Mike Brown puts retirement on hold, signs new five fight deal with the UFC

News has recently emerged that UFC fighter Mike Brown (26-8) who recently indicated that he was thinking about retirement has decided to stick around a bit longer. The 36-year-old has revealed that he has signed a new five-fight contract with the UFC and he intends to see it through.

Brown released the news of the new deal on his personal website and explained why he was thinking about hanging up his gloves:

“The last couple of years were kind of rough on me. I had lots of injuries and I was feeling fatigued during training and fights. When you feel like this it takes all the fun out of being in the cage. I was starting to think that was going to continue.”

Brown then goes on to explain how he felt during his most recent fight against Daniel Pineda where he scored a unanimous decision victory at UFC 146 in May.

“Going in to the last fight with Pineda I was pretty certain that was going to be my last fight. I talked to my friends, family, and coaches. I told them how I was feeling and I told them I would make up my decision about retirement after the fight. This fight felt different, I felt great and I felt no fatigue. I felt like I did when I won the belt in 2008/2009. I felt like I could of easily went 5 rounds and I had a lot of fun being out there.”

Mike is currently on a two fight winning streak having defeated Nam Phan via unanimous decision prior to the Pineda matchup. Brown was one of the fighters who made the switch over to the UFC from the now defunct World Extreme Cagefighting promotion but he hit a skid in his first two UFC fights. Brown took on Diego Nunes in his UFC debut at UFC 125, and then Rani Yahya at UFC: Fight for the Troops 2. He lost both fights by decision but has now bounced back into winning form showing he has still got what it takes to make one last run at the title. Brown is the only fighter that holds two wins over Urijah Faber at 145 pounds.

“Last week I signed a new 5 fight deal with UFC and plan to continue on and finish up my new contract”

I know that many fans will be happy to hear that the former WEC champ Brown will be sticking around. It will be interesting to see how he perform during what is likely to be his last chapter in MMA.