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Matt Hughes: "GSP is not a great wrestler." Says Kos would eat him up pure wrestling.

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Matt Hughes: "GSP is not a great wrestler." Says Kos would eat him up pure wrestling.

Interesting comments from Hughes: http://fiveknuckles.com/mma-news/Ma...,-Jon-Fitch,-and-his-future-in-the-sport.html
Matt Hughes is a living legend.

When it's all said and done, the 9-time UFC welterweight champion will go down as a true pioneers of the sport and one of the first to successfully cross train disciplines at a high level.

Think Wilt Chamberlain, Babe Ruth and Johnny Unitas - early superstars who changed the way the game was played.

Already a Division I All-American wrestler at the start of his career in 1998, a young Matt Hughes worked hard under fellow grappling pioneer Pat Miletich to add high level jiu-jitsu to his devastating ground-and-pound - a practice which eventually enabled Hughes to become one of the sports' first dominant champions.

Now at 37 years of age and closing in on the twilight of his career, Hughes remains as relevant as ever. The Illinois native can still sell a fight card, still has fans hanging on his every word, and is still every bit as competitive as the first time he stepped foot inside the Octagon.

Recent rumors had Hughes contemplating retirement following a loss to BJ Penn last November, but Hughes says he has at least one more fight left in him.

"I'm gonna fight one more time," Hughes told MMA Fight Corner presented by FiveKnuckles.com. "Probably late summer-early fall and we'll take it from there. All I'm guaranteeing is one more fight. I'm not guaranteeing anything after that. I'll see how that goes and make a decision after that."

After that, Hughes who has always enjoyed coaching fellow MMA fighters, figures to continue coaching and recently added a surprising new protege in personal nemesis BJ Penn. In January, Penn asked Hughes to come to his native Hawaii to train with him in anticipation of Penn's fight last month against Jon Fitch. Hughes accepted on the condition that he could bring a guest.

"BJ texted me and said, 'Hey I got this fight against (Jon) Fitch," Hughes said. "I'd like for you to go over some stuff like takedowns against the fence, maybe some striking on the ground, blah, blah, blah...' And I said, 'let me go home, talk to my wife and look at my schedule.' So I did, I talked to her, she thought it was a great idea. I then texted BJ and said, 'Send me Fitch's last five fights as soon as you can, and I need two tickets to Hawaii. One for Mathew A. Hughes and the other for Hannah Grace Hughes,' my four and a half year old daughter. So Hannah and I went out there and we had a great time."

The two former rivals and bitter enemies quickly struck up a friendship and learned a lot from one another in their time spent together.

"It was actually pretty fun," Hughes continued. "BJ and I quickly found out that we're a lot alike. We both got kinda the same sense of humor, we're easy going and so we got along really good. We really did. I was out there for five days; flew in on Sunday, left on Friday and I had a great time. As far as training with BJ, I was able to learn a lot, I think BJ learned a lot and I had a great vacation with my daughter.

Under Hughes expert tutelage, Penn learned enough to out-Fitch Jon Fitch for two rounds before fading fast in the third. The fight was eventually scored a draw - a ruling Hughes disputes.

"Honestly, I watched the fight with a bunch of buddies of mine like I always do, and I scored the fight round by round, and I had BJ winning the first round 10-9, very easily," Hughes explained. "Second round was a very close 10-9, but I had BJ winning it. And then the third round went 10-9 for Fitch. I never once in my mind thought that was a 10-8 round, because Fitch was very comfortable just staying in the guard never really passing. BJ did a decent job blocking most of the punches. So I mean, yes, BJ did get hurt that last round, but I don't believe it was a 10-8 round."

After fighting very tough in the first and second rounds of the fight against Fitch, Penn faded in the third as he's been known to do, calling many to question his conditioning and training given that Penn stated he was only training three day's per week.

Hughes, who is well known in MMA circles for his fantastic cardio and hard work in the gym believes that Penn would have definitely won the fight if he were in better shape, but revealed that Penn was probably training as hard as he should have been due to various injuries.

