[Aureus]

Greetings All...

I have been a long time fan of MMA and Sherdog for quite sometime. However, this is my first posting so please bare with me.

An awful lot of banter has been circulating about Hughes' loss to St. Pierre. Many stating Matt claiming injury through this fight, and the Penn fight. I hope you all who are making these claims have seen the fights and are not writting out of what you heard or read during a recap. Penn clearly thumbed Hughes in the eye. Although GSP's foot did glance Hughes' groin, his shin placement was dead on. Did Hughes have the right to take a few moments after both of these instances? Absolutely. Hughes is a champion, he could have taken all the time in the world to recover. During both fights, Hughes took at most 20 secs to catch a breath. Hughes has game, admit it.

Many are quick to jump down Matt's throat due to his 'cocky jock attitude'. Hughes is no different from any professional athlete we see today. Soneone who has attained one of the highest ranks in the sport and has maintained that success throughout their carreer will likely develop an attitude. Part of this 'cocky jock attitude' you see is for hype, the other I feel is just him. Being a successful athlete all his life, a jock attitude is bound to develop. I have had the pleasure of meeting Hughes prior to UFC 55 in Connecticut. Hughes was a genuine nice guy. Hughes took the time to shake my hand, sign an autograph and take a quick photo with me. I believe Hughes is a stand up guy, both inside and outside the octagon.

Hughes is only 33. Discussion involving his retirement I feel should not be in question. Why would a champion calibur athlete call it quits after a loss. Hughes' tools may need refinement before taking on St. Pierre again. But who else stands to seriously threaten Hughes in the Welterweight division? Sanchez is the only other questionable contender in the divsion. Hughes and GSP have every advantage over Sanchez in my opinion and throwing Serra into this mix is just laughable. As far as I am concerned Hughes is the number one contender, Sanchez ranks number two, and the rest are out of the picture.

The only variable potentially holding Hughes back is heart and drive. Does Hughes still have the desire to be the champion? He clearly has the skill set to be the champ. I feel all Hughes needs is a better strategy in fighting GSP. I don't feel Hughes comes in with a super detailed strategy for every fight. Like a traditional wrestler, Hughes makes his opponent fight his fight, not visa versa. GSP was able to take advantage of this mind set and was literally able to disect Hughes fight plan from start to finish.

You can call me a Matt Hughes 'nuthugger'. However, it is impossible to deny Hughes' impact on the sport as a whole. Hughes is one of the faces of the UFC for a reason, being a top notch quality champion should not go unoticed due to a loss. Once Hughes strings together another series of wins, the bandwagon will be full again. Just look at Tito.

Thoughts/Comments?

[gecko109]

Excellent first post. I agree that Hughes has been a great champion for many years, but I also see that much like Royce, the sport is passing Matt up. Alot of why Matt has been so dominant for so long has to do with him being the stronger fighter in about 99% of his fights. He relied on that and a great takedown ability and then the eventual gnp that we have all become familiar with. However, for Matt to ever dominate this division again, he needs to do something that I doubt he has time to do, and thats develop a world class stand up game. With GSP, gone are the days of Matt enjoying overwhelming strength and wrestling advantages. And if you doubt GSP's wrestling, refer to the Trigg fight in which a world class wrestler was owned on the ground. The fact is this.....GSP owns 1 of three main categories of any decent MMA fighter....he is simply quicker. Speed, Strength, and Cardio are the keys to being a champ. Most everything else can be aquired. Strength is even between the 2 fighters, and I would strongly assume that Cardio is as well (although GSP has yet to absolutely confirm this). As far as skill sets go...Wrestling...BJJ...Striking, GSP has the CLEAR advantage on 2 of those with Matt eeeking out a decision on the Wrestling part. Couple all of these factors with the age difference, and its easy to see that GSP would more than likely destroy Matt 9 out of 10 times.

[BPARKER72]

"i believe gsp thinks he has a chance, i also believe he thinks its not a real good chance"

[Grimaldi]

Originally Posted by Aureus

Hughes is only 33. Discussion involving his retirement I feel should not be in question. Why would a champion calibur athlete call it quits after a loss. Hughes' tools may need refinement before taking on St. Pierre again.

