Randy
Brown couldn’t have drawn up a better finish than the one he
authored at
UFC Fight Night 235.
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“Rude Boy” followed a double jab with a picture-perfect right hand,
flooring Muslim
Salikhov and earning a knockout victory 3:17 into Round 1 of
their welterweight clash at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday
night.
“One hitter quitter on a striker like that, it means a lot,” Brown
said in a backstage interview with the UFC. “He’s a accomplished so much,
and I have so much respect for him, it means a lot. It means a lot
to go in and perform and finally show the things I’m capable
of.”
While the fight could have easily been halted once Salikhov crashed
to the canvas, referee Kerry Hatley hesitated at first. The forced
Brown to seal his victory with one mostly unnecessary
standing-to-ground punch.
“I didn’t want to hit him again. I really didn’t,” Brown said. “I
was like, ‘What is this ref doing?’ The ref was unsure, so I had to
do it.”
Brown has quietly been victorious in six of seven Octagon
appearances since 2021, but he’s still looking for that signature
victory to make him a staple among top contenders at 170
pounds.
“It’s breaking into the Top 10 and working my way up, continuing to
put on great performances. I know where i’m headed,” he said. “I’m
not saying it just to say that. I know what I do in the gym, I know
my ability. It’s a matter of showing the rest of the world what we
already know.”
Brown believes a matchup against the likes of Neil Magny or
Michael
Chiesa would be ideal for his next outing.
“For me, I take it one step at a time,” he said. “… I think I go
out there and put on another dominant performances against one of
those guys and we keep pushing forward.”
Brown was especially vocal about a potential showdown with Chiesa,
who is on a three-bout skid in the Las Vegas-based promotion. “The
Ultimate Fighter 15” winner last appeared at UFC 291, where he
suffered a first-round submission defeat to Kevin
Holland this past July.
“The thing about Chiesa, we agreed to fight multiple times, we’ve
had multiple conversations and it just never came to fruition,”
Brown said. “I think that you have to be able to fight and protect
your ranking. You can’t sit on what you’ve done in the past. You
have to show up and prove when there’s contenders coming up.
“If I’m in the rankings, I expect to be active and fight who’s
there. I can’t just sit on it and just be there and everyone that
wants to get a chance to come in the rankings can’t because there’s
guys that just don’t fight and they sit on their rankings. I don’t
know how he’s been in there so long without fighting. I’m like,
‘Bro, fight somebody.’ And I think I’m the guy to fight.”