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Former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes has found himself in some unfortunate circumstances, and many are calling them completely self-imposed.

News broke in late February that Hughes had allegedly become violent on his wife Audra, twin brother Matt, and other members of his family following his serious accident in 2017. Hughes had allegedly choked his wife and became involved in a heated dispute with Mark over ownership of a tractor. Both filed for and were granted restraining orders against the UFC legend.

Shortly after, Hughes somewhat denied being violent in a statement released on Instagram. However, more details of his concerning alleged attack on Audra arose. She alleged he choked her while she was in the shower and hit her. Now, some more in-depth info about Hughes’ run-in with Mark’s 15-year-old son has surfaced as well.

According to a written statement attached to the restraining order Mark Hughes obtained last October (via MMA Junkie), Mark Hughes revealed his son, Marshall, was operating the John Deere 8410 tractor on Sept. 23, 2018. Matt Hughes then “pulled his vehicle crossways in the road causing my son to have to bring the tractor quickly to a stop.” He then began physically assaulting Marshall:

“Matt approached the tractor and when my son got out of the tractor to ask his uncle what he needed, Matt physically assaulted my 15-year-old son by grabbing him and shaking him, all the while telling him that it’s his (expletive) tractor.”

A woman who was close by defused the attack. But things were far from over.

Plans To Burn The Tractor?

On Sept. 30, 2018, Mark Hughes showed up at one of his fields to discover and saw Matt’s truck there. He had backed it up to the tractor. Gasoline has supposedly ben poured on the tractor fuel tank and the ground nearby. Mark said Matt was at Mark’s house. He called his wife and told her to keep him there. Mark went home to confront Matt. He denied everything but had gas tanks in his truck:

“While I am not sure if my brother’s intent was to burn the tractor, merely running a diesel engine with gasoline in the tank will destroy the engine,” he wrote. “I called my wife Emily and asked her to keep my brother at our house until I got there.

“When I got home, I met my brother in my driveway. While he denied everything, he had two empty five-gallon buckets in the back of his truck. The buckets smelled of gasoline. One of the buckets had the lid missing, and I later found the lid laying next to the tractor.”

Mark Hughes said Matt believes the tractor is his but “has at all relevant times been in my exclusive possession and control.”

The saga is still ongoing, but it’s a concerning downfall for a respected former champion. He’s stated that he’s become a burden to those around him. Matt filed for divorce from Audra, citing irreconcilable differences. A judge extended the protection order against him. He must now stay 500 feet away from his future ex-wife and their two children.

The post Details Surface Of Matt Hughes’ Alleged Attack On 15-Year-Old Nephew appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Georges St-Pierre’s latest retirement could potentially be ending a lot sooner than anyone thought. It just may not be where many thought GSP would end up.

The legendary former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion recently stepped down from active MMA competition last month. St-Pierre was looking for a massive super fight with current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. It was the only fight he felt would further his already historic legacy.

But the UFC had other plans, and they didn’t involve St-Pierre coming out of self-imposed exiles to fight for whichever title he had his eyes on at the time. You could understand both sides’ points of view. There just weren’t a ton of fights that were big enough for GSP. Khabib was one of those few, and outside of a fight with Conor McGregor, the best one.

As for the UFC, well, you could see how letting St-Pierre fight for random titles in weight classes he didn’t normally compete in gummed up the machine. Add to that the uncertainty he would ever defend said title if he won, and it was becoming a short-sighted business decision for the calculating MMA leader. St-Pierre wouldn’t close the door on returning someday, however, and admitted the right offer could lure him out of retirement.

That opportunity may be coming along at a breakneck pace.

Meeting With ONE’s CEO

Recently, ONE Championship CEO Chadri Sityodtong posted the following photo of St-Pierre and himself on social media:

“Thank you to my bro Georges St-Pierre for coming to hang out in Singapore! We had an incredible 5 hour dinner together last night, and it was crazy to discover that we share so much in common. Without a doubt, he is one of the greatest mixed martial artists in history. Above all though, Georges is a true martial artist in his values, and how he lives life. A humble warrior with integrity and honor, he is a true inspiration to the world. RESPECT!!!”

It’s far from certain that St-Pierre is headed to ONE, of course. But there are whispers – albeit unconfirmed – that he will do just that. It’s also hard to imagine St-Pierre having a five-hour dinner with ONE’s CEO without some sort of lucrative business offer rearing its head.

What’s more, ONE has the money and has shown an extreme tendency to throw it around to successful-but-still-lesser former UFC stars like Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, and Sage Northcutt.

‘Mighty Mouse’ and Alvarez will make their ONE debuts at March 31’s epic ‘A New Era’ event from Tokyo. There’s simply no better time to announce St-Pierre as their latest and by-far greatest signing. ONE has the Asian MMA market essentially cornered, but they’ve yet to make waves in a US MMA market dominated by the UFC.

A Splash Signing For North America

This would be the perfect avenue with which to start making waves in North America.

St-Pierre proved he’s still a major draw despite a long absence in his last fight. He came out of an almost four-year retirement to fight former middleweight champion Michael Bisping, drawing roughly 875,000 buys on pay-per-view for UFC 217. Those are huge numbers for a non-Conor McGregor card these days, and show GSP still has major drawing power.

