Matt Hughes Retiring Win or Lose?
Posted by Kris Karkoski on May 22, 2009 at 9:41 am ET25 Comments
According to Stephan Bonnar on the latest installment of ESPN’s MMA Live, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes will retire following his UFC 98 bout tomorrow against rival Matt Serra whether he wins or loses.
“I have heard it from Matt Hughes mouth that this will be his last fight win or lose.”
The comment has fueled speculation that if Hughes follows through with the promise and does indeed retire, he’s likely to be one of two new inductees to join the UFC Hall of Fame in July.
(HT: Watch Kalib Run)
[Pictured: Matt Hughes]
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Doesn’t make sense, just heard Hughes on the countdown talking about how he’d like an Alves rematch in the future. Plus at the press conference, I heard no signs of this being his last match. I guess we’ll see what happens……….
I have a hard time believing Hughes will actually follow through with retiring. He seems like one of those fighters that will have to be told he’s had enough… kinda like Liddel. Competitive to a dangerous and destructive level… and that is a lot of the reason he will be a hall of famer!
I don’t know, about Hughes trying to compete beyond his ability, he has said before that he only competes when he thinks he can win, and if he doesn’t think he can win, there’s no point in trying to compete. Of course… he could continue to think he can win beyond when he actually can.
You hit the nail on the head there Justin. I think you’re right, he’ll quit when he thinks he can’t win. But he’ll have to be in a wheelchair or something before he believes he can’t!
It’s makes sense given who he is fighting, Matt Serra, one of the last significant guys of his era Hughes has yet to face. Of the young guns out there Hughes has only fought Alves, and we all saw what happened there. To his credit, though, it was unfair to Hughes that Alves came in so big.
Nevertheless, Hughes would be wise to avoid the legion of youngsters (Fitch, Kos, Alves, Swick, etc) who could tarnish his Hall of Fame record. Serra, though, he has at least a fair chance of beating and going out with a win. Since Serra may be the last guy in a long time to take out GSP, Hughes can consider him a good scalp and retire on a high note.
That said, I favor Serra to pull off the W. He just has more tools.
Serra has more tools?
Is this statement coming because serra tko’d gsp? I swear dude, after serra tko’d gsp (or imo got lucky), his “stand up” has been greatly overrated. Hell, he’s been overall overrated. Yes he was technically the “champ”, but that didn’t last long..and there’s a reason for that. Serra’s stand up is average just like hughes’s stand up. Serra has the advantage simply cuz he’s more comfortable standing then hughes is and because he has “heavy hands”. Other than his “heavy hands” serra’s got some good jitz and that’s it!
Hughes has won 9 title fights for a reason dude. He’s an awesome wrestler, his jitz is just as good as serra’s and hughe’s ground game is just overall better. Standing, he’s whatever but overall, Besides everything i just said about hughes, his experience and overall atheltisicm makes hughes a better fighter than serra and the favorite to win this match…like by far!
As for hughes retiring, it’s just like with lidell; we understand and admire your desire to compete and to keep going, but the guys in both divisions are simply too much for hughes and lidell to handle. Hughes will never reach the top again and i don’t think he can beat a top ww contender. He’s just past his prime and after he beats serra he shold just retire on top.
Hughes by tko or sub in the 2nd
What the?????
Jazzok
I cant believe it I agree with you again.!!
Dang’it!!!!
But I think Matt Hughes will retire if he loses..Because he would be tooo embarresed by losing again and his pride wont let him do that. He thinks so high of himself and wants to be seen and heard so losing again {after serra} would take that away from him. So I think he will retire…..
Wat up Onlytrue1
Guess the durty south and the westcoast aren’t so different!
What??? I thought you were from kansas Dorothy!!!
Just joking playboy!
Sooo your rooting for Hughes I take it??
yeah dude i can’t stand serra. who’s your pick dude?
I believe hughes will take it and beat him for 3 rds soundly.
I think early Serra will daze hughes but hughes will recover and “dry hump” Serra to UD.
I dont like hughes at alllllllll but I give him props for what he has done.
