Since when is Hughes a grappler? And of course Hughes is washed up. GSP beat all the fight out of him. He knows he will never be a champion again. So what is his motivation, Serra? He will get that fight win or lose to Alvez. Hughes has seen his best days, its over and Alvez will show you that. You’ll see.

Grappler, ground guy, ok dictionary Pete. Point is Alves wants to stand and bang, Hughes wants to go to the Matt and submit him or GnP his face in. By your calculations Rich Franklin is also washed up. Maybe it hasn’t occured to you but these guys want to prove their dominance. They want to prove they are going to beat everyone that come to face them, so regardless of wether or not Hughes will ever hold the title again, he will keep fighting to win. If it was how you say it is, then Hughes would be done fighting now cause he knows he wouldn’t beat GSP. Hughes will dominate Alves, then he’ll move on to beat Serra. My next guess is after that he would probably face either Diego, Kos, or Fitch. Pull your head out of your ass cause now Franklin, Sherk, and Hughes are all washed up cause they can’t beat the guys that hold the titles in their weight classes. Well not many people think anyone in those three weight classes can beat the champs anyway so I suppose the champs to beat are Hughes Franklin and Sherk. If you can’t beat these guys then you stand no chance at beating the champs of their respective weight classes. This is a fact until proven otherwise, let Alves try his hand but he’ll lose and then you will see that you are too quick to jump on a wagon thats going to crash.

So if he can’t be champ again he’s washed up? Is Franklin washed up? Sherk? didn’t think so, thats a weak statement to make dude, and when Hughes submits Alves hopefully you can be a man and admit that you were quick to judge. Hughes works primarily on the ground, the common fights were ground guys against strikers and ground guys usually won. It is true, just going with the numbers here.

grapplers used to dominate strikers, but right now strikers are working very hard on their wrestling, and if matt can’t take this down he is gonna get killed in 2 minutes.

Smokes, Hughes has said himself he only has a few fights left in him. Do you consider that in his prime? Or is that “over the hill” or “washed up”, whatever you want to call it. I have never heard Franklin or Sherk talk of retirement. His only chance is to lay and pray and I just believe Alvez will expose him. If Alvez loses I will humbly apoligize.

bnf:

look at who he’s lost to in the past 5 years. To say he’s washed up is to mark, Liddell, Franklin, Sherk, all of them, washed up. Is that what you’re saying? I hope not because that is a pretty fact-less, retarded statement.
GSP and BJ PENN are his only losses in years. And the statement he made about “only having a few left in him” was made in jest on TUF because of family issues. Since then he’s recanted his statement and said he has plenty of fight left in him. You’re just another Hughes-Hater who can’t stand the fact that at the end of the day, regardless of his loss to GSP, Hughes is the greatest Welterweight of all-time, holding over 40 wins with only 6 losses.

The only hope Alves has is knocking him out. Otherwise, Hughes dominates this fight. And when that happens, we’ll all see who’s washed up.

Ok Ok all you Hughes lovers. I am a hater. But, seriously who has he beaten in the past few years that makes you think he still has it? Is it Lytle, a broken BJ, 40 year old Gracie, Riggs? Who is it? I am of the opinion that he is well past his prime and Alves is one of the young guys that is the future of the division. I also think Koscheck, Fitch, and Diego would all beat him today. And why do you all keep mentioning Franklin and or even Lidell? They have taken their loses and moved on and are both coming off wins. After he lost to GSP I have never seen a fighter more deflated and beaten up mentally and physcially. He has yet to fight since that last defeat to GSP. So, maybe he will come out guns blazing and you can all point and laugh at me. I just don’t think it will happen.

we will see.

Lytle, Royce, and Riggs are nothing to scoff at. Yes, Bj was broken, but Hughes broke him. B.J. din’t enter the fight with a broken rib, it broke while fighting Hughes. I think Hughes takes this fight. I would love to see him hit one of his slams again.

BNF: I will back you up… Hughes hasnt done anything impressive in a while and he usually undertrains for most of his fights. Alves is training his ass off trying to make a name off beating Hughes, I doubt tha Hughes will be working as hard as Tiago.