The only variable potentially holding Hughes back is heart and drive. Does Hughes still have the desire to be the champion? He clearly has the skill set to be the champ. I feel all Hughes needs is a better strategy in fighting GSP. I don't feel Hughes comes in with a super detailed strategy for every fight. Like a traditional wrestler, Hughes makes his opponent fight his fight, not visa versa. GSP was able to take advantage of this mind set and was literally able to disect Hughes fight plan from start to finish.

You can call me a Matt Hughes 'nuthugger'. However, it is impossible to deny Hughes' impact on the sport as a whole. Hughes is one of the faces of the UFC for a reason, being a top notch quality champion should not go unoticed due to a loss. Once Hughes strings together another series of wins, the bandwagon will be full again. Just look at Tito.

I think the talk about Hughes retiring is mostly due to some of his comments. His after-fight comments especially sounded like he was going to seriously reconsider his fighting career. Granted, much of that may just be due to the emotion of the moment, but still...I think the seed may be planted. It's good for a fighter who has been so dominant to think about it. Don't want to be the has-been that hangs on long after he should have quit (not that Hughes is).

As for variables holding Hughes back, I think his relatively one-dimensional skill set is holding him back most. For some time, grappling fighters have seemed to do better than their striking counterparts. Slowly, though, strikers are getting much better at sprawling to avoid being taken down or become skilled enough in striking and JJ to compete successfully wherever the game goes. Hughes' opponents keep increasing in quality, and they can continue to customize their game plan to beat Hughes (strike and sprawl). Still no easy feat, but with the increasing level of MMA fighter, it's become more and more possible.

Anyone who doubts/denies Hughes' impact on the sport is a fool. He has taken every loss seriously and improved himself after each...if he does the same with this loss, he could be even more impressive in the future.

[blackthorne]

Good first post. Unfortunately only a select few here have the attention span to read more than one paragraph (a legitimate paragraph I mean, not the retards who don't know how to space).

I think Hughes has a better chance at beating Pierre in a rematch, "just not a real good chance" as Matt would say. It's all about the way you lose, and Matt lost badly. He didn't look eager for a rematch, and the word "discouraged" is plastered all over his face...well, along with Pierre's fingerprints. Otherwise, I agree with most of what you said.

[zuffy]

I stopped reading after "Sanchez is the only other questionable contender in the divsion". You think Penn is incapable of beating Hughes, GSP or Sanchez?

[gecko109]

Originally Posted by zuffy

I stopped reading after "Sanchez is the only other questionable contender in the divsion". You think Penn is incapable of beating Hughes, GSP or Sanchez?

Only if he puts down the cheeseburger long enough to train some serious cardio.

[Aureus]

Originally Posted by zuffy

I stopped reading after "Sanchez is the only other questionable contender in the divsion". You think Penn is incapable of beating Hughes, GSP or Sanchez?

Penn undeniably has the ability to beat both GSP or Hughes. Unfortuately, Penn's cardio condition is always the questionable varible in the equation to his success. Penn clearly has all the tools of the trade to be successful. Too bad none of these tools can be utilized in the later rounds if you are gassed. Penn clearly dominated both Hughes and GSP in the early rounds of their fights. In the later rounds, Penn was unable to sustain his high level of intensity which cost him the wins. A little more cardio and Penn will a greater force than his already is.

Rumors are abundant that Penn may cut to 155, returning to a 'true' fighting weight class for him.

[gecko109]

Originally Posted by Aureus

Penn undeniably has the ability to beat both GSP or Hughes. Unfortuately, Penn's cardio condition is always the questionable varible in the equation to his success. Penn clearly has all the tools of the trade to be successful. Too bad none of these tools can be utilized in the later rounds if you are gassed. Penn clearly dominated both Hughes and GSP in the early rounds of their fights. In the later rounds, Penn was unable to sustain his high level of intensity which cost him the wins. A little more cardio and Penn will a greater force than his already is.

Rumors are abundant that Penn may cut to 155, returning to a 'true' fighting weight class for him.

If im not wrong, "rumors" were that before A. Silva rearranged Franklin's nose, Penn wanted to move up to 185. Either this is a case of 1 of 2 things:

Penn himself doesnt know what he wants
Rumors are for assholes and the naive

[stanthrax]

i gotta agree with a lot of this... Hughes is still a great fighter... and will still easily crush most of the WW division... it's just all about his desire to do so at this point..