Hughes’ statements were not of the same type–offensive to persons who were unfamiliar with the subject of his remarks. Only some of the people who were familiar with the subject matter chose to construe his statements negatively. For example, were his statements about MFS accurate? If they weren’t getting him prepared for his recent fights, then it’s just a statement of fact. If MFS thinks they did prepare him, then it’s a difference of opinion. Your character shouldn’t be impugned just because you disagree with somebody. After all, you and I can disagree about this issue and it isn’t a character issue as between us. Did Hughes or persons at MFS attack each other on a personal level using words like”dick,” “egomaniac’” or “asshole?” If so, that’s when questions of character can be raised.

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Not a bad thing at all because I’m very biased when it comes to cetain fighters that I like and I don’t care for.

Sam I know your in New Jersey and you’re all for Serra. He’s someone you can probably relate to in alot of different ways. While I am a southern Farm boy myself who can relate the the teachers of Hughes alot better than Serra.

But I like Serra and I like Hughes. I think they are both great atheletes and I think they both are honorable people in the MMA community. I feel that the media is alot of the reasons why these fighters get the raps that they do. Any time the media finds out someone is a christian, or they got a DUI, or they got sent to jail…or this and that happened. The media exploits this to the public in hopes of having more traffic to their Papers and TV Shows. Alot of people forget how the media is able to manipulate the way you think about a certain situation or event.

Either way…Hughes is going to get this wrap of being this hypocritcal christian..yaddy yaddy yada. To me I don’t care what he is or what he does because I don’t personally know him to see if that is the real Hughes….or the TV Hughes.

I think this is a great debate and opinion topic. No doubt.

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Buddy there’s nothing wrong with being a fan of somebody but you still have to live in reality about that person. I’m a big fan of Mel Gibson and find his offbeat antics to be downright hilarious but it’s not like I’m going to spin his drunk anti-Jewish comments as somehow positive. Reality.

When you can’t think of anything else to say in an argument it’s good to resort to picking apart the other person’s typos. It really helps you case.

I hope your considering a remedial class in rhetoric since you have trouble backing your statements up with valid facts, douche bag.

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You want specific examples of how Hughes has been arrogant and disrespectful? I could come up with a huge list but you know what, let me just throw three off the top of my head:

1) How he reacted to Dan Barrera following his loss. It wasn’t right for him to come down on Barrera as hard as he did considering how inexperienced he was. Barrera fought his ass off. Why did he need to call him out like that in front of so many people? Evan Mac Danzig spoke up on camera to one of Hughes’ assistants about how he didn’t agree.

Hughes wasn’t angry that Barrera may have lost out on a opportunity by allowing Saunders to recover after he rocked him. He was angry because his record vs. Serra had another loss added to it. The whole show and the performance of his fighters was about how he looked and not about trying to make his guys better.

If you want to argue this point, go right ahead. But before you do, go to Steve Cofield’s site and listen to all the exit interviews from Hughes’ fighters. The vast majority of them had issues with Hughes and how he treated them.

2) How about the time earlier this year when he applied a stiff choke to Scott Ferrall of Sirius Satellite Radio during a pre-show telecast? Hughes decided he didn’t like Ferrall and when they choked about having Hughes put him in a rear naked choke, Hughes cinched it in way too hard. I know Ferrall consented, but to cinch it in like that was uncalled for. Ferrall doesn’t train. And if he didn’t like the way the interview was going, he should have ended it and walked off instead of pulling that little stunt.

3. There was also the recent comments in which Hughes took an uncalled for swipe at MFS and claimed that they weren’t preparing him well-enough for recent fights. Even if it were true, you just don’t go there. He’s constantly trying to tear people down to build himself up. You know, he didn’t just have a business relationship with MFS — they were a family. Pat Miletich and Monte Cox protected him from a lot of stuff. For him to saying anything negative about MFS in public is just wrong.

I could go and on but I don’t have time to list everything.

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Hughes has a gold card when it comes to the UFC or training or anything else that is in his area of expertise as it relates to MMA.

Other than that he should probably just STFU. If it’s not about MMA, I’m not interested.

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Evidently you do like repeating yourself. And I hope “your” considering a remedial spelling class

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I would much rather have my kids use Matt Hughes as a role model than Serra. Hughes is demanding, yes, but not unfair. His main criticisms after his guys lost was that they ignored the game plan and his cornering (see Dan Berrara and the kid who’s cousin died). Both of those guys ignored the cornering. Dan let the Saunders recover instead of pouncing on him, and the other guy was a submission specialist who decided on fight day that he wanted to strike with a striker.

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“But that is not the only specific criticism – the main point here is that despite Hughes physical dominance in the octagon, from a personal stand point he comes out with many hypocritical remarks. Go back and read the previous posts because I’m not going to repeat them because you didn’t read.”

That is all I said regarding hypocritical remarks. If you read what I wrote instead of attempting to skew what I said to fit your own argument you would see that. I touched on the double decker (which was hilarious btw) and his treatment of Barrera (from what we saw on the show) as specific criticisms of Hughes. And THEN I said he made some publicly hypocritical remarks but I wasn’t them because they were already listed in previous posts. Aside from that you have no response for Hughes actions about not cornering anyone despite what he said about Serra.

Bringing up which terms are worse has no bearing on the subject. You’re changing the argument. To refresh your memory, the subject matter was that Hughes criticized Serra for publicly insulting him, claiming to be of higher moral character in the fact that he would never stoop to the level of doing that. Then he did it. Sure, it was definitely warranted but he was still going back on what he previously said he wouldn’t do. That’s the argument. Not “Mommy, he called me a fuckface so I called him a shithead – but his one is worse!” That’s not what we’re talking about so don’t side track.