Thiago will win this fight…Takedown defense isnt that hard to improve on….Just look at what Machida did to Tito. Wasnt the Big, Strong, Tito supposed to just take Machida dopwn and manhandle him?…..Didnt go that way did it. Tiago has a great camp and is very hungry fighter… I REALLY SEE TIAGO WINNING THIS FIGHT!

Hughes hasnt SLAMMED anyone in a long ass time….U guys holding on to the hopes that Hughe will slam Thiago are in for a rude awakening…

Prediction Hughes gets Bombarded with low kicks EARLY, then he will EAT a Shin or Knee to the Chin, and then Hopefully he wil retire!

Alright, someone has my back. Totally agree John.

Sorry I haven’t had a chance to comment back but here you go. I know the Hughes slam isn’t coming back, not many people know why he did such a slam considering you can lose your control of the other guy and he can end up on top. The slam was earlier in his career and it was used to get help from his corner which he doesn’t need as much anymore. Its just a really cool looking attack that gets a crowd riled up so we’d like to see it again. Also you named guys who were strikers, grapplers, and veterans of the sport who Hughes not only took down but he dominated each of them. When making an arguement its best not to point to a fight where someone was dominated. What your doing man is calling Hughes a has been based on fights that have not been. You get me, its fair to label him that if he were to lose to Alves or anybody else in the division but he hasn’t so your premature. Also to John I don’t mean to be rude but have you ever wrestled? Defending a takedown is very very hard when the level of the takedown is increased. Defending a takedown against a guy like Tito is easy because you keep him a bit at distance with strikes but for someone who will eat a punch he’ll get right in on you which gives him more force to snap you at your knees or hips or do a twist to take you down. I think your getting a little ahead of yourselves when it comes to Hughes, his takedowns are extrodinary and his skill on the ground is just as great. Alves best chance of standing with Hughes is to utilize his stikes more than his legs, his knees aren’t bad to use but if he kicks they can be caught. I suppose my only advice to you two is to just chill until after the fight, then you’ll be justified in calling him a has been if he loses. But until then just continue giving your educated arguements on the fight and not biased opinions on a certain fighter.

Smokes, totally respect your opinion. My point in bringing up those names is that in his last 6 fights he is 4-2 and the wins were not top competition (except maybe broken BJ). And as far as giving biased opinions that is all this site is about. We are not journalists reporting the news, we are fans giving our opinions.

Your right we are fans giving opinions but opinions can be wrong. So using facts to take apart opinions is what we do. I like that you said in the last 6 fights, but who did the losses come from? One guy so the arguement is still unwarrented. Not only did they come from one guy but they came from the current residing champ and the current number 1 P4P fighter(arguably GSP or Silva). His last 10 fights he is 7-3 only losing to the two current champs of the LW and WW divisions. That adds in a win against GSP himself, Trigg, and Renato V. The man has an over all record of 42-6 and has lost to 4 different guys. Thats a very impressive record and never once has he ducked a fighter. The point of the arguement still remains, you don’t have enough evidence to convince anyone that Hughes is over the hill, he may want to retire at some point in time but remember what happened when everyone was questioning Randy for being over the hill after he came back from retirement? and Randy didn’t even beat anyone important IMO, he beat a lazy Sylvia and an overrated Gonzaga and people called him the best in the world. Hughes has defended the title more times than anyone and as soon as he losses to an extremely skilled competitor he is written off. So what happens when Hughes fights Serra and dominates him in one fight as opposed to two like GSP, you guessed it and I knew you were thinking it but Serra is not top competition. Well I hope he does face Kos, Diego, and Fitch because the only guy who stands a chance in my mind out of the whole WW division (excluding GSP and Penn) is Kos. IMO

Oh yee of little faith…..Alves is winning this fight. I look forward to the payday!

I’ll take your word this time around.

Thank You~!

Thiago comes from a great camp and is extremely hungry…Hughes constantly undertrains for fights.
There shouldnt be any doubt in anyone’s mind who will be training harder for this fight and that will be Thiago.

THiago will show improved takedown defense because its an area that isnt to hard to improve on…..Look at what Machida did to Tito’s takedown attempts.

Early in the fight Thiago will pepper Matt’s legs with Kicks, eventually Hughes will EAT a shin or Knee to the face….Fight over

Remember, Karo and his gorilla strength was also supposed to take Alves down and beat him up….Didnt quit work out that way did it?

