Former UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes, previously targeted for a February return, says his next fight is now likely to take place on April 10, with a location and opponent to-be-finalized.
“I have a possible date for my next fight, they tell me that it is April 10th,” Hughes today wrote on his official website. “I’ll tell you later who and where when I find out for sure if it is confirmed.”
The event, expected to be UFC 112, could be headlined by UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort.
Hughes (43-7) rebounded from back-to-back losses to Georges St-Pierre and Thiago Alves with a unanimous decision win over rival Matt Serra in May. Hughes is just 2-3 in his last 5 bouts inside the Octagon after going 12-1 since re-joining the UFC in 2001.
Hughes was rumored as a potential opponent for Renzo Gracie’s UFC debut, but Gracie will instead debut against another opponent, though the pair could still meet down the road.
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*Yawn.
All I hear is crickets.
Some guys just don’t know when to hang em up.
I just don’t understand how anyone can get excited over this. Not even a Matt Hughes fan. All 3 of you out there. =)
Matt Hughes isn’t that old, his problem is and always has been that he is one dimensional and now there are young guys who are more well rounded and that is why he has been having trouble because he’s not the strongest guy out there anymore and his wrestling gets neutralized by guys with sick striking and takedown defense.
Matt Hughes is still a big draw and can still beat some top 170 Fighters like Josh Koscheck,Anthony Johnson and even Mike Swick. Hughes is still a smart fighter with a lot of experience.
Although his prime is far behind him he still has earned the right to still fight if he wishes to do so and even though he’ll never be a champion again, he still has enough left to put up decent showings IMO.
Trust me on this.
Matt Hughes still puts a$$es in seats, and bumps PPV numbers.
And while its true that he isn’t the fighter he once was, he’s still better than a lot of the 170ers out there.
And the 170 division should pray that Hughes never decides to expand his narrow skillset.
If this guy ever polished his standup and worked some jitz, he’d be back in the title picture a lot sooner than you’d think…
I hope when he does fight he doesn’t headline the card, that would make for a dull event. Obviously he’ll be on the main card but hopefully he’ll be first up so we can get his 3 round bore-fest out of the way quickly. Retire Matt please.
jpmm,
Matt Hughes is not a boring fighter at all. His fight with Matt Serra was not boring, it was an entertaining chess match if you ask me.
I don’t know what you mean by “bore-fest” because if it’s stand-up fighting your looking for then i suggest you go watch Boxing because MMA has lot of ground fighter whether Jitx or Wrestling…anyway Hughes has had loads of entertaining fights including Hughes-Trigg 2 which was voted by fans to be the 3rd best fight in UFC History so if you ask me Hughes is far from being a boring fighter, go watch Hughes vs. Penn 1 and 2 and Hughes vs Trigg 1 and 2 and check out Hughes vs. St. Pierre 1 and you’ll see he’s not a boering fighter.
I think if Dennis Hallman wins on Saturday, you can count on the UFC setting up that fight as Hughes will be picky on who he will or won’t fight from here on out.
marvelknight4
I see, so mma has ground fighting aswell as stand-up??? And just because Matt Hughes bores me to death when he fights I should go watch boxing instead should I. Hey, I know, I bet i’m not even a true mma fan. Praise the heavens for sporting aficianados such as yourself to put casual fans like me in their place.
Don’t worry, next time I have an opinion i’ll be sure to run it past you first of all to ensure i’m not going to make a fool of myself. Thank you for policing the thoughts in my head.
You are right about the Serra fight, it was exciting solely due to Serra, when Hughes went on the offensive he undertook the lay & pray tactic, like always.
Hughes/Trigg 2 you say? The fact that your going back nearly 5 years into the archives to point out an exciting Hughes fight reinforces my original point. In summary, there may always be the odd exception to the rule but by enlarge Matt Hughes is a boring fighter
jpmm,
I second your notion.
i think matt brown deserves a shot at hughes if he wins then have johnson vs brown sick fights right there, or even amir vs matt that could be on the cards amir fights in jan if he wins fights hughes in april, im still waiting for dana to ring me for the matchmaker job ;)
Good matchups johnboy,
I agree with mk4 and jcohl,
If hughes really spent some time on his stand up, he would be a big threat @ 170 simply because of his strength, awesome wrestling and very good jitz. The only thing about hughes is his weak chin. He’s been hit far too many times that if you jab it he’ll get rocked easily.
I’d like to see hughes whoop on koscheck or whoop on swick.
And I won’t reply to any specific individual, but I will post that criticism of Matt Hughes is sort of groundless and makes the criticizer sound like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about when you consider Hughes’ MMA resume, and the fact that no one has won more UFC fights than him [16], as well as defending his title a record 7 times.
He’s also had not one, but two six-fight winning streaks, and has won 43 out of 50 fights. Of those 43 wins, 15 have been by knockout and 18 have been by submission. All of his losses have been by knockout or submission, which means only 10 of his 50 fights have gone to a decision, or 20%.
How the He11 can anyone reasonably criticize a career like that and be expected to be taken seriously??
He lost badly via submission to GSP, followed by a brutal TKO at the hands of Thiago Alves and followed that up with a lackluster win over an aging Matt Serra, which could have gone either way really. Has not impressed me at all since his 2006 win over BJ Penn.
Sorry, but I believe he’s all but done and should seriously consider retirement before he hurts himself. He just can’t hang with the best guys in the division any more. And to the poster, not you Jcohl, who said he could beat Koscheck, Swick or Johnson, that’s crazy talk. CRAZY.
All respect in the world to his previous achievements in the Octagon and he will always be remembered for his legendary feats, but sorry, the sport has evolved so much in the past 5 years. Unfortunately for Matt Hughes, he has not evolved. He’s no longer one of the bigger welter weight fighters, he has no knockout power and no ground game. Sure he can hang in there and potentially score decision victories over other lesser fighters like Serra, but there is no where to go for Hughes and he will never improve his fight game the way he needs to, to compete against the best in the world.
and by no ground game I meant BJJ. Yes I know he can ground and pound lesser, weaker guys on their back, but stands no chance delivering any damage to the bigger stronger fighters in the division on the ground on on the feet.
For someone who expounds the evolution of the sport, you seem to be forgetting that Hughes is one of the big reasons that the one-dimensional BJJ guys don’t still dominate MMA. Beating a Gracie with a Ground and Pound? That was a heavy achievement for the time, and forced the bjj set to re-evaluate their game. Striking on the ground is now also becoming a full-fledged science that competes with submission for that environment, and it was arguably Hughes who pioneered groundstriking in MMA. At least , His win over Gracie proved that submission wasn’t the only way to win, or undefeatable.
There are lots of fighters who don’t have much in the way of BJJ skills that can wreak havoc in the ring. Granted, every good fighter has some ground skills, but what about Pankration, japanese jujitsu, and good old american freestyle?
No Gi, anyone?
I think Matt Hughes is at a stage in his career where he’s done it all, he’s got his family, money, if you keep up with his weekly blog like I do, hes always hunting or doing other activities.
He looked better against Serra and I think he would have looked even better had it not been for that headbutt….
If he can find motivation to fight, we’ll see the old Matt Hughes but put him up against Swick or Brown and he’ll flop !
This could probably be in the Midwest somewhere seeing as that’s where he said he wanted to fight after he beat Serra.
Who cares?? Matt WHos?
If you don’t know who Matt Hughes is, or carry the corresponding respect for him that he’s earned in this sport, you might want to re-think your log-in name, friend…
;)