So again, you’re argument isn’t carrying weight. I hope your not going to law school.

In terms of the coaching, I guess you could say it comes down to personal opinion. These other things we’re talking to are based around what the argument is and who said what and all that. I can’t change your mind on who the better coach was so I’ll just respect your opinion. What I will say is to me, when a fighter loses after being caught with a right hook when his left eye was closed because of a poke, that loss says nothing about the training given to that fighter. A fights a fight and he lost, but you need to look at the circumstance of the fight.

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Repeatedly calling people profane names probably does affect whether you’re perceived as a good role model. And as far as whether profanity is or isn’t a big deal, how many fights have you seen that got started by one guy calling another guy, or his wife/girlfriend or whatever, something nasty? And if it happened to you would you just stand back and critique the guy on whether the comment was creative or particularly colorful? If it would offend you, maybe it’s a bigger deal than you’re suggesting.

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If Dana White is adjusting his vocabulary for his surroundings, I have to wonder what he thinks it is accomplishing. He talks that way in interviews, to the point where it obfuscates his meaning when he has to be censored. He talks that way on TV, while representing his business. So when is he adjusting it?

I don’t think obscenity is a big deal. I love obscenity. But I want to see it used well. Dana White just throws it around, maybe because he thinks it makes him look tough, and in the process he devalues it. I object to that just because it’s the wrong way to use it. It makes him sound like a sixth-grader who just learned the words from an old Richard Pryor tape.

To criticize Serra for calling Hughes a dick, I think that’s just grasping at straws. That doesn’t make him a bad or a good role model. A role model is about how you conduct yourself and how you live your life. I think if you were to ask some of the guys down at MFS if they think Hughes is a good role model, you might really hear some colorful language.

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Your first round of “hypocrisy” accusations was the practical joke and the rough treatment of Barrera. Now it’s whether Hughes will corner either fighter in the finale and whether he bashed Serra after suggesting that was wrong. Sounds like you’re backpeddaling to justify a pre-conceived bias.

With regard to Barrera, see the post from Fred. I don’t know enough about the circumstances to comment. With regard to retaliatory bashing, see Fred’s post again. Also, is it more offensive to be called “dick” or “asshole” or “egomaniac” or to be called a bad role model? If there’s any real question in your mind, try it on a large stranger in a saloon and get back to us about the results.

You’re setting a pretty high standard for arrogance. I never had a coach or a teammate that was indifferent about losing. I can’t think of any professional player or coach who is indifferent about losing. I guess you can characterize Hughes’ postfight statements as being self centered, but you could also characterize them as coming from a competitive guy who hates to lose at anything. It depends on the circumstances, and perhaps your own bias.

On the point of coaching, I’m sticking to my position. Tommy Speer beat George, who had substantially more experience and was coached by Serra. In contrast, Danzig won every fight. If Hughes gets no credit for Danzig, Serra takes the heat for George and/or Hughes gets the credit for Tommy. Hughes got his top guy into to the finals, and Serra didn’t.

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And if you think that what Hughes said about Serra is anywhere near as unprofessional as Serra constantly calling Hughes a “dick”, “asshole”, “jerk”, “egomaniac”, etc., then you’re not being objective. It’s OK not to like Hughes; but it should be obvious to ANYONE that Serra pulled out all the stops in his dissing of Hughes. Hughes mostly kept his thoughts to himself (with relatively few exceptions) and kept it professional. Pulling out an isolated comment here or there to say Hughes was going after Serra is ridiculous.

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In terms of arrogance it wasn’t his disappointment that made him arrogant. When you’re a member of a team in any sport or field and it’s not doing so well you’re going to be disappointed; that’s human nature. Hughes was arrogant in the fact that he made the winning and losing of his fighters about HIM winning and losing as opposed to the individual guys. At multiple times on camera he made it abundantly clear that they had to go out there and win so he could beat Matt Serra because he “can’t stand to lose.” While this coould be tricky editing or could have been the heat of the moment and Hughes might think different now, that’s what was on TV. Whether you want to refer to those actions as arrogant or selfish or whatever, they’re not that of a dream role model.

In terms of you saying my opinion of coaching “can’t be both ways” you’re missing the mark. If I’m a trainer of a whole mess of fighters who are of equal level with a group of fighters you train and almost all of you’re fighters beat mine, it appears as though you’re ability as a trainer had a big impact as all the fighters were equal to begin with. If I happen to have a fighter who has 5 times the experience of everyone else coming in (like Mac Danzig) who beats one of your guys, it still doesn’t say much for my ability as a trainer in comparison with the landslide loss I suffered when all the guys of equal ability fought. If that doesn’t break down the coaching aspect of it I don’t know what else I can say.

Your argument just doesn’t hold any water because you took every criticism I made and compared it to one remark about Hughes being a hypocrite from time to time. Not every criticism of Hughes is because of that by any means.

And yes, we are all hypocritical every now and again. Matt Hughes just had the unfortunate experience of having a few of his instances put on national television.

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I think most of these guys are warriors, and in another time, their jobs would be to fight wars. Without a war to fight, they hone their physicality and find a way to impose their will on others. The fact that these atheletes do this in socially acceptable way and earn a living doing it means that they are role models for those who appeal to their individual personality type.

If your kid has that same warrior mentality, it’s your responsibility to point them towards a role model – and BE a role model for them – so that you will continue throughout life to have connecting points with them and develop commonly held values, and continue to enable a dialogue of encouragement, teaching, love and support.

If you’re not trying to shape your kid, you will be the only person in the world NOT trying to influence them. So influence them toward good.

Now, if you want to debate what is “good”, that’s a whole different thread.

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