Dana White Blamed for Hammering the “Final Nail” on Matt Brown’s Retirement With UFC 300 Snub – “My Mind Was Set…”

Former UFC star Matt Brown finally decided to call it a day to his UFC career on May 4th, 2024. Although he was never able to claim the top prize in the 170lbs division, ‘The Immortal’ had a pretty stunning career and created some impressive records as well. However, Brown envisioned a different way to retire, but his plans seemed to have been spoilt by the UFC’s head honcho, Dana White.

Debuting as a 27-year-old, Brown fought under the UFC banner for almost 16 years, well into his 40s. Having spent the majority of his career in Dana White’s promotion, he wanted to retire at a landmark event, at UFC 300, to be exact.

Dana White derailed Matt Brown’s retirement plans

Matt Brown’s final UFC outing took place over a year ago. Since then, he had been on the shelves, patiently devising a plan for his final fight, which he wanted to be against another veteran, Jim Miller, who had no problems whatsoever with being the final opponent of ‘the Immortal’. But guess what? Dana White apparently could not find a spot for Brown on the UFC 300 card, an event the veteran was training for, and instead set Miller up with Bobby Green.

“My mind was set on UFC 300 and I thought I had all the pieces in place to make it happen… Jim Miller said publicly that he’d accept the fight and would love to do it. So I was literally training for that fight and then it didn’t happen… So that was probably the final nail in the coffin,” Matt Brown told Ariel Helwani on ‘The MMA Hour’.

Both Jim Miller and Matt Brown are in their 40s now, and ‘The Immortal’ wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to fight against in his last fight. But when the plans fell off, the 43-year-old accepted it and decided to find another means to make a living and hang up his fighting gloves. “I wanted to go out on [UFC] 300. I thought that would be a hell of a way to go out, especially against Jim Miller, another legend then it didn’t happen so I was like, ‘Aight, let’s build this business, man. Let’s get rich otherwise,'” Brown added.

In hindsight, for most fighters, this would have been a distasteful act by Dana White, who did not acknowledge a veteran who’s fought in his promotion for so many years. But was it the same for Matt Brown? Well, he had no problems with it.

“It was cool” even if the retirement plans didn’t work out

Matt Brown was well prepared for the UFC 300 plans as he had tried to contact the UFC execs for a considerable amount of time just to land a spot on the UFC 300 card. He wanted to be on UFC 100, but he couldn’t. Brown also called for a UFC 200 spot, but even that fell flat. So, 300 was the final chance for the 43-year-old. The former UFC star further stated, “[I] didn’t even ask. You know, it’s out of [my] control. It is what it is… I called them [for] months and months way before that had [announced] on UFC 300. Expressed interest… [before] the fight before he fought on [UFC 300]… it didn’t happen.”

All in all, Matt Brown has no bad blood towards Dana White. Although UFC 300 was important to him, he didn’t take the snub by the UFC CEO personally. “It was [hard watching UFC 300], man… [But] It was cool… I’m not that guy to hang onto things like that [on a personal level],” Brown added.

What is next for ‘The Immortal’? We are not sure of that yet. He could become a coach or he could become an analyst, like many other former fighters. We will have to wait and see how things pan out for Matt Brown in the days and months to come.