“… it seems to me when Koscheck lost his last fight to St. Pierre, he’s been changing it up a little bit, and that’s all I’m asking for. I don’t care if you try to take me down, that’s part of the sport, just don’t hold me and not do anything…. Avoid the takedown [is the gameplan]. But really avoid the laying down and having him pull a Matt Hughes on me. My main goal is to create space. If I’m on bottom, I’ve got to create space to make it difficult for him to control me. I just can’t let him dictate what’s going to happen in the fight.”
– Welterweight Chris Lytle shares his thoughts with FCFighter.com on his upcoming bout with Josh Koscheck at UFC 86: “Jackson vs. Griffin” at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 5. Koscheck is perhaps a more dominant wrestler than Hughes. And in his fight with Hughes, Lytle spent a majority of the 15 minutes on his back defending submissions. It was boring.
May 9th, 2008
47 Comments »
good luck w/ that idea chris
That’s just Chris playing mind games. He is trying to bait KOS. I don’t see KOS losing this one. KOS via boring decision.
WOW, well put. while Matt Hughes is the most dominant WW ever (so far), but he is strong as an ox, and does love to hold guys down. His stand up sucks! his one dimensional style can’t match up with todays athletes
Please name examples besdies GSP.
You have none. If you bash Hughes wait for him to lost to more than one person please. BJ would possibly beat Hughes as well but so far we have 2 P4P guys… Hughes is the Franklin of the WW division, show some respect.
when did you become a fan smokes??? BJ already beat Hughes my friend!
I am picking Lytle in an upset!!!!!!
BUT, more recently, Hughes beat BJ.
I’m going with Kos in this one. I believe that he will take the Matt Hughes approach and grind out a decision.
However, each round starts on the feet, and Hazelett had Kos rocked, so imagine what Lytle could do? However, Lytle will be able to do very little to avoid the takedown in this fight. Kos will have complete control on whether the fight is taking place standing, or on the ground.
i will wait to pass judgement on hughes until after the alves fight. i have alot of respesct for him as a fighter, but not so much a person(doesnt matter). he has no stand-up at all and never has. thats not very well-rounded. if he beats alves i will agee a/your statement about comparing him to rich. b.j. is another i would add to gsp as being better than hughes.after those 2 though its just wait and see about guys like alves,fitch,diego,kos and davis. and as i have stated before i give much props to matt for taking the alves fight when he could have waited for serra. it puts him in a little different perspective to me.
BW: Like you, I respect Hughes as a fighter, after all he has done a lot for the sport……as a person, i think he is just trash!
I do give him props for tsking the Alves fight even though in his mind its a great match up, so I see his logic for taking the fight. After all, Its no secret what Hughes’s equation for a successfiul fighter is: Strength + Wrestling = a win.
His equation is out dated because in today’s mma, you have to be well rounded (something that Hughes clearly is not). There is NO EXCUSE for being in the sport this long and still having no stand up!
Look at how much fighters like Lytle, Davis and Koschek have evolved…. Hughes is still extremely 1 dimensional…all he has is a ground game. He is however better then Tito, because at least his ground game involves passing guard and ju jitsu.
By next year, all these 1 trick, 1 dimensional ponies will realize that they cant keep up with Today’s Cross Training MMA fighter!
“as a person, i think he is just trash!”
Not just picking out you John, but I’d like to know where all this negative view on Hughes as a person came from.
Hughes has always respected the fighters he has fought and always brought his A-game into a fight. He is a great ambassador of the sport and helped push the UFC during it’s growth stage in the early 90’s, not by just giving us thrilling fights, but by pushing the image through marketing, etc.
On TUF he was always the one NOT running his mouth. It was the midget from Long Island talking all the trash. Trash that he has no room to talk. The guy has been beat by a lot of mid-carders.
Hughes “extremely 1 dimensional” style has led to him being a 9-time defending champ who has only lost to GSP and BJ PENN in the last 7 years. Hughes is 34. Liddell is pushing 40 and Couture is well into his 40’s.
I’ll say he’s over the hill when he starts dropping fights against people other than the Top Tier of the sport.
Give the future Hall of Famer some credit. Along with Couture and Liddell, Hughes carried UFC on his back.
PS: Who the hell is Chris Lytle to say anything? He’s a stepping stone for great fighters!
