The oft-forgotten contender in the UFC’s crowded welterweight title picture, Matt Brown, was less than impressed with Johny Hendricks’ narrow decision win over Robbie Lawler at UFC 171 last month.
While many pundits considered the 25-minute slugfest an instant classic, “The Immortal” was not overly impressed by the title tilt, based on his comments on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour on Monday.
"[Hendricks] didn't look that great that night, even though he had that torn bicep -- that kind of changed my opinion a little bit. But, I don't know. It was a good fight for sure, but it looked like they were just playing pattycake or whatever," Brown said.
"There wasn't no finish. There wasn't anything amazing that happened. A lot of people thought it was an amazing fight, but I didn't think it was as amazing a fight as everybody else thought it was."
Brown, the no. 7 welterweight in the UFC’s official rankings, has rattled off six straight wins (five knockouts) – the longest win streak at 170 pounds.
Unfortunately, a back injury forced him out of a scheduled showdown with former WEC and UFC interim champion Carlos Condit at UFC on FOX 9 in December.
Instead, the hard-hitting brawler will fight Brazilian prospect Erick Silva at UFC Fight Night 40 in front of a Cincinnati, Ohio home crowd on May 10.
Silva is ranked no. 15 in the UFC’s official rankings, so even with a convincing win, Brown still may see a title shot elude him as Lawler, Jake Ellenberger, Tyron Woodley, Hector Lombard and Rory MacDonald are all in the title hunt as well.
Was Hendricks vs. Lawler in fact an overrated fight or is Brown bitter that he is yet to get a crack at UFC gold?