UFC 98 Notebook: No Retirement for Hughes
Brian Knapp May 25, 2009
Two-time welterweight champion and future hall of famer Matt Hughes
does not sound like a man with retirement on his mind.
Hughes, the sport’s most accomplished welterweight, edged longtime rival Matt Serra by unanimous decision in the co-main event at UFC 98 “Evans vs. Machida” on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Despite rampant speculation that the bout might have been his last, the 35-year-old H.I.T. Squad founder believes he still has more to accomplish inside the Octagon.
“I definitely still want to compete,” said Hughes, now 50 fights
into his professional career. “I still think I’m competitive in the
weight division, so we’ll keep going.”
Having completed his most recent contract with the promotion, Hughes (43-7) plans to meet with UFC President Dana White to iron out the details of a new deal, though he remained non-committal when talk turned to how much gas might be left in his tank.
Hughes hinted at a desire for potential rematches with reigning UFC welterweight king Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves, the last two men to defeat him. The sports top two 170-pound fighters will collide at UFC 100 on July 11 in Las Vegas.
“It will be interesting to watch Thiago and GSP go at it,” Hughes said. “That will be an interesting fight for me to watch.”
Newfound Aggression Spurs Machida
Not long ago, when Lyoto Machida was going the distance with the Sam Hogers, David Heaths and Kazuhiro Nakamuras of the world, some openly questioned whether or not he was fit for primetime. Those concerns seem to have been alleviated.
Machida (15-0) knocked out Rashad Evans in the UFC 98 main event to capture the light heavyweight championship in spectacular, crowd-pleasing fashion. He has finished three of his past four opponents inside the Octagon, melding newfound aggression with the patience and precision that has come to define him.
“It’s a little bit of a combination of I’ve been training with a new physical trainer, and I’ve also been working on being a lot more aggressive,” Machida said.
Machida's legend
grows.
He floored Evans in both rounds of their title fight and finished
the Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts standout with a lightning strike
of a left hook in the second round. Once he had Evans reeling,
Machida moved in for the kill. Soon after, his foe lay crumpled
beneath him, sleeping peacefully against the cage.
“At that particular moment, as soon as I hit him and I felt that he felt it, I knew in my heart that right then was the time that I had to go in and finish the fight, and that’s what I did,” Machida said. “[For] every fighter, I have a different strategy in my training because every fighter has different weaknesses. My goal is to study his weaknesses and try to capitalize off his mistakes.”
Growing in popularity, the Shotokan karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt remains undefeated and virtually untested 15 fights into his professional career. By the time he left the MGM Grand Garden Arena, people were drawing favorable comparisons between Machida and the great Fedor Emelianenko.
“It’s hard to match up with Machida karate,” he said. “That’s my base. Some guys have a base in jiu-jitsu; some have a base in muay Thai. My base is in Machida karate, and it’s a difficult style to understand.”
UFC Awards $240K in Bonuses
Brock Larson turned his submission skills into a hefty payday at UFC 98.
The former World Extreme Cagefighting welterweight title challenger banked a $60,000 “Submission of the Night” bonus after he coaxed a tapout from Xtreme Couture’s Mike Pyle with an arm-triangle choke. A last-minute replacement for Chris Wilson, Pyle raised the white flag 3:06 into the first round of their preliminary match.
Larson (26-2), who has lost only to world-ranked Jon Fitch and one-time WEC champion Carlos Condit, has made the most of his return to the UFC, as he has posted back-to-back first-round submissions. Based out of the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, the rugged 31-year-old has delivered 18 of his 26 career victories by submission. Larson has won five straight since his defeat to Condit at WEC 29 in August 2007.
Meanwhile, Hughes and Serra were awarded matching $60,000 “Fight of the Night” bonuses in wake of their competitive three-round battle. Judges awarded Hughes a unanimous decision by 29-28 scores.
“I thought I had it,” Hughes said. “I’m sure Matt thought the same thing.”
Serra (9-6), who has dropped back-to-back fights, thought he had done enough to pull out the victory, especially after he had taken down Hughes in the closing moments of round three.
“I knew it was close,” Serra said. “I knew I won the first round. I felt I lost the second, and I thought I squeezed out the third, personally. I really felt like it came down to that third round. With the foot sweep and I got on top and landed some good shots … I thought I squeezed it out. It was close. What are you going to do?”
Machida was the final beneficiary of the post-fight windfall. The Brazilian karate ace pocketed a $60,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus after he flattened Evans and won the UFC light heavyweight championship.
This & That
Drew McFedries -- who recently dealt with a career-threatening staph infection and the murder of his mother -- pointed a critical finger in the direction of the Miletich Fighting Systems camp after he stopped Xavier Foupa-Pokam in 37 seconds. The middleweight slugger has spent his entire career under mixed martial arts pioneer Pat Miletich. “I have to give credit to [boxing coach] Matt Pena, who has supported me through a lot of this,” McFedries said. “I really didn’t get a lot of support from actually my own team at MFS, which is sad; that’s my hometown. Being here with [former teammates] Matt Hughes and Robbie Lawler -- two champion level guys -- that was really motivating for me. It just put me in a positive mindset where I could go and do things without thinking about the death of my mother, the staph infection -- everything that’s gone on in my life in the past year.” The victory snapped a two-fight losing streak for McFedries, who also suffers from Crohn’s disease … Frankie Edgar became just the fourth man to defeat former lightweight champion Sean Sherk, joining Hughes, St. Pierre and B.J. Penn … Chael Sonnen’s win against former International Fight League champion Dan Miller was his first inside the Octagon since he defeated reigning Maximum Fighting Championship light heavyweight titleholder Trevor Prangley at UFC Fight Night 4 in April 2006 … Nine of Yoshiyuki Yoshida’s last 11 bouts, including his brutal knockout loss to Josh Koscheck in December, have ended inside one round. He finished Brandon Wolff with a first-round guillotine choke at UFC 98.
