He\u2019ll defend his WBN championship against Pendarvis<\/a>, a veteran boxer from California who has 52 professional fights on his resume. Pendarvis has a 22-28-2 record, is 39 years old, and has lost 12 consecutive matches, making him the definition of a journeyman. Brown said it really makes him a more dangerous opponent, though.<\/p>\nOnly one of the opponents during Pendarvis\u2019 losing streak has more than two pro losses and eight fights went the distance. Brown said one thing his own long career has taught him is that anybody can beat you if you take them lightly, and he\u2019s not about to do that with Pendarvis. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of people make the mistake of looking at his record and feeling like, \u2018He\u2019s lost half of his fights and I should be able to beat him.\u2019 When you go through his record, I\u2019m looking at his losses and this guy is 10-0. The next guy is 19-2, the next guy is 19-2, 8-0, 14-1, 18-2, 6-0, 7-1, 20-0. He only fights undefeated prospects,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy for somebody to walk in there and think, in theory, this should be easy. I\u2019m going to take him seriously like he\u2019s an imminent threat. There\u2019s nothing more embarrassing than losing in front of your hometown \u2014 and if he wins he walks away with my belt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown and Pendarvis are scheduled for eight rounds and will be the last of between six and 10 bouts on the card at the Vicksburg Convention Center. Doors open at 6 p.m., matches start at 7, and all ages are welcome.<\/p>\n
Terrance Williams, a rising welterweight with an 11-0-1 record, will be in the co-main event against an opponent yet to be announced. Hunter Turbyfill, a Memphis-based featherweight originally from Starkville, will take on Shaileik Paisley in another featured match.<\/p>\n
Brown said fighting in front of a sold-out hometown crowd is something he\u2019s dreamed of since he embarked on his journey nearly 20 years ago. He also hopes it inspires others to follow in his footsteps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most exciting things I\u2019ve ever done. If I do this and win, I can legitimately say I did everything I could. I went hard in this sport, even when the odds were stacked against me. I didn\u2019t know anybody before me that\u2019s ever done this. I would hope the message that gets sent is you can do it too. Even if you don\u2019t have the resources, or you\u2019re from a place where nobody gets known on a national level, I got known on an international level,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\u2019m excited fighting in front of people I went to Warren Central with, all my family members, all the guys that are young and doing MMA right now, it\u2019s going to be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said he wasn\u2019t sure how much longer he\u2019ll be an active fighter. He sits down after each match to evaluate his condition and the potential for bigger matches and paydays. If this is not his farewell, he hopes to squeeze out a couple more years, a couple more wins, and either finish his career as a champion or by fighting one on a big stage. <\/p>\n
\u201c(Flowers) said either we make one more run and you end your career as a beltholder, or somebody else who is an up-and-coming prospect that they\u2019re willing to pay millions of dollars to,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ve got an old guy that should be an easy task for you.\u2019 And even if you lose you\u2019ll go back to Vicksburg as a millionaire. That was the plan, but we\u2019re still playing it by ear.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, putting on a show for a cheering hometown crowd is something that\u2019s hard to put a price on. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I had words for it,\u201d he said. \u201cI was working at Headmasters in Vicksburg, sitting in the shop every day telling them I was going to be a mixed martial arts fighter. After a while people saw I was doing well and started going to the fights. It\u2019s going to be awesome to see those people who were around when I started. So many people are saying when those tickets drop, I\u2019m there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
RIVER CITY KNOCKOUTS <\/p>\n
\u2022 Saturday, July 17, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022 At Vicksburg Convention Center<\/p>\n
\u2022 Tickets available through Ticketmaster.com<\/a>; use the promo code BROWN1<\/p>\n\u2022 Vicksburg native Martin Brown will defend his WBN super middleweight title against Cleotis Pendarvis in the main event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AN OLD MAN\u2019S GAME At an age when most careers are winding down, Brown started anew. He switched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-779142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}