"BJ was a little torn up injury wise, so he had some issues going on to where it might not have been in his best interest to push his body any harder than he was," Hughes revealed. "But, I will say this, if BJ was in a little better shape he would have won that fight. If he would have got one escape in that third round, he would have won. All he had to do was get one escape. And two of those judges gave that last round a 10-8 for Fitch, which I totally disagree with, but two judges did it. If he would have escaped one time, those judges wouldn't have given those 10-8 rounds and BJ would have won.

As for Fitch, Hughes doesn't seem that impressed with a man many have stated to be the second coming of Hughes himself, and certainly doesn't think that Fitch is ready for a rematch with current welterweight Georges as some have advocated.

"He's got 13 decision wins in the UFC," Hughes said. "Seriously, one of you guys find out how many rounds this guy has fought in the UFC. I've got the most wins in the UFC, but that guy probably has more rounds than I do. He's got more time in the UFC [Octagon] then I do. I'll probably say that. I don't think Fitch is really anxious about a rematch with GSP, but I don't know. And you can't give him a title shot off of a draw with BJ anyway."

GSP, Georges St. Pierre, is the UFC's current welterweight champion and has turned out to be Hughes' true successor. St. Pierre is now what Hughes was in the early part of the last decade - dominant, seemingly unbeatable, and among the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. St. Pierre has not lost so much as a round since 2007 and is considered to be great in all three phases of the game; striking, wrestling and submissions. Though Hughes takes exception with St. Pierre's much talked about wrestling prowess.

"He's a phenomenal athlete, no doubt about it, but you know, he's not a great wrestler," Hughes said. "I think if you put him and Koscheck in a wrestling match, I think Koscheck would eat him up. From take downs to rolling him, I really do. But if you watch GSP fighting, he does a very good job transitioning from striking to takedowns. He does great with his striking, so that's what really enables him to take people down like he does. And of course he's very quick, but if you put him up against a wrestler on a wrestling mat, I don't think you'd see that great wrestling that you do in a fight."

Join us for part two of our two part feature on Matt Hughes next week.

Matt Hughes made the preceding statements while appearing as a guest on MMA Fight Corner presented by FiveKnuckles.com on 3/15/11. Listen to the show in it's entirety below:
Thoughts?

Matt Hughes is a living legend.

When it's all said and done, the 9-time UFC welterweight champion will go down as a true pioneers of the sport and one of the first to successfully cross train disciplines at a high level.

Think Wilt Chamberlain, Babe Ruth and Johnny Unitas - early superstars who changed the way the game was played.

Already a Division I All-American wrestler at the start of his career in 1998, a young Matt Hughes worked hard under fellow grappling pioneer Pat Miletich to add high level jiu-jitsu to his devastating ground-and-pound - a practice which eventually enabled Hughes to become one of the sports' first dominant champions.

Now at 37 years of age and closing in on the twilight of his career, Hughes remains as relevant as ever. The Illinois native can still sell a fight card, still has fans hanging on his every word, and is still every bit as competitive as the first time he stepped foot inside the Octagon.

Recent rumors had Hughes contemplating retirement following a loss to BJ Penn last November, but Hughes says he has at least one more fight left in him.

"I'm gonna fight one more time," Hughes told MMA Fight Corner presented by FiveKnuckles.com. "Probably late summer-early fall and we'll take it from there. All I'm guaranteeing is one more fight. I'm not guaranteeing anything after that. I'll see how that goes and make a decision after that."

After that, Hughes who has always enjoyed coaching fellow MMA fighters, figures to continue coaching and recently added a surprising new protege in personal nemesis BJ Penn. In January, Penn asked Hughes to come to his native Hawaii to train with him in anticipation of Penn's fight last month against Jon Fitch. Hughes accepted on the condition that he could bring a guest.

"BJ texted me and said, 'Hey I got this fight against (Jon) Fitch," Hughes said. "I'd like for you to go over some stuff like takedowns against the fence, maybe some striking on the ground, blah, blah, blah...' And I said, 'let me go home, talk to my wife and look at my schedule.' So I did, I talked to her, she thought it was a great idea. I then texted BJ and said, 'Send me Fitch's last five fights as soon as you can, and I need two tickets to Hawaii. One for Mathew A. Hughes and the other for Hannah Grace Hughes,' my four and a half year old daughter. So Hannah and I went out there and we had a great time."

