FanHouse JunieBrowning

Former UFC lightweight Junie Browning spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday, exactly one week after he reportedly consumed 16 pills of the anti-anxiety medication Klonopin in an attempt to overdose and allegedly assaulting three nurses when treated at the St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, Nev.

UFC Twitter universe had questions this weekend about the state of the UFC welterweight division after Mike Swick pulled out of UFC 103 with a concussion, about the reasons for referee Big John McCarthy staying out of the Octagon, and about a couple of UFC lightweights, Gray Maynard and Junie Browning.

Your questions and my answers in our latest UFC Twitter mailbag are below.

The UFC 100 heavyweight title fight between Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar is going to be a war of words before it becomes a war in the cage, and Mir has just leveled what he no doubt views as a serious insult of Lesnar, comparing his opponent to Ultimate Fighter bad boy Junie Browning. Video below.

Junie Browning became a big name in the UFC by playing the role of bad boy on the reality show The Ultimate Fighter. But is Browning a legitimate fighter, or just a guy who got 15 minutes of fame on a reality show?

Based on how Browning looked Wednesday night in his UFC Fight Night 18 bout against Cole Miller, it appears that he's more reality star than fighter.

The much more experienced Miller had no trouble at all beating Browning, looking better than Browning on his feet and then catching him in a guillotine choke on the ground and forcing him to tap out in the first round. Standing over the fallen Browning, Miller asked, "Who's overrated now?" -- an allusion to pre-fight trash talk between the two fighters.

Cole Miller	vs.	Junie Browning
Magrinho	Nickname	The Fury
14-3	Record	3-0
No. 80 lightweight	Rank	NA
3-1	(T)KO Record	1-0
9-0	Sub. Record	2-0
2-2	Dec. Record	0-0
W-1	Streak	W-3
156	Weight	156
6-1	Height	5-9
24	Age	24
American Top Team	Camp	Xtreme Couture
Augusta, Georgia	Hometown	Lexington, Kentucky

Ultimate Fighter bad boy Junie Browning will get his biggest test to date against Cole Miller at UFC Fight Night 18 Wednesday in Nashville. The full preview is below.

Junie Browning was the most hated man on The Ultimate Fighter last year, a guy who seemed more eager to fight in the reality show's Las Vegas house than in the Octagon.

But now that Browning is off The Ultimate Fighter and in the UFC, is he a changed man? When I interviewed him on Wednesday, he told me that when he's not in the cage, he'd rather run away from a fight that get into one, and that he's been training hard for his upcoming UFC Fight Night appearance against Cole Miller (April 1 on Spike). The full interview is below.

Cole Miller is getting ready to fight on a big stage.

When Miller takes on Junie Browning at the UFC Fight Night on April 1 on Spike, Miller will be on national television, and he'll have a whole lot of fans rooting for him -- mostly because they want to root against Browning. Browning is well known to UFC fans because of his role as the bad boy on the last season of The Ultimate Fighter, and Miller says he expects to show that for all of Browning's bravado, he doesn't have the skills of an elite mixed martial artist.

Miller talked to me in an interview Monday about the upcoming fight with Browning, about his own experience on The Ultimate Fighter in 2007, about his thoughts on the UFC's pay scale and about his recent trip to Japan with his brother, also an MMA fighter. The full interview is below.

Four months after winning the light heavyweight tournament on the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter, Ryan Bader is preparing to get back to the Octagon with a fight against Carmelo Marrero at the UFC Fight Night on April 1. And while Bader says he expects Marrero to give him a tough test, he has goals that go far beyond just winning this fight.

In an interview Tuesday, Bader told me he has big goals for himself in the UFC, and he expects to win a title belt some day. He also talked about beating Vinny Magalhaes the last time he stepped into the Octagon, training with FOX's Jay Glazer, and what it was like living with his controversial Ultimate Fighter housemate, Junie Browning. The full interview is below.

Shawn Tompkins, the head coach at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, took Junie Browning under his wing after Browning's stint on The Ultimate Fighter ended. Tompkins talks about his training of Browning:

"Junie's like a son to me," Tompkins said. "I moved him into my house. That was one of the conditions, I will train him but he had to live with me. It's been two great months. He never missed a training session."

I would have to say that moving Junie Browning into my house is just about the last thing I would want to do, but I admire Tompkins' coaching: Browning whipped Dave Kaplan on Saturday night and looked like he had significantly improved as a striker. Tompkins' methods worked.

Giving some more thought to the way things turned out at Saturday night's Ultimate Fighter Finale, I have to think that UFC President Dana White is laughing all the way to the bank about the way things played out.

Specifically, White has to think that he has three new lightweight stars under the age of 25: This year's lightweight Ultimate Fighter, Efrain Escudero, and the guys Escudero beat in the semifinals and finals, Junie Browning and Phillipe Nover.

The Escudero-Nover fight in the Finale was outstanding, and it was close to even. Check out the stats at CompuStrike.com: Escudero and Nover landed almost the exact same number of strikes, with Escudero doing enough in the first two rounds to earn the unanimous decision despite a great third round from Nover.