ONE has clearly been focused on making a splash in the last year. Inking GSP to a contract would surpass any other move they’ve been able to pull off thus far. It’s not even close, in fact. It’s fair to wonder just who St-Pierre would fight in his ONE tenure. But all of that can be sorted out once they get him in the door. As we saw with his UFC exit, it’s going to take a whole lot of cash to get him back in the cage. That’s not a problem for ONE.

Finally, ONE’s ethos seems to be tailor-made for everything GSP embodies as a mixed martial artist. The tagline on their official website reads as only six strong words: integrity, respect, humanity, honor, courage, and discipline. You’d be hard-pressed to find a fighter who carried out his career more accordingly with those aspects of MMA than GSP did. There may not be one.

ONE’s Commitment

Sityodtong has been steadfast in his commitment to those values for ONE. At one point he even said they would never sign McGregor due to those values.

So if they’re trying to get away from the trash talk-focused climate of today’s UFC, there’s just not a better fighter to represent your promotion. ONE will also be attempting to break into the North American market soon. Again, St-Pierre would be a perfect public face. Johnson and Alvarez are great signings, but they just aren’t as big as St-Pierre and never will be.

So it’s a match made it heaven between the two sides. Time will tell if it happens or not, yet it seems the wheels are definitely in motion. St-Pierre left the door open in his recent retirement, and now he may have an opportunity to walk right into a prominent spot with a growing force in the sport.

And with ONE set for their biggest event, there’s no better time to drop this bombshell on the fight game than right now.

The post Is GSP Headed To ONE Championship? appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Junior dos Santos picked up a critical high-profile win over Derrick Lewis in the main event of last night’s (Sat., March 9, 2019) UFC on ESPN+ 4 at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas. JDS was able to stop “The Black Beast” via TKO in the second (watch it here) with a huge overhand and a barrage of follow-up strikes.

Former titleholder “Cigano” now has three wins in a row and is back in the mix in a huge way. The finish to his main event versus Lewis was vicious, but there were some tense moments due to some big punches from both sides. But dos Santos, who’s not known for trash talk, had trouble with another part of the fight.

That was Lewis’ claim of a supposed eye poke in the bout. He briefly took a break and used referee Herb Dean’s shirt to wipe the eye. For his part, dos Santos didn’t think he poked the eye and protested the official warning. He told MMA Junkie after the fight that he noticed Lewis complains to the ref in a lot of his fights:

“Derrick Lewis, I could see it in his fights, too, he complains a lot. Every time he got hit or something he complains a lot. I don’t know if he’s trying to take advantage of the moment or something, but he complains a lot. He was telling the ref, ‘My eye.’ It doesn’t make sense. He was fine.

“You can see on the camera he was fine. That doesn’t make any sense. But that’s fine. The ref, Herb Dean, he’s the greatest in this business and I trust him and that’s what I told him – that my hands weren’t open.”

Wasn’t Rocked

Dos Santos ended up with an impressive knockout victory in the end, yet he did eat a big shot or two from Lewis in the process. He admitted he could feel the power, but wasn’t rocked. In the end, his use of angles allowed him to land the better punches and finish the fight:

“It was a good challenge,” Dos Santos said. “I know how dangerous he is so I was trying to avoid those punches and one of them connected, but I didn’t feel it too much. I could feel that he has a lot of power, but my angles, I like to position myself in a better way to connect with better punches.”

A Huge Fight Coming Next

Indeed dos Santos did connect with better punches, as his fight-ending flurry on recent title challenger Lewis propelled him right back into his own new title contention. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a supposedly aging heavyweight who was booked as a stepping stone for Tai Tuivasa in his last bout. A report stated Lewis fought ‘Cigano’ with some very significant injuries. Dos Santos’ latest impressive performance cannot be denied either way.

He’s been linked to a match with similarly surging knockout artist Francis Ngannou. The bout would be an explosive contest both have expressed some degree of interest in. Overall, dos Santos isn’t concerned about his next opponent, however, as his options are currently plentiful:

“I don’t really care about who I am going to fighting,” he said. “Of course I want to add something to my career. You can see this ranking thing. It’s crazy. Let’s see what’s going to happen. But there’s many options for sure.”

The post JDS Trashes Derrick Lewis’ Complaints To Herb Dean appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

The MMA world was shocked at how easy Kamaru Usman dominated now-former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in the co-main event of last weekend’s (Sat., March 2, 2019) UFC 235 from Las Vegas.

It wasn’t the most exciting fight ever, but Usman was able to push ‘The Chosen One’ up against the fence and batter him some big elbows before taking him down. Woodley said he just had a bad day. He asked for an immediate rematch, but the fight isn’t going to happen right now.

After some time has passed to dissect the loss, Woodley spoke up on TMZ’s “Hollywood Beatdown” (via Bloody Elbow) to discuss just what went wrong. He began by stating he wasn’t exactly sure what happened. But he believes he can get the title back:

“I haven’t really been able to pinpoint what happened. The good thing about our sport is you get other opportunities to go back out there and get it back. I feel like after the resumé that I’ve had, the run that I’ve had, I had the longest streak, all these stats that were out.”

