All the hoopla surrounding Mike Brown’s KO of Urijah Faber is premature.
Kelly - This is one of those painful moments when a journalist has to forego his personal relationships and face facts. Mike Brown is a good dude who I’ve hung out with and was happy to see get his moment in the sun. But the agonizing and inescapable fact is that Faber didn’t take the fight with him seriously and a rematch will probably be a different story. Brown is legit and can clean out the remainder of the featherweight division in the WEC, so the parade of exultation that he’s currently the marshal of is earned. But I don’t think a rematch will go as quickly as the first fight and now that Faber has lost his belt, he’ll be more focused and determined to win than ever. That’s a scary thought. Faber is like a democracy-the world should beware of him when he’s pissed. I don’t want to take anything away from Brown, who has the tools to remain champion and earned his belt with wins over Yves Edwards, Jeff Curran, Mark Hominick, and a very tough Renato Tavares before beating Faber. But Faber won’t treat a rematch the same way and will come out with guns blazing. That will be the true test of Mike Thomas Brown and friends on Facebook or not, I give him a fifty-fifty chance of winning that fight.

Mark - Kelly, you may want to go check on Mike Brown’s name to see if it’s okay, because you dropped it pretty hard. Your friend really is a great fighter but Faber is in a class of his own at that weight and I think the odds are even less in his favor. Faber is going to be a force, again, but should be even tougher after the loss. Look at GSP and his loss to Serra. Obviously, Brown is no Serra, but GSP has been very strong since that loss and he’s picked his game up another level, which is why he’s been controlling the welterweight scene.

Mike Swick is poised to make a run at GSP.
Kelly - True. I wasn’t a fan of Swick moving down to 170 pounds and in fact I said it was a huge mistake when he danced around Josh Burkman in his first welterweight fight. But after defeating Marcus Davis and knocking Jonathon Goulet back to the land of Hockey and Grolsch, I think Swick is on the verge of a run at the title. Of course, now comes the hard part. To get a shot at GSP, he still has to beat a high profile guy, like Matt Hughes (who is still around), Thiago Alves, or Diego Sanchez. If the UFC brings Jake Shields into the organization that would be a real test for Swick, who hasn’t been challenged by a true grappler at 170 pounds yet. The other “oh crap” factor here is his own camp. Swick trains with Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, both of whom have had their shot at GSP and lost, but still remain among the top ten welterweights in the UFC. Given Dana White’s disdain for the AKA camp lately, I wouldn’t doubt that Swick will have to fight one of these two to earn his title shot. The question is, can he put aside his friendship with them to advance his career goals?