Matt Hughes Wants To Show The MMA Community His Time Is Not Over
Matt Hughes is approaching the end of a dominant career. The most dominant career of a welterweight ever. He has won the title, defended the title, and lost it only to gain it back. He has proven why he is the most dominant welterweight in the history of MMA, not just the UFC.
In a recent edition of Real Fighter Matt Hughes said he has roughly 6 fights left in him. With only 6 fights left in such a lustrous career Hughes wants to go out on top of his game. He wants to show in his fight with Alves that he is not through yet, and until he is you shouldn’t count him out.
“UFC president Dana White had long wanted to make UFC 85 a blockbuster card. And with the original main event of Chuck Liddell vs. Shogun Rua, it would have been regardless of what other fights were added.
It lost a little bit of its luster when Rua was injured, but Liddell is a big enough star that the replacement main event with Rashad Evans would not have impacted sales much, if at all.
But when Liddell suffered a badly torn hamstring last month, what had been a Liddell-Rua main event suddenly looked as if it might become an Evans-James Irvin main. And that was nobody’s idea of a bout that could carry a card.
That prompted White to get on the phone and plead with Hughes to save him again. And, just like he did a few days after Thanksgiving, Hughes saved the UFC again. When Serra injured his back in November, Hughes quickly agreed to face St. Pierre instead, saving the card. And now, with the Liddell-Rua bout off and the UFC 85 card in jeopardy, Hughes agreed to take the bout with Alves with the stipulation that he get Serra later in the year, win or lose against Alves.
It didn’t hurt, though, that Hughes perceives the fight as one he can win. Alves hasn’t lost since being stopped by Jon Fitch at UFC Fight Night 5 nearly two years ago and has quality wins since over Parisyan, Chris Lytle and John Alessio.
But Hughes, whose only losses in the last seven years are to St. Pierre twice and to B.J. Penn, sees this as a fight he can win impressively.
“To be honest, I like the matchup,” Hughes said. “He’s a stand-up guy. On the ground, he’s not nearly as dangerous. I’ll be stronger, I believe I’ll be the better wrestler and I like the fact he’s kind of a slow starter. I think I can wear him out before he gets going.”"
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