I love your point about the young fighters. I think the new crop of guys has surpassed the old guard of just 2 years ago. I believe MMA is in the begining of a revolution of sport. 5 years from now a new, more advanced group of fighters will be 10x the fighter we see today.
God, I hope Serra beats this guy.
Exactly!!!
He’s had a great run. If he beats Serra he’ll problably want another fight. If he fights after the Serra fight, i think he’ll wait and see how it goes, if he continues to win he’ll want to kepp fighting, but i think it’s gonna be another case where he’s gonna have to lose a few fights like his buddy Pulver to realize it’s time to hang it up.
I love Hughes so i wouldn’t mind him fighting still, but only if he can still hang with the young guys, becausee to be fair Alves came in like a Middleweight vs a Welterwight in their fight.
come on guys alves was 4 pounds over the weigh-in limit. so he weighed 175. 175 versus a guy who is 170, not that huge of a difference. plus a lot of guys rehydrate and eat after they weigh-in and gain 10-15 pounds for the fight. its not that big of a deal to be 4 pounds over when you weigh-in, dont act like that was the reason hughes lost. he lost because alves is the better fighter. I know weighing over your weight class limit is illegal, but those 4 pounds were not the reason hughes lost.
That my friend is the truest thing I have heard all day…
Did you really hear the words on the screen?
I just don’t see Hughes retiring after this fight. For some reason, I see this guy like Brett Farve of the NFL. They just can’t leave the sport! C’mon Serra!!!
I think he would have won anyway, but when was the last time that Hughes looked small in a fight. GSP (a very big WW) never made him anywhere near as small as Alves did, so I think those 4 pounds (the hardest to drop) did help Hughes’ cause.
Watched the fight again recently. Hughes won the first round. He managed to get Alves down and blanket him for the majority of the round. Didn’t help when that knee came.
Hughes has the worst stand-up (offensively and defensively) of any top WW ever. A great striker with TD defense will always expose him.
I honestly cant believe he reigned as WW Champ that long, with the stand up he has. Really!!!
But I give credit where it is due, he did!!
I do not, do not, do not like matt huges at all but Serra has really gotten on my nerve especially when he fought GSP man was that dude aggravting!!!!
So I really dont care who wins, I’m hoping Sera wins on one end so hughes has no say so and will be embarrassed butttt on the other end Sera will never shout up if he beats hughes soooo here a beer for everyone in hopes that they both some how KO each other at the same time!!!
I AGREE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!!!!
I can definitely see Hughes & Liddell being inducted at UFC 100. That being said, he also has the HIT Squad, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him migrate into coaching & management.
Every fighter wants to fight beyond their prime, especially those fighters who have had great careers. They don’t want the ride to end.
This could be the best way for Matt Hughes to go out. If he beats Serra, at least he’s beating his biggest “Nemesis” ever in the octagon, why not go out on that?
If Alves loses to St. Pierre and Hughes beats Serra, it’s possible for a rematch, Hughes said he wants another fight with ALves anyway.
I don’t think he should fight more than 2 or 3 more times. It also depends on who he fights, i still think that Hughes can hang and beat some of the young contenders, he just has to really maitain his conditioning and focus and better his standup as much as possible because he aion’t getting any younger.
I think he has a few fights left, but we should wait and see how he does tomorrow to make a better evaluation of whether or not he should retire, I would like to see him fight Alves again though, some people say that Alves being 4 or 5 pounds heavier didn’t make a difference in their fight, but i disagree, what if Alves would have cut those pounds, i know it’s not a lot, but it could have taken away some of his energy, who knows, but i do think it would have been different if he did cut to 170 rather than looking like a 185 pounder coming in to the fight borderline 200 pounder.
My personal advice, Hughes beats Matt Serra, he goes out on top beating the fighter he hates the most and regains some of his “badness” and plain and simple just go out on top Hughes.
yah he definitely needs to hang it up!!!! i dont care for him but since hes going to retire i would like to see him beat matt serra for his last fight!!!
I think it’s funny how Matt Serra has approached voicing his opinions about Hughes, it’s like he said “I think you’re a jerk, so I’m going to make myself look like a jerk by calling you names a lot which all pretty much relate back to calling you a jerk.”