Tag: Matt Hughes

Wednesday Morning MMA Link Club

(“I’ve always wanted your autograph.” Alistair Overeem signs his new UFC contract in Lorenzo Fertitta’s office. Props: bawzzzz)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail [email protected] for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– Alistair Overeem Was Offered Immediate Title Shot Before Accepting Brock Lesnar Fight (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 135: Matt Hughes vs Josh Koscheck official for Sept. 24 in Denver (MMA Mania)

– Top 10 Worked Shoot-Fights in Japanese Pro Wrestling (TheFightNerd)

– MMA Comedy Gold: Interviewer ‘Skippy’ (AKA Ed Bassmaster) Discusses UFC 133 Experience, Shouts Out CagePotato (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

– American Top Team Offering a Year of All-Expenses-Paid Training for Middleweights and Above (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto Meets Octagon Newbie Darren Uyenoyama at UFC on FOX 1 (5thRound)

– WWE Network coming in 2012 (MMA Payout)

– Dan Henderson Wants Jones vs. Rampage Winner, Says Rashad Evans Can Wait (LowKick)

– Your Cubicle Desperately Needs a Foot-Tall ‘MMA Alien’ Collectible (MiddleEasy)

– Lorenzo Fertitta on UFC Fighter Salaries: “All These Keyboard Warriors Have no Idea What They’re Talking About” (FightOpinion)

– Book Review: Stitch Duran’s ‘From the Fields to the Garden’ (MMA Convert)

– Ariel Helwani’s Official MMA Rankings (NBC Sports MMA)


(“I’ve always wanted your autograph.” Alistair Overeem signs his new UFC contract in Lorenzo Fertitta’s office. Props: bawzzzz)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail [email protected] for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– Alistair Overeem Was Offered Immediate Title Shot Before Accepting Brock Lesnar Fight (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 135: Matt Hughes vs Josh Koscheck official for Sept. 24 in Denver (MMA Mania)

– Top 10 Worked Shoot-Fights in Japanese Pro Wrestling (TheFightNerd)

– MMA Comedy Gold: Interviewer ‘Skippy’ (AKA Ed Bassmaster) Discusses UFC 133 Experience, Shouts Out CagePotato (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

– American Top Team Offering a Year of All-Expenses-Paid Training for Middleweights and Above (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto Meets Octagon Newbie Darren Uyenoyama at UFC on FOX 1 (5thRound)

– WWE Network coming in 2012 (MMA Payout)

– Dan Henderson Wants Jones vs. Rampage Winner, Says Rashad Evans Can Wait (LowKick)

– Your Cubicle Desperately Needs a Foot-Tall ‘MMA Alien’ Collectible (MiddleEasy)

– Lorenzo Fertitta on UFC Fighter Salaries: “All These Keyboard Warriors Have no Idea What They’re Talking About” (FightOpinion)

– Book Review: Stitch Duran’s ‘From the Fields to the Garden’ (MMA Convert)

– Ariel Helwani’s Official MMA Rankings (NBC Sports MMA)

Ranking the 5 Best Submissions of Matt Hughes’ UFC Career

Matt Hughes will enter UFC 135 as one of the most established fighters of all time. He is a nine time UFC Welterweight Champion and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010.Over the course of his mixed martial arts career, Hughes has fought an amazin…

Matt Hughes will enter UFC 135 as one of the most established fighters of all time. He is a nine time UFC Welterweight Champion and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010.

Over the course of his mixed martial arts career, Hughes has fought an amazing 53 times, winning 45 of them.

Hughes has defined toughness since entering the UFC in September of 1999. His work ethic, time and dedication to a sport that he so greatly loves has catapulted him into a class of his own.

Over the years Hughes has produced some of the greatest fights in UFC history. We’ve seen him put an end to his opponent by knockout and we’ve seen him go the distance.

But what makes Hughes one of the greatest of all time is his ability to submit his opponent? Of his 45 career victories, 18 of them have come by submission.

The following slides display the five greatest submission victories of Matt Hughes’ career.