Hughes, the sport’s most accomplished welterweight, edged longtime rival Matt Serra by unanimous decision in the co-main event at UFC 98 “Evans vs. Machida” on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Despite rampant speculation that the bout might have been his last, the 35-year-old H.I.T. Squad founder believes he still has more to accomplish inside the Octagon.
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Having completed his most recent contract with the promotion, Hughes (43-7) plans to meet with UFC President Dana White to iron out the details of a new deal, though he remained non-committal when talk turned to how much gas might be left in his tank.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Hughes said. “DW and I will
get in a room; we’ll talk about it and figure it out. Like I’ve
always said before, I’m not going anywhere.”
Hughes hinted at a desire for potential rematches with reigning UFC welterweight king Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves, the last two men to defeat him. The sports top two 170-pound fighters will collide at UFC 100 on July 11 in Las Vegas.
“It will be interesting to watch Thiago and GSP go at it,” Hughes said. “That will be an interesting fight for me to watch.”
Newfound Aggression Spurs Machida
Not long ago, when Lyoto Machida was going the distance with the Sam Hogers, David Heaths and Kazuhiro Nakamuras of the world, some openly questioned whether or not he was fit for primetime. Those concerns seem to have been alleviated.
Machida (15-0) knocked out Rashad Evans in the UFC 98 main event to capture the light heavyweight championship in spectacular, crowd-pleasing fashion. He has finished three of his past four opponents inside the Octagon, melding newfound aggression with the patience and precision that has come to define him.
“It’s a little bit of a combination of I’ve been training with a new physical trainer, and I’ve also been working on being a lot more aggressive,” Machida said.
Photo by
Sherdog.com
“At that particular moment, as soon as I hit him and I felt that he felt it, I knew in my heart that right then was the time that I had to go in and finish the fight, and that’s what I did,” Machida said. “[For] every fighter, I have a different strategy in my training because every fighter has different weaknesses. My goal is to study his weaknesses and try to capitalize off his mistakes.”
Growing in popularity, the Shotokan karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt remains undefeated and virtually untested 15 fights into his professional career. By the time he left the MGM Grand Garden Arena, people were drawing favorable comparisons between Machida and the great Fedor Emelianenko.
“It’s hard to match up with Machida karate,” he said. “That’s my base. Some guys have a base in jiu-jitsu; some have a base in muay Thai. My base is in Machida karate, and it’s a difficult style to understand.”
UFC Awards $240K in Bonuses
Brock Larson turned his submission skills into a hefty payday at UFC 98.
The former World Extreme Cagefighting welterweight title challenger banked a $60,000 “Submission of the Night” bonus after he coaxed a tapout from Xtreme Couture’s Mike Pyle with an arm-triangle choke. A last-minute replacement for Chris Wilson, Pyle raised the white flag 3:06 into the first round of their preliminary match.
Larson (26-2), who has lost only to world-ranked Jon Fitch and one-time WEC champion Carlos Condit, has made the most of his return to the UFC, as he has posted back-to-back first-round submissions. Based out of the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, the rugged 31-year-old has delivered 18 of his 26 career victories by submission. Larson has won five straight since his defeat to Condit at WEC 29 in August 2007.
Meanwhile, Hughes and Serra were awarded matching $60,000 “Fight of the Night” bonuses in wake of their competitive three-round battle. Judges awarded Hughes a unanimous decision by 29-28 scores.
“I thought I had it,” Hughes said. “I’m sure Matt thought the same thing.”
Serra (9-6), who has dropped back-to-back fights, thought he had done enough to pull out the victory, especially after he had taken down Hughes in the closing moments of round three.
“I knew it was close,” Serra said. “I knew I won the first round. I felt I lost the second, and I thought I squeezed out the third, personally. I really felt like it came down to that third round. With the foot sweep and I got on top and landed some good shots … I thought I squeezed it out. It was close. What are you going to do?”
Machida was the final beneficiary of the post-fight windfall. The Brazilian karate ace pocketed a $60,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus after he flattened Evans and won the UFC light heavyweight championship.
This & That
Drew McFedries -- who recently dealt with a career-threatening staph infection and the murder of his mother -- pointed a critical finger in the direction of the Miletich Fighting Systems camp after he stopped Xavier Foupa-Pokam in 37 seconds. The middleweight slugger has spent his entire career under mixed martial arts pioneer Pat Miletich. “I have to give credit to [boxing coach] Matt Pena, who has supported me through a lot of this,” McFedries said. “I really didn’t get a lot of support from actually my own team at MFS, which is sad; that’s my hometown. Being here with [former teammates] Matt Hughes and Robbie Lawler -- two champion level guys -- that was really motivating for me. It just put me in a positive mindset where I could go and do things without thinking about the death of my mother, the staph infection -- everything that’s gone on in my life in the past year.” The victory snapped a two-fight losing streak for McFedries, who also suffers from Crohn’s disease … Frankie Edgar became just the fourth man to defeat former lightweight champion Sean Sherk, joining Hughes, St. Pierre and B.J. Penn … Chael Sonnen’s win against former International Fight League champion Dan Miller was his first inside the Octagon since he defeated reigning Maximum Fighting Championship light heavyweight titleholder Trevor Prangley at UFC Fight Night 4 in April 2006 … Nine of Yoshiyuki Yoshida’s last 11 bouts, including his brutal knockout loss to Josh Koscheck in December, have ended inside one round. He finished Brandon Wolff with a first-round guillotine choke at UFC 98.
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