(Your problem now, Indiana.)

Well, this is probably a bad sign.  Just a week after being fired from the UFC for an assault arrest following what may or may not have been a suicide attempt, Junie Allen Browning is wasting no time getting back into action. The mercurial lightweight reportedly has a bout set for November 28 at MMA Big Show: Onslaught at the Belterra Casino in Florence, Indiana.  Browning will be taking on 1-0 Ohio-based fighter Scott Cornwell, and he’ll be doing it just across the state line from his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky.

According to MMA Big Show owner/promoter Jason Appleton, who wrote the website article in which he quoted himself, “’I’ve seen Junie fight in Louisville, KY back in the day as an amateur and he always put on a hell of a show. Him and his brother were always fun to watch,’ explains Jason Appleton.”

Yep, we’re just going to act like nothing unusual at all is going on here.  That always works out for the best.



Normally, we’d be all for a recently cut fighter jumping right back into the cage in a small, regional event.  It’s better than moping around the house, playing “UFC Undisputed” and sobbing into the couch cushions.  But Browning got cut because he clearly has some psychological issues to work through.  If it was possible to work through those issues by fighting people, he’d probably be in perfect mental health right now. 

Not only does this seem like he’s rushing into a fight in order to avoid dealing with what just happened, it also seems like he’s setting himself up for disaster by returning to the scene of his troubled upbringing.  Remember how the Browning brothers went about repping Lexington to the nation?  Whatever environment helped to shape those two is the exact wrong environment for him to return to at this tumultuous time in his life.  As anybody who has watched “Intervention” already knows, the one thing you can’t do is go back home and resume your old life if you hope to keep your life together. 

We realize Junie probably needs a paycheck and the temporary affirmation of a screaming/drunk crowd right now, but let’s hope he stays on the Indiana side of the border and comes back to Vegas in time to catch his Monday morning therapy session.  Otherwise, this is just a disaster waiting to happen.