Let’s take a look…

Begin Slideshow

Hughes Agrees to Face Either Koscheck Or Fitch at UFC 135 September 24

According to former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes he has accepted the challenge of Josh Koscheck to face him in the place of his original UFC 135 opponent Diego Sanchez, who pulled out of the bout due to a broken hand. The only problem is, the UFC brass haven’t decided whether they want to see “Country Breakfast” possibly have his lights and his career turned out by Kos or have Bob Arum telling Dana, “I told you so!” until the day he dies (some time soon by the looks of it) thanks to a potential 15-minute wrestlefuck session with Jon Fitch.

Either way, Hughes is fighting on September 24, so at least there’s that.

According to former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes he has accepted the challenge of Josh Koscheck to face him in the place of his original UFC 135 opponent Diego Sanchez, who pulled out of the bout due to a broken hand. The only problem is, the UFC brass haven’t decided whether they want to see “Country Breakfast” possibly have his lights and his career turned out by Kos or have Bob Arum telling Dana, “I told you so!” until the day he dies (some time soon by the looks of it) thanks to a potential 15-minute wrestlefuck session with Jon Fitch.

Either way, Hughes is fighting on September 24, so at least there’s that.

Here’s the card as we know it:

UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage
September 24, 2011
Pepsi Center
Denver, Colorado

MAIN CARD (PPV)

UFC Light Heavyweight Championship
Jon Jones (c) vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

Matt Hughes vs. *Josh Koscheck or Jon Fitch
Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton
Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi
Ben Rothwell vs. Mark Hunt

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)

Tony Ferguson vs. Aaron Riley
Nick Ring vs. Tim Boetsch

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook)

James Te-Huna vs. Ricardo Romero
Cole Escovedo vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Eddie Yagin vs. Junior Assuncao

Matt Hughes Accepts Fight With Replacement Josh Koscheck at UFC 135

Filed under: UFC, NewsAfter a few years of campaigning for a fight against Matt Hughes, an American Kickboxing Academy welterweight finally gets their chance.

Josh Koscheck will get the opportunity, after Hughes accepted Koscheck as a replacement for …

Filed under: ,

After a few years of campaigning for a fight against Matt Hughes, an American Kickboxing Academy welterweight finally gets their chance.

Josh Koscheck will get the opportunity, after Hughes accepted Koscheck as a replacement for the injured Diego Sanchez at UFC 135.

According to Sanchez’s management team, the 29-year-old welterweight broke his right hand in training, forcing him out of the bout.

On Monday, Koscheck said he’d accepted a spot to replace Hughes but was simply waiting on Hughes’ approval of the fight and on Tuesday, he got it. It’s a risky move for Koscheck, who hasn’t fought since last December’s title fight loss to Georges St-Pierre, but the California-based fighter is well known for being in fighting shape at all times.

Koscheck (15-5) has less than three weeks to prepare for the September 24 bout.

Hughes (45-8) has had an even longer layoff than Koscheck. He hasn’t fought since last November, when he was knocked out by BJ Penn. However, while he’s been in training for Sanchez for well over a month now, Koscheck had entertained the notion of moving up to middleweight before taking this short-notice bout.

Koscheck and AKA teammate Jon Fitch had lobbied unsuccessfully in the past for the chance to face Hughes.

 

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Diego Sanchez Out of UFC 135 Co-Main Event Against Matt Hughes; Josh Koscheck Verbally Agrees to Replace Him

(Listen to the first thing that Diego says in this video. Is it just me, or is the dude starting to sound like Kevin from ‘The Office’?)

Less than three weeks before his scheduled meeting with Matt Hughes at UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage (September 24th, Denver), Diego Sanchez was pulled from the event yesterday due to a broken hand suffered in training. Coming off back-to-back decision victories over Paulo Thiago and Martin Kampmann — both of which netted him Fight of the Night awards — Sanchez released a statement explaining just how bummed he is:

“I am heartbroken that I have to inform MMA fans that I cannot fight Matt Hughes at UFC 135 later this month. I have never physically felt more prepared to compete than I felt for this fight, which makes this even more painful for me. While I do not know right now when I will return, I want to assure all of the fans out there that I will be back in the Octagon as soon as I am 100-percent healthy.”

