Filed under: UFC
When Matt Hughes steps into the Octagon against Josh Koscheck at UFC 135, it will be the 25th fight of his UFC career and the last on his current contract. The former champ turns 38 this October, and he's not sure what his future holds."My wife tells me I'm done fighting," Hughes told reporters on Monday's media call. "She wanted me to quit after the B.J. [Penn] fight. But we'll just see. We'll just see what I feel like and what the UFC wants to do."
If you're the UFC, a lot might depend on how Hughes looks against Koscheck. It's a pairing that Hughes wasn't eager to accept back when Koscheck and the other welterweights from the AKA squad lobbied for it a couple years ago. But after Diego Sanchez pulled out of the September 24 bout due to a broken hand, Hughes thought he might end up without any opponent at all in Denver.
"The first thing that went through my mind was, here I've been training for quite a while and expecting to fight on this card and now it's not going to happen. It was kind of confusing when [UFC president Dana White] called me," said Hughes, who added that he was first told he might be fighting another AKA 170-pounder, Jon Fitch.
That was the last he heard before boarding a flight, Hughes said. By the time he landed, he found out the UFC wanted him to face Koscheck instead.
"Really, it's Dana's call," he said. "It's not even my call to decide who it's going to be. So I said, yeah, whoever you want."
Coming off his knockout loss to Penn at UFC 123, Hughes had no problem with a considerable layoff between fights. Having ten months to train more casually and pursue other interests "is fine with me," he explained.
But as he approaches the final fight of his contract, it's difficult to tell what kind of future Hughes might have inside the Octagon. It seems unlikely that he'll ever again find himself as a top contender for the UFC welterweight title, and he's already secured his legacy as one of the most dominant UFC champions and a member of the organization's Hall of Fame.
At this point, what's driving him to keep getting in the cage with younger opponents who are still trying to make their name in the sport?
"It's competition," Hughes said. "I think that's what drives your top athletes in the UFC, getting in there against one other person and mixing it up. I don't have to rely on four other basketball teammates to score a basket or anything. I just have to rely on myself. The fact that it's just me and one other person competing in there, that's my drive right there."
According to many oddsmakers, Koscheck is somewhere in the neighborhood of a 5-1 favorite to beat Hughes on Saturday night. If they're right, you have to wonder where that will leave the former champ.
With two consecutive losses in his late-30s, a new contract for Hughes would seem like little more than an insurance policy to keep him from taking his talents outside the organization. With an upset victory over a top welterweight like Koscheck, however, it might only get harder for Hughes to convince himself that it's time to walk away.
But if his immediate future with the UFC really is riding on this fight, don't tell Hughes. He insists it doesn't matter, as if winning and losing in the final fight of your contract both lead to the same end. And, when you're in Hughes' position, maybe they do.
"This is the last fight on my contract, so the outcome of this fight won't really matter, to be honest," he said. "After this fight -- win or lose, doesn't matter -- I'll talk to the UFC and we'll figure out what we want to do."
If things don't go Hughes' way in Denver, it could be one more decision that is ultimately Dana White's call.
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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/09/20/in-last-fight-of-ufc-contract-matt-hughes-says-outcome-wont-r/
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