Matt Brown hints at retirement if he gets Jim Miller at UFC 300: ‘There’s a good chance that could be my last fight’

Matt Brown couldn’t imagine a better scenario than fighting Jim Miller at UFC 300 in the final appearance of his career.

As he awaits word from UFC matchmakers, the 43-fight veteran with the most knockouts in UFC welterweight history hopes that he’ll get the call to compete at the historic event on April 13. Miller specifically asked for Brown as an opponent following his win over Gabriel Benitez this past Saturday night.

Now Brown has answered the challenge with a resounding yes — and is revealing that he’s already contemplating that night for his retirement.

“It would be an honor,” Brown said on the newest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I love Jim Miller. Much respect for him. The only downside is he is a [155-pounder] so he’d be coming up to my weight class. If anything, it would be an advantage for him because he wouldn’t be cutting weight and I would, so it would be a little advantageous [for him]. But he would be the smaller guy. That would take a little bit away from it.

“But the fact is, I’m at the tail end of my career. I get on [UFC] 300, there’s a good chance that could be my last fight.”

Brown has hinted at retirement in the past, particularly after he bludgeoned Diego Sanchez with an elbow for a highlight-reel knockout back in 2017. At the time, Brown was dealing with a divorce, which had him thinking that it might be time to hang up his gloves for good.

Two years later, however, Brown returned to action — and he’s continued to add to his UFC résumé with three more knockouts, including his most recent win over Court McGee this past May.

That being said, Brown explained why retiring now would feel much different than seven years ago, and it all comes down to parenthood.

“I’d say a pretty good chance, to be honest [that it’s my final fight],” Brown said. “Just life isn’t what it used to be. The kids are growing up. I miss so many things of theirs for training. It’s kind of to that point now, where my son’s in wrestling season right now and I don’t want to be missing his wrestling matches, because I’ve got to go train. I want to go to his wrestling matches. On top of that, I’ve got so many up-and-coming fighters that just aren’t really getting any attention from me. I’ve got some f****** killers, some guys you’re going to see in the UFC soon, and I can’t really help them out a whole lot.

“I’ve just got a lot of other things going on. I’ve kind of lost my passion for fighting, but I feel like life is taking me down a different road right now. It’s just a different season of my life.”

Brown actually sat out for the second half of 2023 largely because he didn’t want to miss out on spending time with his kids once they were back in school and their extracurricular activities picked up again.

With twin teenage sons, and a daughter not far behind them in age, Brown prefers to put more focus into their futures rather than spending more time on his fighting career.

“They’re at that age where they’re going to remember if I was there,” Brown said. “Like, my boys being 13, my daughter’s eight — of course they’ll remember when they were younger, too, but they’re at that age now if my son goes and wins a wrestling match and my other son, he’s a huge golfer, he goes and wins a golf match, they’re going to remember that I was standing there watching and took pictures at the podium. They’re going to remember if I wasn’t [there] also.

“Of course those memories of going to UFC 300, they get to come out there, and they’ll remember that too, but I’d rather them remember me being at their match than them being at my match.”

Since the day he arrived in the promotion by way of The Ultimate Fighter, Brown never handpicked opponents, much less turned down fights offered to him.

That won’t change this time around either, although the Ohio native knows he couldn’t really fathom a much better ending than going out in a fight against somebody like Miller at a monumental card such as UFC 300.

“There’s no anger, there’s no beef there or anything like that,” Brown said. “It’s just me and him saying we’re f****** killers that want to fight killers, and this works out really well. This matches up well. I think it’s a good promotion for 300, I think it’s a good fight for 300. It’s an easy job for the matchmakers. We’re both already into it. What more is there to say? Let’s do it.

“I think we’re both deserving of it. I think we’re both deserving of that card. What else can I say? That’s a fun place for us to be and it brings a good fight to the card. I say either open the main [card] or close the prelims, which, I’d be fine to close the prelims too. There’s going to be a lot of people watching those, and especially with our names closing out the prelims, I think there’d be a lot more people watching. I’d be stoked.”

If he gets the matchup he wants at UFC 300, Brown will still have to ultimately decide if that will be the night he retires, but right now it’s trending in that direction.

“This might be it,” Brown said. “It would be an honor to go out and fight a guy like Jim Miller to end it all.”

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