Fighter vs. Writer: Matt Brown Reacts to Justin Gaethje’s Shocking Win Over Ilia Topuria, Plus Is it Time for Michael Chandler to Retire?

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**Damon Martin** (1:34)
Welcome back to The Fighter vs. The Writer. I'm Damon Martin. He is UFC legend, Matt Brown. And Matt, we are finally living in a post-UFC White House world. The card went down less than 24 hours ago, actually about less than 12 hours ago at this point, and we are here to talk about that card. Matt, overall impressions? There was so much buzz about this card, so much conversation about this card. Was it a good idea? Was it a bad idea? Was it a disastrous idea?
Doing it outside, the weather became a factor last night. So overall, what did you think of the UFC White House?

**Matt Brown** (2:04)
Man, to put it in one sentence, I had a lot of questions going in, right? As I think everybody did, UFC fucking knocked it out of the park, man.
You can't say enough good things about it. Like it was, I'm not sure it could have went any better. Like, I don't think you could have written it any better. So, it was one of the few times where I felt like it was worth staying up as late as I did, you know? You know, I do wish it could have went a little faster, but the whole time we're watching, like it didn't feel like there was wasted time.
I'll say, okay, my only complaint, and this is just a complaint with the UFC on Paramount in general, which we've talked about, is the ads during the corner, right? I wish what they would do is just add a pay-per-view option. If only, you know, $10, $20, $30, whatever, where you could just not have to see the ads. Because I felt like that completely ruined the vibe every single time it came on. You know, I'm sitting there with a bunch of friends, and I mean, I'm like nitpicking something to complain about here, too, right? Like, it was a fucking tremendous night of fights, but, you know, we're sitting there watching the card and, you know, enjoying the fights, and then, you know, we're talking about it. We're like, oh, what's this corner going to say? Oh, yeah, we don't get to hear.

**Damon Martin** (3:25)
Yeah, that, I mean, that production part is, that's definitely annoying, I'll give you that. We've kind of been complaining about that since day one in Paramount in January when they did the first fight, so I agree there. But yeah, it was ridiculous. Like, it just felt so surreal to, like, watch people walking out from the freaking Oval Office into the cage and, like, being escorted by, you know, first responders and military members and police and stuff, and, like, the Marine band playing covers of a lot of those songs, and I thought it was one of the coolest parts of the whole night. Like, they did a, I said on Twitter, I said they did a cover of the Topps drop song that Derrick Lewis always walks out to, and it was, like, the Marine, like, cover version. It was so ridiculous, but, like, awesome in the best way possible. But I said before the show, we did a little, like, roundtable article, and basically, you know, what is best-case scenario for the UFC at the White House? And I said, seven fights, seven finishes, and one barn burner to steal the show, and that would be, like, the ultimate outcome. And that's exactly what we got. We got seven fights, seven finishes, and then Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje put on one of the greatest back-and-forth battles I can remember in recent history. I mean, you could not have written a better script in terms of, like, how this plays out. Is it better? You know, are there times where you kind of wish you had some more, you know, back-and-forth in the fights? Sure, but they all had finishes, so you really can't complain. Like, you know, if it goes out there and it's a three-round, you know, boring, you know, grapple fast or a three-round back-and-forth fight but it didn't really go anywhere, that to me is sometimes more disappointing. But every single fight ended in a finish and quite dramatic finishes at that. And then to have that main event was just ridiculous. So, yeah, I mean, outside of one comment, which is Josh Hoke being a fucking idiot, I'm not gonna justify responding to what he says. I mean, the guy's a moron, okay? The guy's an absolute moron. Outside of that, I mean, it felt like a huge event.