Damien Brown makes his return to the Octagon on July 31st (AEST) in his second fight for the UFC after making his debut with the promotion back in March.
Kicking off the action at UFC 201 against Paraguay’s Cesar Arzamendia, Brown says he has never been more prepared and ready for a fight.
The Brisbane local who holds down a full time job and schedules training around 12 hour days is excited to have had the opportunity to undertake a full, undisrupted camp for the first time in his professional fighting career. Couple that with bringing on board expert combat sports nutritionist George Lockhart and a new strength and conditioning coach and it would appear that Brown is in the best position possible to bring home his first win under the bright lights of the Philips Arena.
“I’ve made so many changes (for this camp). I’ve taken time off work, eight weeks to be exact. I’ve hired George Lockhart to change my nutrition which has made me actually look forward to my meals as opposed to not looking forward to cold chicken and broccoli,” Brown told Fight News Australia.
“The decision to go with George was an easy one. There’s really only two big names in nutrition when it comes to combat sports: Lockart and Mike Dolce, and I’ve always liked the way George thinks and what he has done with his athletes. We had a chat on the phone and then went from there. As soon as I spoke to him I knew I’d made the right decision. I started thirteen weeks out at 85kgs and I was down to 74kgs two weeks out.”
The man standing across from Brown, and ready to upset the Aussie’s best-laid plans, is Cesar Arzamendia, a TUF Latin America 2 alumni who at just 25 years of age has racked up an impressive professional record of 7-2.
Arzamendia is coming off a loss in his UFC debut, a knock out to Polo Reyes, back in November of last year. With both fighters keen to make amends and tie up their first win within the Octagon there is no doubt that this fight is going to provide fireworks and plenty of entertainment for the fans. Brown, whilst aware of the scrappy young fighters ability to stand and trade, the veteran has taken note of the gaps and areas to exploit.
“He’s (Arzamendia) aggressive. He’ll stand and strike even if he gets hurt,he likes to get into the clinch and he’ll throw heavy shots to get there. He’s forward and backwards, his strikes are thrown looping not in a straight line. He’s scrappy and not super technical. He’ll go for a takedown when he get hurts hurt but he’s not super tight when he gets on top, there’s plenty of gaps to expose. It’s the perfect match-up for that’s sure.”
Fans can catch Brown versus Arzamendia on UFC Fight Pass from 9am AEST with the Main Card headlined by Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley commencing at 12pm AEST on Pay-Per-View.
