Matt Brown Reflects On Coaching Jesse Taylor To UFC Redemption

Matt Brown Reflects On Coaching Jesse Taylor To UFC Redemption

UFC welterweight Matt Brown talks coaching veteran Jesse Taylor to victory at The Ultimate Fighter: Redemption Finale.

Jul 19, 2017 by FloCombat Staff
Matt Brown Reflects On Coaching Jesse Taylor To UFC Redemption
By Elias Cepeda

Although longtime welterweight contender Matt Brown isn't done with his own fight career yet, "The Immortal" has also already begun to set up his next career as a full-time coach. In May, Brown gave FloCombat a glimpse into his coaching philosophy and teased he would be running the training camp of an "Ultimate Fighter: Redemption" season finalist.
 
That fighter turned out to be Jesse Taylor, who not only trained under Brown at Colorado's Team Elevation for his TUF championship bout but also went on to win in impressive fashion over Dhiego Lima with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their tilt on July 7 in Las Vegas. Brown tells us he and Taylor had kept in touch over the years, and when they reconnected on this past season of TUF -- where Brown helped TJ Dillashaw with coaching -- their planning to have "JT Money" train under Brown began to take shape.
 
The change of scenery and tutelage under Brown evidently worked well for the Californian, and now the 34-year-old finds himself back in the UFC.

"It's always nice to do a camp somewhere else because you're there for one purpose and one purpose only. The distractions are taken away," Brown explains of Taylor's decision to train with him in Colorado.
 
"I think he needed that. On top of that, I think he respects my experience and my knowledge, especially the conditioning and cardio side of things that I bring to the table."

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Photo Credit: © Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports 

Optimizing conditioning is just about as important a goal as fighters have during training camps, and Brown says he and Taylor were able to keep things simple and effective.

"That's the main thing when you're looking at a five- or six-week camp. You're mainly focused on peaking out and being in the best shape you can be in," Brown says.
 
"The skills are kind of already there and you want to consolidate your toolbox at that point, anyway, and we were able to do that."
 
Taylor has certainly had his share of great coaches who shaped him into the fighter he's become over his long career. Brown believes one of the most important ways he was able to help Taylor in this recent camp was with purposeful organization.
 
"I think what I brought to the table most was just more planning," Brown says.
 
"What I do is set up an overall plan for the fight, for the training camp -- for the month or however long it is, then for the week of the fight, then for the day of the fight -- from the macro to the micro.
 
"When you're able to put all those things together, it just makes you a lot more confident going into a fight and you've seen the results."

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Photo Credit: © Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports 

And so did Taylor.

The big TUF championship win was one thing, but Taylor himself has also publicly said that Brown "ran my best camp of all time." Brown seems no less pleased with his charge.

In May, Brown was not shy in saying that working with professional fighters has its drawbacks. Oftentimes, they don't appreciate what is given to them, and Brown says he can even recount times that he himself was selfish as an athlete.
 
The fighter/coach had no such complaint about Taylor, however, saying that he was hardworking and humble.

"I look for coachable guys," Brown says. "I make sure that he's going to buy in to what we're doing. The athlete buy-in is as or more important than the actual workout plan is."

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Brown certainly felt Taylor bought in to what he and the other coaches had planned for the fighter.

"He's open and receptive," Brown says. "He doesn't act like he knows everything. I could tell him to run 100 miles on the treadmill, and 10 hours later he'd still be on it, asking what's next. You just can't ask for anything better than that."

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Photo Credit: © Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports 

At the end of each training camp comes the stressful fight week, with its weight-cutting, maddening waiting, and, of course, fight night with the actual battle taking place.
 
Brown, however, says he didn't feel much difficulty overseeing Taylor's week and night, and that's because he knows precisely what it feels like to be in his shoes.

"It just comes from experience, I guess," Brown says. "I can feel the vibe of what a fighter wants. I know what's going through their head -- I've been there myself so many times. 
 
"I fully comprehend it, and I don't have an ego. I'm there to provide for them. I know how good it feels to have someone go a little bit extra for you. I know how important that can be and how much weight that can take off your shoulders."
 
After so much physical preparation, athletes can often ultimately be stymied by mental challenges. Knowing firsthand what those dark and weighty moments feel like, Brown says he is at home making his fighters like Taylor feel comfortable and confident.

Matt Brown celebrates victory inside the UFC Octagon
Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports 

"Fight week is pretty simple," Brown says. "It's just about knowing what's going on in their heads because that's where a lot of fighters can fail.

"The pressure and the weight on the shoulders is so much, especially in the UFC -- such a big event, such a big week, so many people out there. I can relate to it so I can improvise really well. I can work right through it with them, no problem."
 
In the end, everything worked out for Brown and Taylor in the TUF finale. The fighter had achieved UFC redemption, got his arm raised, and the moment rightfully got to him a bit as he celebrated the victory inside the cage.

At that moment, Brown was back in the cage, still offering his fighter calm guidance even after the fight was over. Brown's instructions were straightforward and simple: Let's turn and pose for the cameras. There's the exit. Let's get out of here with all eyes on us seeing your professionalism.
 
"One of my mentors, Matt Hume, told me one time, 'There's nothing to get excited about when you win because that's what you went there to do, anyway,'" Brown recalls, explaining why he tries to keep celebrations relatively muted after his own and now his fighters wins.
 
"That's how I felt with JT. I was only surprised that he got dropped. That was the only surprise at all. I wasn't the least bit surprised that we won. I wasn't surprised at how it went down."