Matt Hughes Says He Almost Retired in 2001
Posted by Larry Csonka on 01.30.2013
So he says…
- During a recent interview, Matt Hughes revealed that he felt stale in fighting and was disappointed by back-to-back losses in 2000-2001 to Dennis Hallman and Jose "Pele" Landi-Johns. So mush so that if he would have lost to Carlos Newton at UFC 34, he would have retired then.
When asked about career regrets, Hughes says not moving up to middleweight was it. He noted that he would have fought Evan Tanner for the belt if Tanner had beaten his longtime friend Rich Franklin at UFC 53, but Franklin won, and told the UFC he wouldn't face Franklin at the conclusion of "The Ultimate Fighter 2." He added that he wanted to fight Anderson Silva, and unify the titles…
"Anderson Silva. I always wanted to go up to 185 to put the belts together."
