I want to let you in on a secret...

Actually it's not a secret. Or at least it shouldn't be. But it seems like everyone is in on the joke except the people we're laughing at. If you're over two hundred and five pounds and a mixed martial arts fighter, this will change your life. If you're not, go and find the nearest 205+ fighter and whisper it in his ear—it should entitle you to hugs for life.

Are you ready?

Cardio is king. Or to be more accurate, durability. You can run a marathon or do two hours hard work on the stair-master, but imagine if someone socked you in the nose halfway through. It would throw your stair-master game right off.

You've heard it before and you'll hear it again. From your high school basketball coach, from your secondary school footie coach, at times from your significant other (“ooh-err, missus.”): last longer and it doesn't matter how bad you are at the technical stuff, you'll still be there when the other guy is done.

Not much of a secret, right? But watch a mid tier heavyweight MMA match, then reconsider your view. Everyone but the truly elite either gasses out, or emotionally and mentally collapses like a flan in a cupboard when they get hit hard, or can't get the fight done early enough.

The Old New Breed

You remember the new breed? The Shane Carwins and Brock Lesnars? 240 pound heavyweights were done. How did that work out? Shane Carwin's gas tank folded immediately upon entering the second round in his only two fights which got that far, and Lesnar suffered from the same emotional collapse that Gabriel Gonzaga, Bob Sapp and so many other big men do when they get hit by another man within 30lbs of their weight.

No, the real next generation of the heavyweight division isn't going to be 300lbs monsters. It's going to be, as always, the averagely sized heavyweights who can actually last three rounds and can come from behind when their opponents slow down. New breed? No, the same sized fighters but in a different year and with better training and financial prospects than Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko had in their primes.

Just as in the heyday of PRIDE, we have a couple of guys at the top of the heavyweight heap, and a load who don't even look close. The division is sparse on talent (as it always has been), and the only entertaining narrative of recent years—the rivalry between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez—has been squandered in a rushed trilogy where there could have been a good few years of drama on the go (not to mention time for both men to improve between meetings).

Who can save this stagnant division of dearth? Well maybe, just maybe, Travis Browne.

The Patient Wild Man

Travis Browne is absolutely a man who can outlast an opponent. Despite his 6'7 frame, Browne has shown durability and grit which is simply priceless in his weight class. Against Alistair Overeem, Browne was manhandled for the opening two minutes.

Pushed to the fence under salvoes of punches, dropped with knees to the body and severely winded while effectively out on his feet for the early going, Browne looked to be circling the drain. Moments later, Alistair Overeem was flat on his back and Browne was declared the winner.

Was it Travis Browne's plan to weather the storm? Perhaps, but no fighter would deliberately put themselves through that kind of a thrashing. He looked on the brink of destruction for 95% of the total fight time. But the ability which he showed to recover under fire and capitalize on an opponent's over-aggression was priceless.

Browne also showed the ruthless exploitative streak that I love to see in any fighter. By that I mean, he landed a glancing front kick to the face, then he missed one, but Overeem didn't do anything about it, so he threw it again. Overeem didn't make him pay, and after four or five, one stuck and knocked Overeem out cold.

As with anything in the fight world, there are multiple schools of thought and conflicting principles on this. Most coaches would agree that showing the same strategy several times in a row, without leaving it and coming back to it later, is not a great idea. But equally, most coaches would encourage that ruthlessly exploitative attitude which I remarked upon. Opponent not doing anything to stop you? Keep doing it.

To recall Ricky Hatton talking about his favourite clinch uppercut, learned from Roberto Duran: it isn't real scientific, but if the other guy isn't going to stop you why not just do it again?

Losing Consciousness as a Formative Experience

Travis Browne, like any great natural talent in MMA, came up wrecking guys who were nowhere close to his level. Outside of the big leagues, MMA is a mess. Look at some of the guys whom Jon Jones or Travis Browne crushed before they had their names. You can only feel sorry for them when you see how Browne and Jones' careers have progressed.

In his early days, Browne could afford to be the wild man. He could afford to be the 6'7 heavyweight with the tasty high kicks and spinning sh*t. He was fighting part timers who had no idea what to do with him. Flying knees, superman punches, these were all common features.

Somewhere along the road, Browne started to sharpen up. He can still be reckless, look at Browne's bout with Gabriel Gonzaga. He opens with a rear leg roundhouse kick to the dome with no set up.

It didn't come up tight and turn over like a Brazilian kick either, it was a rooooundhouse kick. It shot over Gonzaga's head and Gonzaga was in looking for the takedown. Here's a wicked gif of Hayato Sakurai ducking under a kick in similar circumstances tenuously linked in because it's awesome. Against someone who is looking to take you down and is at least competent, you can't start the fight by doing half their job for them.

But Browne got away with it, and he put Gonzaga away with the “hellbows” we'll talk about in a moment.

Perhaps the most important formative experience for Browne in the cage, though, was his bout with Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva.

I've had to say this phrase far too many times, but folks are still doing it:

You cannot play silly beggars with a 300lbs gentleman who has cinder blocks for fists.