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Disclaimer: Bloody Elbow isn't endorsing street fights nor are the fighters interviewe
Travis Browne is one of the nicest guys in MMA, but like most men on Planet Earth, he has a button, and if you push it, you might just get more than you bargained for. In this edition of Street Fighting Diaries, Travis recounts a couple of his fights from his younger days. There were repercussions, and he's emphatically stated that he bears considerable regret for the incidents and that he'd never repeat them again, no matter how deserved it might be. These days, Travis is more about talking things out and buying the offender a beer.
Back in my college days, things were different. Anywhere we went, I would be fighting somebody. Imagine that [laughs]. We were at a party, and there was a fight breaking out. Girls are getting elbowed in the face by accident, so I told these guys, 'Hey guys, knock it off!' and I'm trying to break it up. Then, this little, munchkin of a kid, probably up to my nipple, comes running across the party, and chest bumps me. He's yelling in my face, 'Don't mess with my friends!' and he was going crazy and swinging, so I ended up picking him up and throwing him through a glass table. My friend was like, 'What the Hell just happened?' I was trying to break up the fight, and he tried to fight me. The smallest dude at the party tried to fight me, but he wouldn't stop, so I ended up putting him through that glass table.His friends tried to jump me, but they ended up getting their faces scraped off on a stucco wall. I never really started any fights, but I finished them.
There was another one when I was 19, and I was playing basketball, pickup games. This was at a place where they would time the games or you would have to score like 15 points, that way you could move through games quickly. So, this guy's holding the ball, cheating, because his team is up by one. He's holding the ball waiting for the clock to run down so they could win. I told him, 'Hey, you have to play, you can't just hold the ball', and he starts yelling at me, so I walked away. He kept talking shit saying 'That's right, you better walk away or I'll beat your ass.' I walked back and said, "OK, keep talking shit and I'll knock you out.' He kept on, and then drew back his fist to hit me, so I hit him once and knocked him out. That one punch ended up breaking his nose and cheekbone, and cost me about 35 grand.
Now I don't know about you, but if I see a guy that's damned near giant proportions, with a hand that looks more like a bear paw than a fist, I'm going to take the path of least resistance, and not mess with that man. All the folks with a Napoleon complex or an alpha dog complex should probably consider this before punching someone much bigger than them.
You can follow Travis via his Twitter, @TravisBrowneMMA
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