MMA Curmudgeon: Iole wrong about Hughes
Posted by MMA Curmudgeon on June 8th, 2008
Kevin Iole is the unofficial mouthpiece of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. So it can only be assumed that his latest column is the unofficial opinion of one Zuffa Inc. LLC. Matt Hughes, says Iole, should retire. He’s obviously washed up and finished. I call shenanigans. Hughes has plenty of fight left in him. He just isn’t ready to fight someone in the next weight class up-while he is still at 170. We’ll break Iole down after the break…
After Georges St. Pierre thrashed him about like he was a beginner and then submitted him at UFC 79, Matt Hughes admitted that thoughts of retirement had crossed his mind.
It’s true that the best fighter of the post-SEG era made him look bad twice. Of course he sprinkled in a liberal heaping of kicks to the balls and illegal punches to the back of the head. But why quibble? It’s fair to say that St. Pierre has Hughes number.
This time, Hughes became a notch on the belt of Thiago Alves, who knocked Hughes out with a perfect left knee in the second round.
He’s been a classy representative of the sport, which made watching him get thrashed about like a sparring partner Saturday all the more difficult to take. He clearly wants a fight with his bitter rival, Matt Serra, a fight UFC president Dana White said he’d make if Hughes wants it.
Well it kind of makes sense doesn’t it Kevin? The company devoted an entire season of television to the fight and both fighters want it. Seems like a no-brainer really. Who wouldn’t approve of such a fight?
Though the bad blood between the two, and Serra’s ability to chatter, would help sell the fight, it would be another of the WWE-type promotions that the sport is better off without.
Oh I see.
A fight between two former champions with a score to settle and a compelling blend of styles. No wonder you hate the idea. It’s just like the time The Rock fought a past his prime Undertaker at Summerslam 77. Who wants to watch that?
Seriously, where is the possible professional wrestling connection here? Isn’t this more like the Roy Jones-Felix Trinidad fight? Two guys a little past their primes, but still trailing large fanbases? Is the fight inherently worthless because it isn’t for a shiny company title?
The UFC appeared to leave that behind when it was done with the Ken Shamrock-Tito Ortiz trilogy, and it has no need to go back to such events. The athletes are too good and the sport has evolved too much for it to rely on “feuds” to sell tickets.
Does it makes sense to leave behind the formula that created your biggest box office hits (Ortiz-Shamrock and Ortiz-Liddell). Besides, where are the similarities between Hughes-Serra and Ortiz-Shamrock? Shamrock was past 40 and past his prime. Hughes and Serra are both 34. They are at the same place in their respective careers. What is “WWE” about this fight?
Certainly, he doesn’t need to be in with young, strong and athletic men like St. Pierre and Alves any more.
He certainly doesn’t need to be in with big and strong young men like Alves who can’t make the weight and look about 20 pounds heavier. You aren’t even going to mention this? Really? It isn’t relevant?
But while the 34-year-old Hughes said he felt good even as he walked to the cage, he lacks the quick, explosive shot that he had as a younger man. Hughes went for a shot early, but Alves easily saw it coming and stuffed it.
I’m sure his incredible weight advantage didn’t help at all? I notice you leave out the part of the fight where Hughes has him down on his back anyway. Didn’t fit the narrative huh?
For his part, Alves is moving close to a shot at the welterweight title, though he has to prove he can make the 170-pound weight limit.
Hey, 16 paragraphs in and you finally mention the inconvenient truth that Matt’s opponent didn’t make weight. Burying the lead as they say?
He needed a diuretic to help him in a 2006 fight, which cost him an eight-month suspension imposed by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
And a chronic troublemaker to boot! A worthy challenger right out of the Travis Lutter mold!
The problem that White must wrestle with now is that pretty much everyone beats him.
Pretty much everyone=the undisputed champion and a guy 15 pounds heavier?
– there comes a time when the fighter needs to be protected from himself.
That time has come for Hughes, and White needs to forget the money a potential Hughes-Serra bout may generate and do what is best for the man.
Come on Kevin. Hughes isn’t punch drunk He lost to a fighter that is younger, heavier, and a cheater. He also lost to the champion of his division. Should Serra also retire? What about Jay Hieron? If St. Pierre beats Fitch should he retire too?
He needs to walk away and let the great young fighters in the business try to equal his records.
The time has come for Matt Hughes to retire.
How about this: Matt Hughes can decide when he wants to retire. Even you admit that Hughes is still in possession of his faculties. He’s not a danger to himself like Evander Holyfield or even Kazushi Sakuraba. He’s a former champion who has lost twice in a row. Once to a man who outweighed him by a significant margin. Calls to put him out to pasture seem premature at best and not promoting Hughes-Serra hurts both Zuffa and the fans.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:05 am
[...] Total MMAMMA Curmudgeon: Iole wrong about Hughes [...]
June 9th, 2008 at 12:54 am
For real, Kevin Iole is the biggest moron writing about MMA today, even worse than the typical bloggers because he has much wider reach than they do.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Hughes is just about finished. Obviously, we all still want to see him fight Serra; but after that, there’s not much left for him. Alves KO’ed Hughes with a knee just like Jose Landi-Jons (Pele) did years ago, and Hughes didn’t have enough technique in his arsenal to stop it. Hughes didn’t even anticipate that Thiago’s knees might be a threat. Hughes’s shots are slow and telegraphed. His striking is not a threat.
I don’t really see Hughes wanting to be a gatekeeper in the division. He even said himself on TUF that he doesn’t want to compete in fights where he knows he’s likely to lose. Kos, Diego, and Fitch would all beat him.
I see Hughes squeaking out a decision against Serra; losing his next fight after that, and retiring.
June 9th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Man, I don’t know about that. I think if Hughes doesn’t have his heart in it anymore, obviously things will be done for him, but I think it is a little harsh to say Hughes is done. Before the first GSP fight he had a 6-fight win streak, with a big win over BJ Penn (his last loss from 2 years before), then lost to a red hot GSP. His win over Lytle he looked good, and losing to GSP again isn’t that bad.
Two losses in a row isn’t impossible to recover from, especially for a guy as talented as Hughes (note: I hate Hughes, so I don’t know why I’m defending him). I think it is expected for him to beat Serra, and honestly, depending on how soundly he beats Serra, we can go from there. If Serra beats him, well, that is a different story. If he steamrolls Serra then I’m sure I’d love to see him against Kos, Diego, Fitch, etc.
I think he still has some fight left in him.