While the WWE had The Undertaker, the UFC had ‘The Immortal’ Matt Brown. A phenom of the sport that ruled the Octagon with his fighting skills, becoming the first-ever fighter to hand a loss to Wonderboy Stephen Thompson. But why did we compare Brown to the WWE legend? Well, that’s because, just like The Phenom, Brown too rose from the dead.

And trust us when we say it’s no exaggeration. As it is true, before the former UFC fighter found his way into the Octagon in 2005, Matt Brown was nearly dead. In the latest edition of the Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan talked about how the near-dead experience brought a major change in the fighter. One that even made Belal Muhammad scared of the UFC star, as the welterweight champion himself admitted.

While talking about Stephen Thomspon’s UFC career, Rogan couldn’t help but remember the now-retired UFC veteran Matt Brown. Brown fought Thompson back in UFC 145, where the Immortal completely dominated the matchup. Such was his dominance in the Octagon that Belal admitted to being scared of the fighter. He said, “I would wish that I would never get that call to, like, ‘Hey, do you want to fight Matt Brown’? and I was like, ‘Bro no.’ My brother’s like, call him out. And I’m like, bro, ‘I’m not gonna call Matt Brown.'”

But what made Brown such an amazing fighter? Well, according to Rogan, it was the fighter’s near-death experience after a heroin overdose. The UFC commentator said, “You don’t want to get him motivated. Yeah, he’s the boogeyman. I feel like there’s some dudes that, for whatever reason, with Matt Brown, you know he died. You know he had overdosed. And he had like a serious drug problem. I think there’s guys who see the other side and they come back, and they just have a different mentality. You know they almost lost their life to some really stupid sh*t, and they have like a grip on life that’s a little bit different. And a drive that’s a little different.”

Fortunately, Brown turned his life around and became a legend of the Octagon. The Immortal decided to retire from the sport earlier this year after going 24-19 in his professional MMA career. His last match against Court McGree ended on a high note with a win for the veteran. But while Brown has already established himself as a legend, Belal Muhammad, too, is trying to cement his legacy and is looking for his next challenger.

Belal Muhammad proposes a fight to define his next challenger

Sitting on the 170-pound throne, Belal Muhammad has proposed a title eliminator between Kamaru Usman and Shavkat Rakhmonov to define his next challenger. “Shavkat hasn’t fought since 2023 I think Shavkat and Usman should fight to find the real number one contender.” The welterweight champion wrote on X. Indeed, Rakhmonov, third in the ranking, has not competed since submitting Stephen Thompson in two rounds during the UFC 296 Main Card in December 2023.

The Kazakh, undefeated with an 18-0 record as a professional, has finished every one of his opponents on his path to victory. Usman is currently going through the worst moment of his career by recording three consecutive losses. The former welterweight champion has not stepped into the Octagon since succumbing to a loss against Khamzat Chimaev in the co-main event of UFC 294. November 2021 was the last time ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ got a win. So what do you think? Will the UFC book a fight between the two? What do you make of  Rogan and Belal’s thoughts on Brown? Let us know in the comments.