Report: Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch could replace Matt Serra at UFC 79
That’s the word, according to Dave Meltzer:
According to a UFC official, if Serra is out for a long period of time and Hughes agrees to fight on Dec. 29, the two most likely candidates to for an opponent would be Jon Fitch or Thiago Alves. Josh Koscheck and Diego Sanchez are both coming off losses, and Sanchez has talked about cutting to 155.
A lot of unknowns have to happen here, so don’t expect anything to come of it. If Serra is out for a long period of time, I still don’t expect Hughes to fight on the December 29th card. Why would he risk his title shot?
Alves just fought a week ago, so I see Fitch being the most likely guy here if Hughes does, for some odd reason, decide to fight. Hughes vs. Fitch would be a very interesting matchup: old school vs. new school.
Adam Morgan is
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I think Fitch and Hughes would be a plain old wrestling match with Hughes prolly on top for the most part grinding out a deciscion win , Alves on the other hand makes for a much more intresting fight , but hes really only beat Lytel since coming back from steroid suspension , seems a little early for him too get someone like Hughes .. Id rather see Alves fight Sanchez , Kos or maybe Karo.
But thats me.
Oh ya , I meant too add that a good reason for Hughes too fight might be cash , he hasnt fought since March. And if Serra is gonna be out maybe for a extended period of time it he might end up needing too fight to help keep the farm going =)
assuming serra is out for a long time wouldn’t the logical fight be gsp and hughes 3???
they both have guaranteed title shots. i guess there’s no way it can happen for december as gsp would have 6 weeks to get ready.
rumour is there’s a ufc in montreal during april ’08 so i guess they could delay the fight til then, and perhaps have another interm title fight.
really disappointing but what can you do…i just hope ufc puts another reasonable fight on for the card, other than wandi-chuck and soko there’s not a lot there.
I wish they’d do Hughes and Anderson Silva. Both guys have said they want to do it, it’s not a huge weight step up for Matt, and it would give him the title shot he was promised.
Hughes isn’t stupid (I think). He won’t fight.
Just a question: Is is really a “report” if it’s somebody’s opinion? I would love to see Alves, but his eye was practically shut a week ago. Hughes would just lay on top of him for 15 minutes. Fitch and Kos are definitely in the mix. Just because Kos lost, doesn’t not make him a candidate. Hughes fought Lytle after his loss. That didn’t really do anything for him.
if I’m Joe Silva i go with Hughes Penn 3…….. BJ is already in training for a Jan fight, just move it up a few weeks, more folks would want to see Penn vs Hughes than vs Stevenson…… their last fight did close to 800k buys, so you got a built in audience for the rubber match, the match sells itself
No reason to risk a title shot – even if money were an issue, Hughes said he’s only got a couple fights left in him, it would seem unwise to leave the ass whipping he wants to lay on Serra go unrequited AND forsake a title shot all in one maneuver.
Of course getting thumped didn’t hurt Jardine’s rank and rep, so I think a long established guy like Hughes should be able to fight without losing his shot, but time seems of the essence.
The injury question regarding title defenses is really cramping the UFC right now with three divisions in limbo and a couple lackluster PPVs. This couldn’t come at a worse time.
Steve24,
It was a report because Meltzer said his source was a UFC official.
Adam,
Thanks, good to hear. I just read that Fitch is out of the country so it looks like it’s up to Alves.