Matt Hughes thinking about middleweight

speeds · Mar 8, 2009

What?

Hughes, who seems a fight or two away from retirement, isn't ruling out a move up to middleweight. You know, because fighting huge welterweights like Alves and St. Pierre has gone so well for him.

"When I was champion, I always thought about moving up, and actually I was going to do that before I did 'The Ultimate Fighter 2' if Evan Tanner would have beat Rich," Hughes said during this past Thursday's UFC Fight Club Q&A in Columbus, Ohio. "I would have bumped up to 185 to fight Evan Tanner for the show. That was the deal. The winner of Franklin and Tanner was going to be the other coach, and then us coaches would have fought again."

During his 11-year career, Hughes held the UFC's welterweight title from November 2001 to January 2004 and again from October 2004 to November 2006. The legendary run included seven title defenses and wins over notables such as Georges St. Pierre, B.J. Penn, Sean Sherk, Frank Trigg, Carlos Newton and even the legendary Royce Gracie.

While many consider the 35-year-old Hughes to be in the twilight of his career, and though the future UFC hall-of-famer has openly contemplated retirement on a few occasions, Hughes isn't opposed to jumping a weight class before he calls it quits.

But before doing that, Hughes said, he needs to take care of business in the welterweight division, where he's lost three of his past four fights (following a 19-1 run from 2001 to 2006). Ultimately, Hughes would like a shot at Anderson Silva, the UFC's seemingly invincible middleweight champion.

"I still would toy with the idea of moving up to 185 (pounds) to face Silva," Hughes said. "But I've got to square away things in my weight class before I do that, though."

He'll look to right the ship on May 23 when he meets "TUF6" rival coach Matt Serra at UFC 98.

Hughes (42-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC) said it's the last fight on his current contract.

"But that doesn't really mean anything," Hughes said. "The UFC knows I won't go anywhere else to fight."
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http://mmajunkie.com/news/14207/matt-hughes-not-ruling-out-a-future-move-to-middleweight.mma

Mamba · Mar 8, 2009

Throw him in there with Anderson Silva, Dana.

DennisRodman · Mar 8, 2009

A Wanderlei vs. Hughes fight 6 months ago would be a WW vs. LHW fight.

Obviously Hughes vs. anyone is a matchup fight. Hughes clearly would want every fight to go to the ground. His opponent would always have a reach advantage at MW.

A guy like Marquardt is pretty massive, and probably has good takedown defense to keep it standing.

However a Maia vs. Hughes fight would be interesting, Hughes although a wrestler, definitely has trained submissions for a while.

Celtic Fan · Mar 9, 2009

The REAL reason he wants to fight at 185 is he's had one too many country breakfast's and can't make the drop to 170Lbs anymore.

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Matt Hughes thinking about middleweight

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Matt Hughes thinking about middleweight

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