A Country Boy Can Survive: Matt Hughes Wants Back in the Cage

(DO NOT run an unfiltered image search for ‘Matt Hughes’. EVER. This photo is nothing. Learn from my mistake, kids.)

Just four months after putting himself “on a shelf”–a euphemism for the dreaded ‘R-word‘–Matt Hughes is ready to glove up once again. After suffering back-to-back first round knockouts to BJ Penn and Josh Koscheck, the UFC Hall of Famer made a non-committal pledge to walk away from the sport, a move he’d pondered openly while winding down his career.

As we’ve seen time and time again, getting your head bashed in is surprisingly difficult to walk away from. Hughes has undoubtedly made enough money to retire comfortably, has plenty of hobbies to occupy his time, and with nine UFC titles to his name he has nothing left to prove. But Hughes didn’t start his MMA career in search of fame or fortune; the man simply loves to compete, and pounding his brother behind the barn just doesn’t cut it these days.

Ultimately, his fate lies in Dana White’s hands, not his own, and most certainly not his wife’s. During an interview on FUEL last night, Hughes established the pecking order in his household: “I think Dana could be the final decision maker. My wife’s a great lady, but she’s not going to tell me when Matt Hughes retires.” Well, I guess we know who’s cooking up the country breakfast this morning.

(DO NOT run an unfiltered image search for ‘Matt Hughes‘. EVER. This photo is nothing. Learn from my mistake, kids.)

Just four months after putting himself “on a shelf”–a euphemism for the dreaded ‘R-word‘–Matt Hughes is ready to glove up once again. After suffering back-to-back first round knockouts to BJ Penn and Josh Koscheck, the UFC Hall of Famer made a non-committal pledge to walk away from the sport, a move he’d pondered openly while winding down his career.

As we’ve seen time and time again, getting your head bashed in is surprisingly difficult to walk away from. Hughes has undoubtedly made enough money to retire comfortably, has plenty of hobbies to occupy his time, and with nine UFC titles to his name he has nothing left to prove. But Hughes didn’t start his MMA career in search of fame or fortune; the man simply loves to compete, and pounding his brother behind the barn just doesn’t cut it these days.

Ultimately, his fate lies in Dana White’s hands, not his own, and most certainly not his wife’s. During an interview on FUEL last night, Hughes established the pecking order in his household: “I think Dana could be the final decision maker. My wife’s a great lady, but she’s not going to tell me when Matt Hughes retires.” Well, I guess we know who’s cooking up the country breakfast this morning.

Quote of the Day: Hughes Calls St-Pierre’s Performance Against Shields the Worst of His Career


(“Come on, Georges. If you keep this up I’m going to rescind my offer to join me for a country breakfast.”)

Matt Hughes is not impressed by GSP’s performance in his last fight.

Now, before you jump to conclusions and say that Matt is only saying that Georges stunk the joint up in his UFC 129 fight against Jake Shields at Rogers Centre because he’s still sore that “Rush” laid a beating on him in their last two bouts, Hughes did say that he likes St-Pierre just fine.

Check out what the former UFC welterweight champ had to say in a recent blog post he wrote about the Shields-St-Pierre bout after the jump.


(“Come on, Georges. If you keep this up I’m going to rescind my offer to join me for a country breakfast.”)

Matt Hughes is not impressed by GSP’s performance in his last fight.

Now, before you jump to conclusions and say that Matt is only saying that Georges stunk the joint up in his UFC 129 fight against Jake Shields at Rogers Centre because he’s still sore that “Rush” laid a beating on him in their last two bouts, Hughes did say that he likes St-Pierre just fine.

Here’s what the former UFC welterweight champ had to say in a recent blog post he wrote about the bout:

“As for the GSP/Shields fight, I really believed GSP was going to tear Shields up. The fight didn’t go like I thought it would at all. Let me tell everybody now, I like GSP, he’s a good guy and he’s somebody I wouldn’t mind sitting next to on a plane ride or at a supper table. So don’t think that I’m talking out of bitterness for the two losses, I’m speaking through experienced eyes that have been in these situations. GSP actually looked worse in this fight than I’ve ever seen him before. I really feel like Georges fights not to lose, he just doesn’t fight to win anymore. I like Georges, I like watching him fight, I wish there was some way I could help him to get that hunger back inside of him. Georges has the potential of being so much better than what we’ve seen recently. If Jake had won one more round he would have won the fight, based on how the judges scored it. So an interesting fight and a little disappointing at being the last fight of the night.”

