MMAVu

I’m toying with the idea of moving to 185 to fight Silva, But I have to square away things in my weight class before I do that. This sport is all about testing yourself and what you’re capable of.

Is a direct quote from Matt Hughes, in an interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. For his medulla oblongata’s sake, let’s hope Hughes is not serious, or believing he can do it.

He can’t even take care of the top dogs in his own weight class anymore, like Georges St. Pierre or Thiago Alves. BJ Penn was kicking his ass until separating a rib. I’d also guess that Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and maybe even Mike Swick would give Hughes all, if not more than he could handle. Next, we have the middleweight guys like Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami, Michael Bisping and Damien Maia. Do you really think Hughes could take out his bigger clone (Dan Henderson) at 185lbs? These were all guys, save Okami via DQ and Bisping/Maia that Silva handled with ease.

The time for Hughes to move up to 185 would have been 4 years ago, but that ship has long since sailed. Hughes is a great fighter still, but it’s a lost cause moving up in weight at this point in time.

The UFC 79 main event that never happened is now scheduled to go down on May 23, in Las Vegas. Finally.

The UFC spent all of TUF 6 building the match up, but it never happened due to a back injury suffered by Matt Serra. George St. Pierre stepped in for Serra, defeated Hughes, then defeated Serra for the Welterweight title at UFC 83, and Serra injured his elbow during the match, scrapping all of the UFC’s plans. Hughes would go on two months later to lose to Thiago Alves and injure his knee.

This fight has lost a lot of its lustre since December 2007, but it still has a decent amount of drawing power and interest thanks to the never-ending verbal war between the two Matts. We’ll see if Hughes is able to add at least decent striking to his game, otherwise he’ll be in for a long night against the “home run” throwing Serra.