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In his long reign as WEC featherweight champion, Uriah Faber has always walked a dangerous line between brazen confidence and foolhardiness. Against Mike Brown at WEC 36, it finally came back to bite him.

Without a doubt, Faber was on track for another impressive win. His hands were faster than Brown’s. He wasn’t out-muscled in the clinch. But one mistake—a move he might have pulled off in the gym, but never in a title fight—cost him his belt.

It wasn’t the usual sequence of events for MMA. Brown drove in for a takedown but could not get in close enough to cinch Faber’s legs. A subsequent punch flurry drove Faber backwards, and in a move reminiscent of a pro wrestler, he bounced off the cage and offered his right elbow, spinning towards Brown.

Not suckered by the flashy move, Brown made a counter-offer, plastering Faber with a right hand that took the champ off his feet.

Faber rolled to his stomach, where several unanswered punches gave ref Troy Waugh no choice but to stop the fight.

As gracious in defeat as in victory, Faber mouthed apologies to the camera.

“I made a mistake, he capitalized on it,” Faber explained afterwards. “Congratulations to Mike Brown, he deserves it.”

Brown, near tears as the belt was strapped to his waist, thanked his trainers and teammates at American Top Team.

“I don’t have a lot of knockouts on my record, but I hit (expletive) hard, dude,” he said.

With the win, Brown could move on to face Leonard Garcia, who also had an impressive TKO victory on the card.

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