But in the distance, a savior appears…

(Listen to the first thing that Diego says in this video. Is it just me, or is the dude starting to sound like Kevin from ‘The Office’?)

Less than three weeks before his scheduled meeting with Matt Hughes at UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage (September 24th, Denver), Diego Sanchez was pulled from the event yesterday due to a broken hand suffered in training. Coming off back-to-back decision victories over Paulo Thiago and Martin Kampmann — both of which netted him Fight of the Night awards — Sanchez released a statement explaining just how bummed he is:

“I am heartbroken that I have to inform MMA fans that I cannot fight Matt Hughes at UFC 135 later this month. I have never physically felt more prepared to compete than I felt for this fight, which makes this even more painful for me. While I do not know right now when I will return, I want to assure all of the fans out there that I will be back in the Octagon as soon as I am 100-percent healthy.”

But in the distance, a savior appears…

Shortly after Sanchez’s pull-out was announced, fellow welterweight contender Josh Koscheck confirmed that he had accepted an offer to replace “The Dream” against Hughes. Koscheck, who hasn’t competed since his crushing loss to Georges St. Pierre last December, was previously rumored to return in November as a middleweight. But it looks like his timetable just got a lot shorter — that is, if Hughes is willing to accept the fight, which he hasn’t yet. As Koscheck told USA Today:

It’s a fight that I’ve been wanting for a long time. Now we’ve just got to wait and see if Matt Hughes will accept the fight. So we’re waiting on him…

I’m healthy. I have no reason not to accept this fight if Matt Hughes wants it. It’s like Dana White always says: Your job is to fight no matter what. I’m a fighter, and whether I’ve got to fight on a week’s notice or six months’, doesn’t matter. My job is to go out there and fight and win…

I’m just looking for this opportunity, and hopefully Matt Hughes will step up and take the fight for the fans and the UFC…

I’m a big-name fighter, so he can take that and run with it. I put it out there. I told UFC I’d do it, and if Matt Hughes is man enough, he’ll step up and do it…

He wants big-name fighters. He’s getting near the end of his career. I think he’ll take the fight because it’s good for the sport and good for the UFC.

We’ll update you when the fight is a done deal. So what do you think? Is Koscheck vs. Hughes a satisfying replacement for Sanchez vs. Hughes?

UFC 135 Preview: Josh Koscheck Talks About the Potential of Facing Matt Hughes

After it was learned that Diego Sanchez had suffered a broken hand and could no longer compete at UFC 135, Josh Koscheck has apparently stepped up to replace him and challenge Matt Hughes. Koscheck will only have about three weeks to prepare for t…

After it was learned that Diego Sanchez had suffered a broken hand and could no longer compete at UFC 135, Josh Koscheck has apparently stepped up to replace him and challenge Matt Hughes. 

Koscheck will only have about three weeks to prepare for the former UFC Welterweight champion, as he was last seen in the Octagon at UFC 124 against Georges St-Pierre. But Koscheck said he is prepared to fight once again.

“My job is to fight. It’s what I like to do,” Koscheck told USAToday.com.

“Matt Hughes is a nine-time UFC welterweight champion or something like that. He’s a good, quality opponent. I’ve told the UFC that from here on out, I only want big names and big fights.”

Koscheck has proven his status as one of the best welterweights in the world, facing such fighters as Paulo Thiago, Thaigo Alves and Georges St-Pierre, so there is reason to believe why he accepted the fight on short notice.

As for Hughes, who was on a comfortable run for a short period before losing to BJ Penn at UFC 123, he proved he still has the ability and passion to remain relevant and a competitive force in the 170 lb division. Hughes’ recent performances have Koscheck feeling confident that he’ll accept the bout, despite being on three weeks notice.

“He wants big-name fighters. He’s getting near the end of his career,” he said.

“I think he’ll take the fight because it’s good for the sport and good for the UFC.”

Whether his decision is good for the sport, or more for the sake of the event, UFC 135 will still hold some stability with a co-main event confirmed. And if anything, Koscheck said Hughes should accept the bout for himself.

“I told UFC I’d do it, and if Matt Hughes is man enough, he’ll step up and do it,” he said. 

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