The two former rivals and bitter enemies quickly struck up a friendship and learned a lot from one another in their time spent together.

"It was actually pretty fun," Hughes continued. "BJ and I quickly found out that we're a lot alike. We both got kinda the same sense of humor, we're easy going and so we got along really good. We really did. I was out there for five days; flew in on Sunday, left on Friday and I had a great time. As far as training with BJ, I was able to learn a lot, I think BJ learned a lot and I had a great vacation with my daughter.

Under Hughes expert tutelage, Penn learned enough to out-Fitch Jon Fitch for two rounds before fading fast in the third. The fight was eventually scored a draw - a ruling Hughes disputes.

"Honestly, I watched the fight with a bunch of buddies of mine like I always do, and I scored the fight round by round, and...
 
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#6 ·
they lost to a french dude and would never accept it, maybe?

Americans have (rightfully IMO, and I'm french myself so I kinda know what I'm talking about) usually not much respect for french people.

you guys should invade us, so I can get a visa and go live in the US :confused03:
 
#9 ·
The article began with

Matt Hughes is a living legend.
It should have continued with:

But....Matt Hughes is quickly becoming irrelevant!


Hughes clearly has some memory problems, like that gif suggests us.
He clearly forgot this is MMA, not Wrestling! That's why GSP won, by breaking Kos' orbital and forcing him to get surgery and a 9 month break from fighting... :sarcastic12:
 
#10 ·
Lol

tell me something i dont know matt hughes..imo koscheck wasnt ready for gsp just yet, his striking needed a bit more fine tuning before he was put up against arguable the best p4p in MMA.
 
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#11 ·
I don't get Hughes point. GSP has the best wrestling for MMA. He sets up his TD's better than anyone and has unbelievable top control.

It's like saying Gabe Gonzaga would beat Cain, JDS and Brock in a BJJ competition... so What, It has nothing to do with their achievements in MMA?

Hughes is just trying to keep himself relevant. It's sad as Matt was one of the guys who got me into MMA in the first place and every year since he has gone down in my estimation.
 
#16 ·
I think everybody is over looking some things here. Hughes is not a dick all the time. I mean the guy flew out to help B.J. with wrasslin and a lil game plan. He even said him and B.J. had a lot in common. ........I enjoyed the read OP!!
 
#22 ·
i think your all missing the point... hes not saying he cant wrestle... people are putting alot of emphasis on GSP's wrestling latley saying its the best in the division. Hughes was saying not really, BUT the way he can set it up with his Striking and Speed makes it more effective.... atleast thats what i got from reading it. and to me no that does not sound like hes trashing a guy, just a good coach breaking down a fighter.
 
#23 ·
GSP is not a wrestler. He didn't wrestle growing up and he didn't wrestle in college. GSP trains wrestling now to augment his career as a mixed martial artist.

So consider this... Considering how well GSP implements wrestling into his skill set and how he takes down wrestlers (Isn't that kind of what they are supposed to be able to stop?) and destroys wrestlers....

If GSP HAD trained wrestling his whole life, he'd make Kos, Fitch, Hughes all look like they learned wrestling from watching Brock Lesnar on TV....

Sucks when someone who only 'dabbles' into what those guys made a lifestyle is able to train wreck them with it when accompanied by his other MMA skills. If they wanted to wrestle GSP, why are they in MMA?

Face it boys, you stepped up and were shut up.
 
#26 ·
I think you have to take into consideration what was he asked... I don't think he would purposely go out his way to say that about GSP. I'm sure he was set up to say something like that by a reporter, and they are great at doing that.

I do think what he says has truth in it. GSP not being a good wrestler outside of MMA might be irrelevant to MMA, but wrestling is probably the most important skill a fighter can have, so I do think it would be more significant than any other skill if that were the case. There was nothing Hughes said that was far from the truth.
 
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