TYPO: the early 2000’s not 90’s
Cool Hand chad: I’ll tell you where hughes disrespected someone , the first time he fought GSP in his pre fight interview he said “I’m going to win, cause who’s gonna lose a street fight to a french-canadian”, how about when gsp got knocked out by matt serra and hughes was standing there going “i love it, i love it” into the camera, and how about when hughes was a guest coach on TUF the comeback and he sat there bashing Royce Gracie on tv “did you like that beat down?” lol, respects other fighters? I think not… And as far as him being 1 dimensional, he definatley has been, yes it’s worked but it’s similiar to how jits was relativly unknown by most people and difficult to defend against. As it got around and people picked up on it it got harder and harder to throw on the submissions. Same with wrestling, Hughes is coming into an age where his stand up will be a factor, and unfortunatley his is pretty weak.
Totally agree with kevin. Matt hughes has had a good career but lets face it. he hasnt beaten the best out there. he dominated at a time where one dimensional fighters ruled, but he has never evolved the way the sport has. He is still a one dimensional fighter. He would have lost to bj had penn not gotten hurt. Yes, he’s beaten frank trigg twice but besides that, he really hasnt beaten the greatest fighters in the world. To say carlos newton and joe riggs are best ww of all time is a joke. hughes will lose to alves unless he does the same thing he did wit lytle, take him down and lay on top of him. He’s simply a dumb farm boy and i hope he’s used as a doormat for up and coming ww like alves and kos who can expose his game for what it really is.
His one demensional fighting was still good enough to beat some of the guys that people warship now like GSP, Penn. Penns fans hold on to the saying that “Penn would have won if not for” SHUT UP! Penn got his face pounded to the mat. Was not Royce Gracie one of the best? And Hughes made him look like shit. You don’t have to be a fan, but you should give credit where credit is do. Hughes past his prime now is still better than all WW out there with the exception of a few.
Royce was one of the best oh about 15 years ago.
I do not like Hughes’ attitude but he beat everyone put in front of him (minus GSP/BJ). That is the mark of a champion. He does show some one dimensional skill set but let’s give him a chance. Lets see what he has vs. Alves. Show him the respect he deserves.
Bobby O’shea: “hughes has had a good career but lets face it, he hasn’t beaten the best out there”
Let’s look at all the “one dimensional fighters” he beat according to your retarded comment:
Carlos Newton (twice)
Sean Sherk
Frank Trigg (twice)
BJ Penn
GSP
Royce Gracie
A few of those guys are still at the top of the sport RIGHT NOW.
Gracie’s only loss is to Hughes, in which he got beat with his own BJJ, by a supposed 1 dimensional wrestler.
Give me a fucking break.
a little cheap shot for the most dominant welterweight ever
To Chris Lytle: Stop crying and improve your wrestling. If you don’t want to be taken down, leave MMA and go compete in kickboxing. Plenty of strikers in MMA have great takedown defense — suck it up, crybaby.
UHM!!!! can you read? he said don’t lay on me and do nothing, he also said going to the ground is fine, don’t lay on me and do nothing. Next time read the post then comment.
That’s like asking Davis not to Punch you in the face… If you get pinned for 15min or KO’d you lose either way. Rob’s correct, stop pre-bitchin and use this time to improve your take down defense. Wilson had great take down defense against Fitch…
I just hope he doesn’t use his strength against me….LOL. Maybe if Lytle agrees not to throw bombs, Kos will agree to not use his wrestling.
If wrestling means you lay on someone then I hope KOS doesn’t use it. Because thats what Lytle said dude, don’t lay on me.
Wrestling does mean you lay one someone. You aren’t supposed to submit in wrestling.
I’m sorry I didn’t finish, he said don’t lay on me and do nothing, that style of wrestling has no place in mma. Lets not talk about how good it is now, and then bash him after the fight for laying and praying.
I love Lytle to pull off the upset in this fight. Koscheck thinks his stand-up is much better than it is, therefore he will probably try to trade with Lytle and will get KTFO. His only chance will be to dry hump his way to victory, but he is just too stupid to do that.
i hope lytle pulls this one off.
I hate Hughes, but everyone should be able to admit he was damn good. He finished fights, he didn’t just lay there. lol What a clown, I might actually have to root for Hughes for once.
Hughes vs Lytle was as painful to watch as Koscheck vs Sanchez. How he struggled and layed on top of Lytle in this boring fight is one of the main reasons I think Alves is going to beat him.
I think Lytle is going to win this one.
i’m not worried about Kos’ standup. he’s been at AKA for a couple fights now and already outboxed diego. lytle aint going to walk up to kos and ko him like he did bradley. this quote sound like reverse psychology. i’m more worried about Kos submission defense. he’ll need it the most in this fight if the fight does go to the ground. Hazelett almost sunk the triangle on him but got saved by the bell. also some sledgehammer elbows to the temple by kos would be nice.