I guess we’re not the only ones who are getting a bit fed up with GSP’s inability to finish (or reluctance to engage for fear of getting caught like he did against Serra) lately. Maybe Matt needs a rematch to remind us that Georges can cause a stoppage.

Quote of the Day: Hughes Calls St-Pierre’s Performance Against Shields the Worst of His Career


(“Come on, Georges. If you keep this up I’m going to rescind my offer to join me for a country breakfast.”)

Matt Hughes is not impressed by GSP’s performance in his last fight.

Now, before you jump to conclusions and say that Matt is only saying that Georges stunk the joint up in his UFC 129 fight against Jake Shields at Rogers Centre because he’s still sore that “Rush” laid a beating on him in their last two bouts, Hughes did say that he likes St-Pierre just fine.

Check out what the former UFC welterweight champ had to say in a recent blog post he wrote about the Shields-St-Pierre bout after the jump.


(“Come on, Georges. If you keep this up I’m going to rescind my offer to join me for a country breakfast.”)

Matt Hughes is not impressed by GSP’s performance in his last fight.

Now, before you jump to conclusions and say that Matt is only saying that Georges stunk the joint up in his UFC 129 fight against Jake Shields at Rogers Centre because he’s still sore that “Rush” laid a beating on him in their last two bouts, Hughes did say that he likes St-Pierre just fine.

Here’s what the former UFC welterweight champ had to say in a recent blog post he wrote about the bout:

“As for the GSP/Shields fight, I really believed GSP was going to tear Shields up. The fight didn’t go like I thought it would at all. Let me tell everybody now, I like GSP, he’s a good guy and he’s somebody I wouldn’t mind sitting next to on a plane ride or at a supper table. So don’t think that I’m talking out of bitterness for the two losses, I’m speaking through experienced eyes that have been in these situations. GSP actually looked worse in this fight than I’ve ever seen him before. I really feel like Georges fights not to lose, he just doesn’t fight to win anymore. I like Georges, I like watching him fight, I wish there was some way I could help him to get that hunger back inside of him. Georges has the potential of being so much better than what we’ve seen recently. If Jake had won one more round he would have won the fight, based on how the judges scored it. So an interesting fight and a little disappointing at being the last fight of the night.”

I guess we’re not the only ones who are getting a bit fed up with GSP’s inability to finish (or reluctance to engage for fear of getting caught like he did against Serra) lately. Maybe Matt needs a rematch to remind us that Georges can cause a stoppage.

Matt Hughes Says Loss to Penn at UFC 123 Pushed him One Step Closer to Retirement

(Well, it could be worse, I guess; my kid could be a Brock fan.")
Well, it looks like Matt Hughes may be taking his KO loss to BJ Penn at UFC 123 a bit harder than we thought.
The former UFC welterweight champ wrote on his blog this week that the …


(Well, it could be worse, I guess; my kid could be a Brock fan.")

Well, it looks like Matt Hughes may be taking his KO loss to BJ Penn at UFC 123 a bit harder than we thought.

The former UFC welterweight champ wrote on his blog this week that the outcome of the fight has him more closely considering retirement.

Here what Hughes’ thoughts are on the situation:

"A lot of people have been asking about the fight and how I am doing. Of course, the fight didn’t go like I had planned it. I knew BJ was going to be in shape, but I didn’t know he was going to come in with a game plan and really look for my tendencies. I think BJ knew I was going to come in throwing my jab and I think he had a game plan for that," Hughes explains. "He hit me with a hard right hand that I never saw coming. It’s funny how styles make fights and I’m not at all like Frankie Edgar. So it just kind of stinks that BJ came off two losses and then ended up beating me in less than 30 seconds. I knew BJ was going to be tough that first round. I was trying to get him into the second and the third round where I could wear on him, slow him down and soften him up a little bit; but it just didn’t go that way."

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