Morning Report: Matt Brown discredits Conor McGregor's boxing, doesn't think Tyron Woodley deserves a title shot

'The Immortal' has spoken.

Conor McGregor is the bright burning star around which the MMA world orbits. Since his withdrawal from UFC 200 barely a day has gone by without McGregor stirring up new talking points and last week that talking point came in the form of rumors that McGregor was in talks to box Floyd Mayweather. Though Dana White quickly shot the rumor down, that hasn't stopped rampant speculation about how such a thing could come to pass and, as with all things McGregor, other professional fighters were asked to comment on the situation.

Matt Brown was one of those fighters. This week, Brown went on SiriusXM Fight Club and spoke with Steve Cofield about Tyron Woodley's title shot, his upcoming fight with Maia, and McGregor's chances against Mayweather.

"[Conor McGregor] will never beat Mayweather in his life at boxing. He could train for his whole life, I mean there's guys like Canelo or Pacquiao - guys who have trained their entire life only boxing - they're some of the best boxers in the world and didn't come close to beating Mayweather.

"McGregor's not even that good of a boxer. I don't know why people would even think that this fight should be made. It's insane to me because he's not even really a good boxer. You have to be an insanely good boxer to even hang with Mayweather. I think it's kind of disrespectful to Mayweather. You know it's just a lot of talk ... the two of them just want to stay in the news and be relevant still. Maybe if they do make it it's for a money thing. It's not really an interesting fight by any means."

If the sole purpose of the rumor was for publicity it has worked phenomenally well; as evidenced by Brown being asked to offer an opinion on it at all so close to his own fight which is actually happening soon, is significantly more competitive, and is far more relevant from a sporting stand point. Brown fights Demian Maia this Saturday in a clash of ranked welterweights, possibly setting up the winner for a title eliminator later this summer.

But only possibly. The winner of the Stephen Thompson-Rory MacDonald fight taking place in mid-June will also have an excellent argument for being made the number one contender as would Carlos Condit who lost a disputed split decision to the current champion Robbie Lawler in January. How it all shakes out is yet to be determined because of the current backlog of viable title contenders in the welterweight division, a backlog created in part because Tyron Woodley is set to face the champion Robbie Lawler at UFC 201, something which Brown also commented on.

"If you're not in there being active you should drop in the rankings. You should. That's the natural course of things. I dropped two or three spots in the rankings and I can't complain about that. It's not the wrong thing to happen. Why should I be over someone that's been fighting? I think Ty Woodley is a perfect example. Somehow he's getting this title shot and completely undeservedly so. There's no reason whatsoever when you've been inactive for that long."

Though it is mostly not his fault, Woodley will be out of the cage for 18 months by the time he steps in to face Robbie Lawler. Woodley's last fight was a split decision victory of Kelvin Gastelum last January. He was scheduled to face Johny Hendricks in a title eliminator bout in October but Hendricks was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a bad weight cut, causing Dana White to give Woodley the title shot by default. Since then Woodley's ranking has remained firmly in the top five. Over roughly that same period of time Brown has seen his ranking drop as Maia and Neil Magny put together excellent win streaks and surged past him in the rankings.

But Matthew Burton Brown is not one to wallow in self pity. Dating all the way back to his Ultimate Fighter days Brown has carried with him a reputation as a hard-working, rugged man and now is no different. He remains focused on the task at hand which is to work his way towards a title shot. To do so he'll have to go through Maia, a fighter he admits is the "worst match-up" for him in the division. However, Brown is confident he can beat Maia and because of his time away from the octagon this past year and his attitude.

"What happens in your life is just all about how you take it. I turn it all into positivity and I believe I'm gonna come back this Saturday and be the best Matt Brown you've ever seen and that's because I took this time and used it positively."

Matt Brown fights Demian Maia in the headliner of the Fox Sports 1 prelims for UFC 198 this Saturday.

The excerpt discussing McGregor can be listened to below.

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