UFC Legend Matt Hughes Possible For April Return, Rumored Versus Renzo Gracie
Photo by Josh Hedges. Copyright Zuffa, LLC
Fighters.com seventh-ranked welterweight Matt Hughes (43-7) mentioned an April 10 return to the UFC Octagon in a blog post at his website Tuesday.
Hughes, the longest-serving welterweight champion in UFC history, called the date “possible”.
The future UFC Hall-of-Famer recently climbed from beneath consecutive losses to Fighters.com and UFC Welterweight Champion “Rush” Georges St. Pierre (19-2) and second-ranked “Pitbull” Thiago Alves (16-4). The Illinois native and Miletich Fighting Systems alumnus put his record back on track with a unanimous-decision win over “Terror” Matt Serra (9-5) at UFC 98 in Las Vegas May 23.
In November, Heavy.com reported that Hughes will fight PRIDE veteran Renzo Gracie (13-6-1) when Hughes returns to battle.
Renzo Gracie has not entered a cage since February 2007 when he defeated former Strikeforce champion Frank Shamrock (23-9-2), though by disqualification. Prior to his meeting with Shamrock, Gracie scored a pair of victories over Matt Huges’ former coach, Pat Miletich (28-7-2) as well as “Ronin” Carlos Newton (13-13) in bouts for the now defunct International Fight League. Gracie was also a coach of the IFL’s New York Pitbulls.



This remind anyone of Tito vs. Shamrock? Why’s Matt challenging the Gracie family again. Pay your respect and leave them alone. Still does look like an interesting matchup though. I think Renzo has a better chance than Royce did, honestly. I’m wanting Matt to drop to lightweight and take the title from Penn (hopefully), then he can retire on top, where he once was, before St.Pierre picked him apart.