Frank Mir believes he knows the error Travis Browne made against Derrick Lewis.
As a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight title holder and former World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) color commentator, Mir knows a thing or two about breaking down fights.
He put on his analyst hat to give his take on what went wrong for Browne in his match-up with Lewis this past Sunday night (Feb. 19). “Hapa” was knocked out by “The Black Beast” in the second round.
Mir told the hosts of MMAJunkie Radio that it comes down to technique:
“Technique overall just beats strength and abilities, but at that moment Travis made a technical mistake. He was keeping Derrick at the end of the kicks and he decided to throw a low kick with no punches, nothing in front of it and it allowed Derrick Lewis to throw a right hand. He nailed him with a punch when he was throwing a kick and that was kind of the first shot that really started turning the tide of the fight. That’s a technical thing to do, you see it all the time in MMA. Derrick Lewis might not have been as technical or as well-rounded as Travis, but it’s not absolute. It’s not you don’t know anything or you do know everything. It’s a sliding scale.”
With the loss, Browne finds himself on a three-fight skid. He has suffered defeat at the hands of Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum, and now Lewis. It’s also the first time Browne has lost to an opponent who has never won a title for a major promotion. Antonio Silva, who defeated Browne back in Oct. 2012, was an EliteXC heavyweight title holder.
That certainly isn’t to say Lewis can’t become a UFC champion.
“The Black Beast” is now on a six-fight winning streak. Lewis has beaten the likes of Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson, and now “Hapa” in this current stretch. He moved up one spot to the seventh position on the UFC heavyweight rankings.
You can listen to Mir’s full assessment of the fight below:
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