Comments on: Matt Hughes’ UFC 87 picks

By: rematch now

rematch now — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:30:22 +0000

matt hughes is one of the most overrated fighters of all time. Now don’t get me wrong he was without a doubt one of the most dominating middle weights of his era. However here is a better analogy in basketball michael jordan dominate slashing to the lane with spectacular dunks and reverse lay ups. Basketball evovled cause of this and at the same time jordan began getting older. So jordan changed his game turn around jump shots more team play and strategy. Matt hughes brought unstoppable wrestling power to the table he cause the sport to evolve unfortunately unlike jordan he did not evolve with it.

By: RAY

RAY — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:58:40 +0000

matt might have been very good for his time but what does he do circl and try to take you down, you wouldent consider tito is the best 205p of all time, both tito and matt ufc records are similar. this sport is evalving great complete fighters unless your realy good at takeing people down when they know your going to take them down fighters are just going to adjust,if matt is unwilling to pose a treat on his feet well his last two fight speek for them selfvs. as for gsp ranking for pfp of cours anderson is 1 if not for fedor. but i woudnt consider him below Bj after all he did beat Bj whether Bj was not in shape or at the top of his game he showed up fight and lost but hopfully soon this will be answered because even thow Bj sais hes in the best shape of his life we havent seen him go past two round? ps matt is a hater

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:36:33 +0000

No, I don’t see Hughes as the best 170 ever. Hughes, has achieved a very impressive record but he’s only 34 and he has no career limiting injuries. At Hughes’ age, he should be able to put up a formidable fight against GSP or Thiago Alves. Hughes’ EXPERIENCE should give him a tremendous edge over these guys, but it does not because he is NOT a complete mma fighter. I don’t think Hughes would stand a very good chance against Fitch either. Again, Hughes will usually lose to any fighter that has good striking and very good take down defense.

With Hughes’ experience, he should be able to EVOLVE and he should be climbing his way up to the top. In fact, with his experience, Hughes should be many steps ahead of the rest of the 170 pound fighters, but he is not. Hughes is a fighter who has had a great run at the top, but he is NOT the best 170 ever.

By: Curtis

Curtis — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:19:01 +0000

Although I used MJ and Jerry Rice, I never tried to use their sport’s as a comparison. I understand that the differant sports are/ were in differant places.

Do you feel that Hughes is the best and most dominating 170 ever? That is what his Hall of Fame plaque will say…

Is age an excuse, no… but not everyone ages the same. For every Foreman there are 20 that could not continue to get better with age.

By: Brandt DeLorenzo

Brandt DeLorenzo — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:35:00 +0000

Rick…a little harsh there!

I wouldn’t say he’s not a complete fighter. He focuses on wrestling, but so do many other wrestler-turned-MMA fighters. Even Brock Lesnar, who hasn’t wrestled legitimately (WWE doesn’t count) for years, spent most of his last fight on the ground trying to win on points. Hughes shouldn’t use age as an excuse, but instead, he should remind us that he has fought competitively through 50 professional MMA bouts. And while Jeremy Horn has had over 100, every fighter is different and Hughes may have just burned out.

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:28:51 +0000

Curits, it is laughable when you say: “At this point matt hughes is the best 170 of all time… So they (MJ and HUGHES) really could be compared.” I DISAGREE 100%

In addition, I don’t think that the Jerry Rice analogy is very good either, but it’s not as silly as the MJ comparison. Rice played in the NFL. The NFL had been around for many years prior to Rice and there were many amazing players who played WR before Rice. Jerry Rice shattered the records of so many players (in the WR postion) before him. By comparison, MMA is still in its infancy, so even the Jerry Rice comparison is not a very good one. He (Hughes) is the “best 170 of all time.” How long of a time has it been?? Not a very long time when comparing it to the NFL or the NBA. The (“Hughes is the best 170 pound fighter of all time”) statement is utter hyperbole.

And as for age, Randy has performed much better in his last two fights, than Matt Hughes has in his last two fights. As we all know Randy’s legal issues have tied him down and prevented him from fighting. Randy beat Tim Sylvia and took the UFC belt away from him when Randy was well OVER 40 YEARS OLD. Hello?? Tim Sylvia was the former UFC champ, remember? Tim gave Nog a good fight recently; Tim is no slouch. Althoug Randy would lose to Fedor, Randy was the UFC champion when he was past the AGE OF 40. Hughes is not even 35 yet, HUGHES HAS NO EXCUSE WHEN IT COMES TO AGE. George Forman(boxer) had some great fights and victories in his older days too.

Face it Matt Hughes CANNOT USE AGE AS AN EXCUSE and HUGHES is NOT a COMPLETE mma fighter and he is OVERRATED.

By: Curtis

Curtis — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:44:39 +0000

Ray,
I never compared the two, I just used MJ as an example… But since you brought it up MJ is the best of all time…agree?

At this point matt hughes is the best 170 of all time… So they really could be compared. A better comparison would be say of Jerry Rice being the best WR ever, not the best football player ever. hughes is the best 170 ever, not the best fighter ever.

Sure he can use age… Randy beat Gonzaga who is pretty much out of the title chase for the moment. I am a Randy fan but to say he is making huge strides of late would be foolish, I mean how long has it been since he fought. For all we know he has been getting rusty, does he actually have time to lose a fight due to ring rust?

Do you have GSP ahead of Silva and Penn in the your own P4P ranking?

By: RAY

RAY — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:25:28 +0000

MATT SEAMS TO BE JELOUS OF GSP AND FOR I WOULD NOT COMPAIR HIM TO BRET, BRET HAS MUCH MORE CLASS BUT YOU BE THE JUDGE QUOT FROM HIS BLOG “The last fight of the night was Georges and Fitch. Georges didn’t look as big as he has before and he seemed like he had gotten tired from the first round. Fitch had the game plan of countering Georges and you just can’t do that. You can’t counter a quicker fighter. To be honest, halfway in the third round I got up and walked out of the arena and went to my hotel. The fight wasn’t the most exciting and I wanted to get out of there before everyone else was getting up to leave.” OH YA PER MATT GSP IS OUT OF THE RUNNING FOR POUND FOR POUND BEST FIGHTER DOES HE NEED TO BE REMINDED THAT GSP TAPED TAHT ASS!!

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:10:36 +0000

Well Brandt DeLorenzo, at least we can agree on the fact that Hughes cannot use age as an excuse.

It is very obvious that Hughes has virtually no standup and that makes him an INCOMPLETE mma fighter. All you need to do is watch his fights over again and see.

Enjoy the fights tonight!

By: Brandt DeLorenzo

Brandt DeLorenzo — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:53:39 +0000

Well Hughes was also younger, had fewer fights, and continued to rely on a game plan which wasn’t as outdated at the time. I’m not totally disagreeing with you, but I just feel he has lost his touch for other reasons.