Tuesday, May 19, 2009
by Mike Whitman (mwhitman@uoregon.edu)

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After more than a year of trash talking and anticipation, Matt Hughes will finally face rival Matt Serra in what could be the country boy’s last rodeo.

The co-main event of UFC 98 “Evans vs. Machida” this Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the fight represents the culmination of the personal feud between the two, which dates back to the fall of 2007 when they coached against each other on season six of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series.

The two coaches were originally slated to square off at UFC 79, but Serra was forced to withdraw with a back injury. The postponement of the grudge match has done little to quell the animosity between the two former welterweight champions, exemplified by a Hughes interview in which he revealed his wife has called for Serra’s blood. No doubt intent on complying with his spouse’s wishes, Hughes has put himself through another grueling training camp in preparation for the showdown.

Hughes’ base of operations is the H.I.T Squad Training Center, the Illinois gym he opened last year after parting ways with longtime coach Pat Miletich. Training with former EliteXC middleweight champion Robbie Lawler fulltime, Hughes also works with coaches Marc Fiore and Matt Pena on his grappling and boxing.

“We put on a seven-week training camp for this and took no time off,” Fiore says. “We did everything we needed to do. We got our cardio up. He’s in condition. He’s in shape. He’s very strong right now.”

Fiore, who has trained and cornered Hughes since 2002, says that despite the well-documented grudge, his fighter stays on an even keel.

“Is it easier to get motivated for this fight? Probably so, because there’s bad blood, but he’s a professional,” Fiore says. “He knows this is what he does for a living. Fighters get show money, and they get win money, and it’s always nice to get that win money.”

Hughes’ training has not been limited to the confines of his own gym, however.

“I’ve switched things up a little bit,” he says. “I went to a lot of training camps, went out a lot to different places and didn’t stay home near as much.”

One of those outside camps visited by Hughes (42-7) was Greg Nelson’s Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, home to former and current UFC champions Sean Sherk, Dave Menne and Brock Lesnar.

“We just basically got him into the fold of our training camp, and we all worked together,” Nelson says. “We have Sean training for Frankie Edgar. We have Brock Larson training for his fight the same weekend. [Hughes is] kind of the king of the hill at his own school, so it’s nice to come to another spot where they have a lot of guys who are high-level grapplers and high-level fighters that could put him in jeopardy and push him. And we worked on all the same stuff: punching to takedowns, submissions on the ground, full-on grappling, sparring, the whole ball of wax.”

Perhaps the biggest news coming out of the Minnesota camp is the state of Hughes’ cardio. According to Nelson, Hughes not only participated in Sherk’s tortuous endurance training but did not miss a step, going stride for stride with “The Muscle Shark.” Long considered to have one of the deepest gas tanks in the sport, Hughes may have just upgraded to a bottomless reserve, especially considering his showdown with Serra is only a three-round contest.

Hughes, who turns 36 in October, also spent time on the mat at Jeremy Horn’s Elite Performance Gym in Utah. A former Miletich Fighting Systems teammate for many years, Horn is well-acquainted with Hughes’ performance in the gym and the cage.

Edmund J. Coppa/Splash News

Hughes takes his bout with
Matt Serra (pictured) personal.
“Matt Hughes is one of the strongest, most physically gifted people I’ve ever met or trained with, and he’s been working really hard for this fight,” Horn says. “Physically, he looks bigger and better than I’ve ever seen him, at least for a long, long time.”

Hughes has not fought since suffering a technical knockout loss and knee injury to Thiago Alves at UFC 85, meaning he has spent a little less than a year on the shelf. Admittedly in the latter stages of a long and storied career, will the time off work for or against the future hall of famer?

“We’ve both had injuries, but that happens in our sport, as rough as we are on our bodies,” Hughes says. “I’m getting older now, so the time off was actually pretty nice.”

Perhaps the bigger question, however, is if the cringe-worthy knee injury sustained as a result of the Alves loss will limit the agility of the traditionally explosive wrestler. Hughes did not have surgery to repair his torn medial collateral ligament and partially torn posterior cruciate ligament, saying they grew back together naturally. Nelson does not believe the injury will affect his performance.

“When he was here, there was absolutely no glimmer of anything [wrong with the knee],” he says. “He wasn’t wearing a brace or nothing. He was just ready to go.”

As far as strategy goes, it seems a foregone conclusion among fans and media alike that Hughes’ best chance for victory lies in securing a takedown.

“Going with the statistics, it’s in our advantage if we get Serra on his back,” Fiore says. “I mean, you look at a lot of Matt’s wins; they’re from that position, where Matt’s on top of his opponent and he grinds ’em out, or he goes for a submission or goes for ground-and-pound. That’s where Matt is strong.”

Never considered a deadly striker, Serra (9-5), a Renzo Gracie Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, put his fists on the map in 2007, when he knocked out the heavily favored Georges St. Pierre to win the welterweight strap. While members of the Hughes camp would not concede that Serra has a decided stand-up advantage, they are game-planning specifically for the stocky New Yorker’s striking style.

“What you have to watch out for with Matt [Serra], more than anything, is that when he’s up on his feet, he holds nothing back,” Nelson says. “When he throws a punch, he’s going for it. It may not be pretty, but if it lands, you’re going to be in trouble. A lot of times, people always train for the guy who’s throwing the nice, straight punches and the pretty boxing, but what do you usually get hit by? The crazy shot that comes flying out of nowhere. I watched a lot of Matt Serra and kind of imitated the way he throws his punches and kind of threw wild shots at [Hughes], as well as clean shots.”

If Hughes can avoid getting clipped and score with takedowns, it seems likely he will unleash some of his world-famous ground-and-pound and walk away a winner in what all signs point to being his last fight. Retirements are seldom set in stone in the sports world, but if this turns out to be the two-time champion’s last walk to the cage, he will surely be remembered as one of MMA’s greatest fighters, regardless of the outcome. Of course, a win certainly would not hurt his legacy, and that’s exactly what Fiore predicts.

“Somehow, someway, Matt Hughes is going to get his hand raised on May 23,” he says. “Ground-and-pound, submission, that’s the way I think it’s going to be.”