Travis Browne Welcomes The Idea Of Alistair Overeem Training At Jackson’s MMA

UFC heavyweight Travis Browne stands on the verge of the biggest fight of his exciting career so far; a UFC on Fox 11 title eliminator against submission machine Fabricio Werdum. ‘Hapa’ has battled his way back since his first round TKO loss to Antonio Silva in 2012, scoring knockout wins over Gabriel Gonzaga, Josh Barnett and Alistair Overeem.

As news emerged recently that Reem may be joining Jackson’s MMA, it appears that the two may end up helping each other for future battles in the cage. The irony is not lost on Browne as he speaks with MMAJunkie.com, but the Hawaiian slugger welcomes the idea also:

“I actually embrace the idea. When you have top athletes that are in the same weight class, sometimes they can butt heads, but the way I look at it is iron sharpening iron. If the stars ever align again and he and I meet in the cage, then it will be an even better fight than it was last time.”

Jackson’s camp had a notorious feud take place in the lead up to two of their stars meeting in the cage, and that didn’t end up too well for one party. Rashad Evans ended up changing to the Blackzillians after his beef with training partner Jon Jones went public, only to lose an extremely lop-sided decision when the two eventually met at UFC 145. Browne continued:

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“If you personally don’t get along with somebody, that doesn’t mean they can’t help you professionally,” Browne said. “I’ve personally never had any issues with Overeem, and professionally, I’ve never had any issues with him. For me, what would concern me is if we had a professional beef. But there hasn’t been any of the sort, so we’ll just be here to push each other to be the best in the world.”

“I don’t have a problem with inviting other heavyweights in,” Browne said. “If they train hard in the gym and they work their way up to fight me or I work my way up to fight them, then it is what it is. This is our job; this is what we do. We train every day for free by punching each other in the face and killing each other in the gym, so why not earn a decent paycheck doing it?”

Many big fights in the past have been hindered by the ‘training partner’ factor; Daniel Cormier switched divisions to avoid having to fight bff Cain Velasquez, and Rory MacDonald refused to fight super-friend Georges St-Pierre while ‘Rush’ was still champion. I suppose the difference here is that Overeem and Browne have already fought before.

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Moving to Jackson-Winklejohn has helped many fighters in the past, as the gym is often accredited as the most successful in modern MMA. Will Greg Jackson’s holistic approach be exactly what Overeem needs to get to a title shot? If so, it may well be Travis Browne that stands across the cage from him.