He claimed he felt just fine in the lead-up to the fight, something so strong it was like an out-of-body experience. While Woodley wanted to punch Usman, he just could not:

“So when I fought, I felt good in the warm-up, I felt good in the walk to the day of the fight, I felt good in the locker room, felt good in the walk out, felt good when I slapped gloves with him. Something happened when we got close, and it was just like a draining moment that I can’t even explain.

“A lot of people say you have an out-of-body experience,” he continued. “I wanted to swing hard, but I couldn’t, I wanted to punch him, and I didn’t. I wanted to kick, I wanted to not move back, I knew he was trying to take me down. And when I watched a small clip (of the fight), I’m like ‘who the f—k is that? That ain’t me.’”

And while his coach said he would have been more motivated if he were fighting hated rival Colby Covington, Woodley insists he was actually glad he wasn’t beaten by ‘Chaos’:

“I’m definitely f—king way less depressed that it’s not Colby. That motherf—ker might have to get his sh-t in the parking lot if he would’ve got it.”

Some were fast to point to Woodley’s ventures as a rapper and actor as distractions from his fighting career. They even went so far as to blame those ventures for his loss. But Woodley won’t blame those things. He claims he does many things exceptionally as an artist:

“What I say to those people is that the renaissance man was one person that did a lot of things average,” Woodley said. “That motherf—ker ain’t me. I’m not him. I do a lot of things exceptional because I’m an artist.”

Woodley also won’t apologize for doing those things. The former champion said he could not deny the gifts God had given him:

“I won’t apologize for being an artist, and I won’t sit on my gifts that God gave me, and I won’t not participate in other things because I’m a fighter. I fight three times a year. I’m a dad more, I’m an entrepreneur more, technically, I’m a musician more. I more songs than I do fights in the Octagon.

“When I do my training camp and I do my stuff, I’m very focused, I’m very in tune,” he continued. “But there are so many hours in a day. If you choose to play Fortnite and I choose to go make a song, that’s our choice and that’s our selection.”

Finally, Woodley made a bold claim that he was still a way better fighter than Usman. He’s already cried about losing the belt, but the harsh reality is he’s no longer champ:

“I personally to this day think that skill set for skill set, experience for experience, I’m a way better fighter. But, on that night, he was the more focused fighter. He executed, and I didn’t.

“So at that moment in time, it’s not my belt. It hurts for me to say it, it’s f—king heartbreaking, I’ve shed tears about it, but it’s not my belt right now. It’s his belt.”

The post Tyron Woodley Says He’s Still “Way Better” Than Kamaru Usman appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Record-breaking former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will make his anticipated ONE Championship debut at March 31’s massive “A New Era” event from Tokyo.

Johnson was traded for former ONE welterweight champion Ben Askren in a highly-publicized, unprecedented move last fall. ‘Mighty Mouse’ lost the UFC 125-pound title he defended a record 11 straight times to Henry Cejudo in his last fight. Afterward, he and the UFC apparently didn’t see eye to eye after many years of trying to make him into a pay-per-view draw.

He’s moved on to ONE’s flyweight tournament, but the UFC flyweight division is also in a state of uncertainty as a result. Cejudo defended his title by knocking out TJ Dillashaw at January’s UFC on ESPN+ 1. There are less and less 125-pound bouts in the UFC, and the division could be axed altogether. If it is, ‘Mighty Mouse’ told MMAjunkie that ONE won’t just swallow all the fighters:

“I think ONE Championship, they’re very particular who they like to pick, and they’re not just going to swallow this division. That’s not what they’re looking to do. They’re cherry-picking the athletes for their roster and what fits the brand the best.”

Motivation

Johnson also discussed his reasoning for going to ONE. Many believed it to be his perceived discord with the UFC, yet that isn’t the case, he claimed. As a true martial artist, he had never gotten to fulfill his dream of fighting in the east and now could:

“It was more along the lines that I have five years left,” Johnson said. “I give myself five more years. God bless Vitor Belfort, 41, still kicking butt. I don’t think I can do it.

“You look at all the great athletes in MMA, (Mirko) Cro Cop, Vitor, (Gegard) Mousasi, those guys competing over in the east and then competed over in the west, and for me, I never got the opportunity to. So this is a perfect opportunity for me, for my last five years, to go out and try to do something totally different that I didn’t see myself doing.”

The Pressure’s Off

His experience in the UFC wasn’t exactly perfect, however. Johnson admitted the pressure to sell pay-per-views did mount on him in the UFC. Now that he’s not being forced to become something he isn’t, he can be his authentic self:

“I felt in the past when I was doing media for a different market, you’re trying to sell pay-per-view,” Johnson said. “Right now, the biggest thing (ONE CEO) Chatri (Sityodtong) says to all his athletes is, ‘Just be authentic.’ And that’s what I’m being.

“I love to go out there and give my best and display my skills in MMA to the world. I’m happy to be able to focus on that, so now I don’t mind talking to the media.”

The post Demetrious Johnson Reveals One Major Thing ONE Won’t Do appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.