See my above comment, takedown defense isn’t something that is easy to do. You can learn it easy but to be able to defend a great takedown is alot harder than you think. If that was the case then the strikers of these days would be dominating the grapplers and wrestlers every fight. Its hard to defend a takedown when you swing at someone hit him in the face and he drops to your hips and tackles you. Its hard to defend a takedown when your balancing on one leg and the guy has your other leg tightly gripped or even when both are gripped then you’ve got no balnce what so ever. I’ll tell you what thought if takedowns are so easy to defend I would like to think that defending a punch is pretty easy to do as well. I suppose this fight will be going no where since Hughes could learn to defend a punch in a day and Alves can learn to defend a takedown in a day. Its all good.

They won’t fight again, and thats also why the guy said only guy at WW. Its a dumb thing that everyone has to point that out everytime someone says that GSP is the only guy above Hughes. The point of saying GSP can beat Hughes is just to say a top 3 P4P guy can beat Hughes, ok so Penn can also (although he did lose his last match against him) so now 2 top 3 P4P guys can beat him lol I’m sure if he moved up to MW Silva could beat him also. Anything else you’d like to point out? Bottom line Hughes is still a dominate proven WW. Alves will not beat him.

fact!

Why is everyone saying they wont fight again? Hughes has said he is retiring soon, but he hasn’t given a date, or number of fights left (has he?)… BJ has stated his intent to go up to WW soon. Should he get GSP right way, or should he have to prove he is worthy of fighting the champ?

I am not saying they will fight, but I think it is premature to say they will not. So no, it isn’t dumb to point out that there is another guy who can beat Hughes at 170.

If you are going to say that GSP is the only guy that can beat hughes because you ignore people you think hughes will not fight, that is pretty lame…

Chances are BJ will go right up against GSP, there is almost no doubt in my mind on this one. It would be a champion vs champion kind of deal but the reason Hughes and Penn3 won’t happen is because Hughes is retiring. Dana is a big Hughes fan and doesn’t need him to lose to Penn to tarnish his record. Penn doesn’t even have Hughes in his sights because he knows the outcome. The biggest thing to come from this is a big payday but Hughes, Penn, and Dana are not calling for this. Penn is asking to skip right past earning a title shot and go straight for the champ and since he put up a good fight his first fight he will probably get it. Does this kinda explain why people don’t think the fight will happen. The only way I see it happening is if Penn beats GSP, then Hughes might get a title shot against Penn.

I think you are missing the point of my reply thought. The point of saying GSP is the only guy to beat Hughes is to point out that he is not washed up, bringing up Penn to correct somebody just gets annoying. Hughes fans know Penn has beaten him but for now Penn is in the LW category and we don’t need to focus on him. I’ll start saying Penn and GSP can beat Hughes when Penn moves up the the WW division. If you’d like I could also add that Dennis Hallman can beat Hughes to but ya know he’s not in the UFC. But there is potential maybe someday he’ll come fight for the UFC you never know.

Do you think Hallman would beat Hughes again? I don’t…

I am not trying to say Hughes isn’t great, but I think that Penn would beat him again, if they fought again (only losing to Penn and GSP is damn impressive). If you think so too, then don’t imply otherwise. And if you must imply otherwise, don’t get frustrated when someone else chimes in with a differing opinion.

Better hope your boy GSP is making any assumptions about getting past Fitch like you are.

Don’t you worry TonyDrip.

GSP is down in Brazil for 2 weeks training BJJ with Gracie Barra and Nova Unaio - as well as working on his boxing and wrestling down there with other top guys in each discipline.

Yeah, nothing to take away from GSP - he’s a Pro! I just get irritated with everyone talking about GSP vs Penn for the title when they could be fighting for the #1 contender spot.

BJ did not break his rib against Hughes.

And it’s not like BJ just injured his rib walking around the octagon. It got hurt because he wasn’t strong enough to hold up to the downward pressure Hughes puts out when on top. Those gogoplata attempts are nice until Hughes begins to crush you.

LMAO. Good stuff, James S.

You’re probably more accurate with what will happen if Thiago wins. Diego Sanchez would be a step down from beating Matt Hughes.

Diego is a (small) step down from GSP, but that’s about it in that division.

Hughes v Serra will happen win or lose against alves! likely november or december