I agree with you about Kos’ standup. He’s not on Lytle’s level, but he’s got decent stand up. Lytle doesn’t have Hazelett’s skills on the ground though. I don’t think he’s as dangerous when it comes to BJJ.
Hazelett is a brown belt I think. If Lytle is expecting to be taken down like he’s been announcing to the world, I’d expect him to be ready to with something on the mat or else he’s an idiot. 3 of his last 4 wins were by submission & Kos’ shettiest aspect is submission defense or anything BJJ (in my opinion), unlike Fitch who looks comfortable against it. It looks like Lytle’s setting a trap, trying to exploit. That, or I’m way over thinking the whole situation! LOL interesting matchup either way. can’t wait for this 1.
He only beat Diego because he was sick as f**K with a staph infection, he actually thought he was ying the night before the fight. when Kos/Sanchez 3 happens you’ll be eating your words.
I agree too but I wouldn’t go as far as to see he out-boxed Diego. From I remember, and I may be wrong, Kos did win by points but he did just enough to etch out a win and nothing more. Plus, Diego was even contemplating retirement the day before the fight because of what they thought was hepatitis but turned out to be staph.
Kos, as you say, for sure needs to work on his submission defense and striking against someone like Lytle. He’ll be a scary dude in a couple of years.
On a side note, I still want to see Diego v Koscheck II as a healthy Diego doesn’t have boring fights.
Kosh is a nut hugger. I hope Lytle knocks him out.
He’s just trying to get Kos to stand with him with little mind games. Basicallt asking him not to be boring.
WOW I like Lytle and never thought he’d wine about being dominated in a loss. Hey Chris Im rooting for you but why dont you say what really happened against Hughes…he was better than you and you did a great job at defending his submissions. Hughes went for submissions each time it went to the ground. Lost a little respect for Lytle but he’s still one of my “never gonna make it to the top guys”
Kos seems to be hellbent on proving he’s the next Floyd Mayweather… All he seems to be working is his striking. If he was clever he would build his MMA skills on top of his wrestling and develop into a stong “ground and pounder”. The closest I’ve seen to this was his decisive win over Goulet, where he rocked him on the feet then took him down and battered him senseless.
Kos’s stubbornness will be his ultimate downfall and he’ll stand and strike with the wrong guy… We know now that anyone can get caught (Chuck and GSP have both proved that point), therefore Josh needs to adopt a more intelligent and calculated approach. Kos is a reckless striker, he opts for fast “Overhand Rights” rather than skillfully picking people apart.
Lytle will outbox him for the first round then Josh will dry hump him for the decision.
Fin
My thoughts exactly, except I think Lytle will get the KO before the dry humping begins.
I don’t think there is a fighter out there that I despise more than Kos.
Grudgingly, though, I have to admit that he is naturally talented and has picked up striking very quickly. Every time I see him, he improves his game (w/ the exception of the GSP fight).
Odds are Lytle will out box if Kos decides to stand. Agreed. But Kos would not surprise me if it ends up being the other way around by out boxing Lytle.
Actually I think Hughes is pretty active on the ground. What he does is he makes sure he gets position before he fires away. Fighting for position is very subtle and can seem boring but only to the untrained eye.
Many of you guys claim hughes is one dimensional but what does one dimensional mean?
To me, one dimensional does not mean having either a good ground or stand up game. I agree with several people on here that Hughes’ style is primarily wrestling but he’s also an outstanding bjj practioner. That’s two in my book. Let’s not also forget his incredible strength and cardio.
To me, one dimensional is like Tank. That is, only a striker. No wrestling, cardio, bjj, agility…
BTW, I really dislike Hughes but I acknowledge his dominance in the octagon even though he never convincingly beat top competition. I agree with Rogan and Serra, Hughes is a dick.
Matt is NOT not an outstanding BJJ practitioner. The dude looks like any other wrestler from the bottom. Scared.
Matt IS I don’t see how you think that being that he’s submitted GSP, Trigg, Riggs and many others with bjj. Plus, his bjj defense is another reason why he’s great at it.
I don’t think all (”any other” = all) wrestlers in MMA are scared from the bottom either. There are plenty around that aren’t.
I guess we disagree… except I’ve offered reasons why I think the way I do.
Kos has said in an interview after the GSP fight that he wanted to focus on putting all the MMA styles together like GSP, and I think he’s going to show that here. He is becoming a well rounded fighter and will most likely dominate the majority of this fight.