Matt Hughes inducted into UFC Hall of Fame
Former two-time welterweight champion Matt Hughes became the eighth man to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame at the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas on Friday. He joins fellow inductees Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Randy Couture, Mark Coleman, Chuck Liddell and Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr.
Considered the most dominant welterweight champion in UFC history, Hughes made his octagon debut back in 1999. Since then he’s tasted victory an incredible seventeen times, more than any fighter in UFC history. He also boasts the record for most successful UFC title defences of all time (seven) and most consecutive UFC welterweight title defences of all time (five).
Hughes last graced the octagon at UFC 112, defeating Renzo Gracie via third round TKO. He also holds notable victories over the likes of Sean Sherk, B.J Penn, Royce Gracie and current champ Georges St. Pierre.
Hughes is next scheduled to meet Renzo Gracie protégé Ricardo Almeida at UFC 117 on August 7 in Oakland, California.
Nathan Cairns is a contributing writer for FiveOuncesofPain.com.
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It’s about time …
Matt Hughes comes across as an arrogant jerk, and his records will be broken by present day title holders pretty easily. But elsicillian is right, he earned his spot in the hall of fame and has deserved it for a while now.
matt hughes is probably 1 of my favorite fighters, and even with him getting up there in age, hes still very dangerous and very deserving of his spot in the hall of fame,
that being said, Ricardo Almeida better train hard, hes got a very tough fight in front of him
As a fighter, Matt Hughes is very much deserving of this induction. I agree, his records wont stand for too long. The fact that he has those records though & basically set the standard for the WW division…until GSP arrived. He does need to be in the Hall of Fame…unfortunately this will just swell his head another hat size & fuel his arrogance.
My comment was not meant as a referendum on his personality or (lack of) humility, but simply a statement of fact. He really has been a true pioneer of this sport … one of the first truly dominant champions, and unlike Frank Shamrock and/or Tito Ortiz, a company man who always toed the line for the UFC.
If the UFC is going to enshrine contemporary fighters who dominated that era (like Liddell and Couture), it doesn’t make any sense to exclude Hughes.
So well done, Dana. It’s about time …
I respect his resume…like him or not, it’s def. Well deserved & even if his records are broken, it’s the ones that set the bar initially that paved the way for those future stand outs in the sport