Matt Brown lives by the philosophy that fighting solves everything but even more so when somebody insults you — in real life or on the internet.
That’s why the 14-year UFC veteran sides with Jake Shields over his recent spat with Mike Jackson after the two fighters ended up in a physical altercation at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. While Shields and Jackson disagree on what preceded the actual fight that broke out between them, the inciting incident started on Twitter.
Jackson called Shields a Nazi and a white supremacist on social media, which led to a confrontation when they both happened to be training at the same gym.
“I mean more power to Jake,” Brown said about the altercation on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “This guy was talking s*** to him and I know Jake says some f****** crazy s*** on Twitter. I’ve followed him for a while. He says some s*** that no one’s going to agree with but you don’t go calling people Nazis and s***. Jake is far from a Nazi.
“He might say some s*** you don’t agree with. He might be a little out there on some things according to you, or according to someone else, but come on, man. You know you can’t say that s*** and then see Jake Shields in person and he’s not going to do anything. So f*** Mike Jackson.”
Brown believes that Jackson should have known that by insulting another fighter that the end result was probably going to be a fight if they ever ran into each other.
“You’re a UFC fighter, too,.” Brown said about Jackson. “You are in the UFC, too. You’re an open book. That’s an open invite to f*** you up or to fight you. Especially at the UFC PI. What do you think Jake’s going to do? More power to Jake. F*** that guy.
“If you’re a UFC fighter, you’re opening yourself to those consequences. You’re going to talk s*** to another UFC fighter, when you guys see each other you’re probably either going to be fighting or he’s going to try to fight you. You see this all the time. Guys are ready to throw down any second.”
While he doesn’t necessarily agree with everything other fighters say on social media, including Shields, Brown knows lobbing insults like Jackson did will almost certainly lead to a confrontation.
Brown says Jackson’s mistake really came down to name calling and he should have known Shields was probably going to lash out if they ever came in close contact together.
“He called him a f****** Nazi,” Brown said. “Like how you disagree with him, you wouldn’t start calling him names. You’d say I disagree because of this. As soon as you start insulting people, especially professional fighters, again you’re opening that door now. Even more so if you’re a professional fighter. You’re opening that door even more.”
Jackson has stated that he plans on pressing charges over the incident while Shields claims that he’s spoken to a lawyer about potentially filing a defamation lawsuit.
In his opinion, Brown feels like the fight itself should have settled the problem and Jackson should just own what happened and let it go.
“I’d say it to Mike Jackson’s face. You’re a f****** p****,” Brown said. “You say that s*** to Jake Shields online and you got your ass whooped. Suck it up. Those are fighting words that you said. You opened the f****** door, bro. You can’t accept those consequences, you’re a p***** and you’re going to start pressing charges?
“You said fighting words and you got into a fight about it. You lost the fight. Fair enough. Jake’s a f****** bad dude. He’s a tough son of a b****. A lot of people are going to lose a fight to him. There ain’t no shame in that.”