UFC welterweight Matt Brown’s fight with drug addiction is well known to MMA fans.

In the throes of an addiction to heroin, Brown was pronounced clinically dead for one minute before being revived. Then he fell into a dependency on pain pills before finding sobriety and a successful career in MMA.

By all indications, Brown (23-16 MMA, 14-10 UFC) should be the last person to take a pain pill. But as he recovers from an ACL injury that scratched a fight at UFC on FOX 29, he claims he’s got a different relationship with drugs than earlier in his life.

“I’m disciplined enough, and I train enough that I could take the pain pills and be perfectly fine and not get addicted,” Brown told MMAjunkie Radio.

Brown acknowledges that every person’s relationship with drugs is different, and he doesn’t mean to advocate for any particular way of going about recovery. His journey has led him to shun substances not out of fear of relapse, but out of a concern over their effect on his body.

“I did have to take (pain pills) when I got surgery on my hand not too long ago,” Brown said. “… The point is, I’m mature enough and strong-willed enough now that I can take pain pills and not be addicted, but I choose not to more for the health reasons.

“I think there’s a lot of unintended consequences to these things we take, and I’m sure there’s a ton of unintended consequences even just for surgeries. The long-term health is really more important to me than the short-term, because I know in the short-term, I wouldn’t be addicted. I could take the whole bottle, and I’d be fine.”

Brown said his energy is directed toward positive activities while he recovers from his injury. He’s started a website and is preparing to blog about his life experiences. He’s also contemplating writing a book and has various business ventures he pursues.

After losing a second planned fight with Carlos Condit (30-12 MMA, 7-8 UFC), Brown hasn’t given up on a meeting with the ex-interim champ. But first, he’s got to heal up.

Surgery helped put his knee back together, but the rest, he’ll go about his own way.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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