Matt Serra: The Terror Rising

Matt Serra is less than a week away from his long awaited return to the UFC’s famed Octagon.  It is time for all of the trash talk to come to an end, and the gloves to start flying!  This fight has been a long time coming.  Matt Serra has been on top of the UFC as well as on the bottom.   Serra’s UFC ride can only be compared to a roller coaster.  This is his story.

Matt Serra’s up and down roller coaster ride all started with a competitive nature and the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Pan-Am games in 1999.  This victory led him to compete at the famed ADCC Submission Wrestling Championships.  This is where the best of the best join together to compete to achieve Absolute victory (pun intended).  Although he didn’t win a gold medal, his second place finish was very impressive.  ADCC is not made up of the best MMA fighters in the world.  It is a comnination of the best submission wrestlers that can be found.  I am talking about guy who go to the gym 6 days a week and not once slides on a set of boxing gloves.  They don’t hit bags, work kicks, or knees.  Their every day push is to make their opponant go to sleep.  They are the best of the best when it comes to ground fighting.

Up next for the Terror was a stint on the UFC’s money maker, The Ultimate Fighter.  On The Comeback (season 4), Serra would have the chance to avenge a highlight reel KO suffered against Mr. International Shonie Carter.  Serra did just that on his way to winning the UFC’s version of an MMA tournament.  The win was his one way ticket to a date with the 170 pound champ and tons of cash!

In April of 2007, Serra finally got his moment of glory.  As a huge underdog he stared across the cage at one of the best fighters in the world.  Serra was smaller, less athletic, and on paper had no chance to beat the Canadian GSP.  As we all know too well, that paper…yea you know what you can do with it.  In what will be his defining moment, Matt Serra threw a haymaker!  It landed and it was all over but the crying for the champ.  Matt Serra suddenly owns the 170 pound division.  Say what you want about the shot, it landed and Serra was champ!

Conflict makes for a great fight, so it was no surprise when Matt Serra was locked up to coach on season 6 of TUF against Matt Hughes.  Throughout the season, Serra and Hughes seemed to guiniunly dislike one another.  This was not hype, they really just want to fight.  On the show Serra started off on fire, but burned out early as the finale was a fight between Hughes’ fighters.

Now lets fast forward.  GSP has regained the title, and has not truly been in jeopardy of losing it at any time.  Hughes has faded from his dominating form, and the time is now for the two Matts to face off.  The weigh-ins are going to be great.  Will there be any pushing or shoving?  Who knows, but MMAOpinion will be on top of all things UFC 98 this week.  If you have not signed up for our UFC 98 contest, you are missing out!

Matt Serra’s ride in the UFC has been up and down, his camp is hoping that his long awaited return to the cage will be the next up of his career.  Currently Serra is the underdog on most of the betting websites.