is ‘different f*cking animal … what you do outside the UFC just doesn’t mean jack sh*t’

Patchy Mix had a rough night at the office in his octagon debut at UFC 316 after he absorbed 173 strikes while getting busted up and bloodied by Mario Bautista en route to a unanimous decision loss.

Immediately afterwards, questions were raised if Mix just folded under the bright lights that come along with the UFC and the notorious jitters that sometimes doom fighters in these situations. In his own post-fight statement, Mix noted that he took the fight on three weeks’ notice after he signed with the UFC in free agency following his release from the PFL but he promised to come back better.

But Matt Brown doesn’t buy the spotlight affecting Mix as much as him just realizing that beating the best fighters in the PFL or Bellator doesn’t equate to the level of competition he’ll face in the UFC.

“I’ll tell you what, the UFC just has the best fighters in the world,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I think these few fights that we talk about where these guys are coming as champions from other [promotions] and everybody thinks they’re so good, I think it just shows the level of disparity of competition in the UFC.

“Maybe the lights and the media and all that kind of stuff play a role in it but I think it just shows the disparity. The number 15 guy [in the UFC] could be champion in any other promotion that he went to. It’s just an extreme difference between the UFC and everybody else. They have control of this sport, of all the best fighters and I think that’s all there is to it. We’ve seen it a million times.”

Mix’s struggles in his UFC debut came just a few weeks after former Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Pitbull experienced almost the same exact struggles in his first fight against Yair Rodriguez.

Brown believes it’s different for some fighters joining the UFC roster like what he expects to see out of Aaron Pico when he finally makes his debut because he’s still reaching the peak of what he’s capable of doing in the sport.

Meanwhile, Mix and Pitbull were established champions in Bellator but both found out that being the best anywhere else isn’t the same as being the best in the UFC.

“The UFC’s just a different f*cking animal,” Brown said. “There’s bloodthirsty lions in there that just want to eat your soul. It’s just a different level of competition.”

While promotions like the PFL have positioned themselves as the “co-leader” in the MMA space, Brown just doesn’t buy it when taking the top talent there and comparing it to the UFC.

In many ways, Brown feels like every other organization putting on fights is effectively the minor leagues while the UFC is the majors.

“The UFC just has the best fighters, bar none,” Brown said. “What you do outside the UFC just doesn’t mean jack shit anymore, other than to get you to the UFC.

“Like college football — would the National Champion team beat the worst NFL team? It’s the same thing. The UFC is the NFL. When they come to the UFC, it’s just a different f*cking animal. They’re not used to that level of competition.”

For all the talk about nerves or just fading under a brighter spotlight in the UFC, Brown believes the real differences that fighters feel come from what happens outside the cage.

He experienced that during his own career when he joined the UFC roster following an appearance on the sixth season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show.

“I think what a lot of people don’t recognize or don’t really think about is when you get into the UFC, at least in my situation and I’m sure that others can relate, you suddenly have about 20 more cousins than you had the year before,” Brown said. “Now you’re looked at differently when you walk into a restaurant. People see who you are. They know who you are.

“Those are the kinds of things that can either get to your head or you can handle it more stoically or properly. I think these kinds of side issues is more of a factor than like doing an extra media day. Even though media stuff, that can get to your head. You’re like ‘they all want to f*cking talk to me!’ Again, when you’re talking about these guys that aren’t used to that kind of stuff, it can easily get to your head.”

When it comes to the fight itself, Brown never really felt that different from the early part of his career to the 15 years he spent competing in the UFC.

The pressure may get ratcheted up in those situations but Brown says once the punches started flying, he always settled back into his own world inside the cage. That’s why he doesn’t necessarily buy “octagon jitters” as a reason for Mix’s showing this past Saturday night.

“I don’t think everybody is made for that, especially you’ve got to think of the complexities of you’ve already been a fighter for so long like a Patchy Mix,” Brown explained. “Kind of already a legend in your own right. High level, very good. Now all of a sudden people are looking at you differently. People are talking to you differently. Now people are treating you differently. I think those little things can play a bigger role than having an extra media day or f*cking the lights are a little brighter.

“Realistically, when you get into the octagon, I fought in gas station parking lots before, I fought in a cage once it was built with like dog kennel fencing, it had the bar across the middle, and they had that show in a rec center in the f*cking middle of nowhere, and I fought for a four-wheeler. That was my prize if I won. It’s still the f*cking same. When you fight in the UFC and the lights come on, it’s still the same. It’s all that sh*t leading up to it and all the shit outside of it that’s different. The UFC, I swear to god when the bell rings and the referee says go, it’s the same f*cking thing but you made it something different.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

Click here to read article