Matt Hughes

Matthew Allen Hughes was born in Hillsboro, Illinois. Hughes has a sister and his identical twin brother, Mark. They both competed in football and wrestling while in high school. Before moving to Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois, Hughes attended Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville, Illinois. From there, he continued on to Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois.

Hughes won two IHSA Class A state wrestling titles at 145 pounds. In 1991 and 1992, as a student at Hillsboro High School, he won. Matt competed in the 145-pound weight class and won back-to-back state championships during his junior and senior years while going unbeaten. He had 131 victories and only 2 defeats in his final three years of high school, both occurring in his sophomore year (sophomore 43–2; junior 43–0; senior 45-0).

Hughes participated in the renowned ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship, where he finished with a 2-2 record, defeating Jeff Monson and Tito Ortiz while defeating Ricardo Almeida and Jeremy Horn.

At Joe Goytia’s JKD Challenge on January 1, 1998, Hughes made his mixed martial arts debut. In under fifteen seconds, he had his opponent on the ground and knocked him out. His trademark maneuver was the slam. His subsequent bout was won by submission after being struck. On October 17, 1998, Hughes competed three times at Extreme Challenge 21, defeating Dave Menne, the future middleweight champion of the UFC, and Victor Hunsaker by way of TKO and unanimous decision, respectively.

He was defeated by Dennis Hallman, who was still unbeaten at the time, in the third fight of the evening via technical submission (guillotine choke) at 0:17 of the first frame. A KO was proclaimed as the outcome. Hallman, therefore, dealt Hughes his first defeat as a professional.

On September 24, 1999, Hughes made his professional debut at UFC 22: There Can Be Only One Champion, defeating Valeri Ignatov of Bulgaria by a majority decision after three rounds. He made a comeback to the promotion at UFC 26: Ultimate Field of Dreams, where he beat Marcelo Aguiar by technical knockout after landing elbows that cut Aguiar and caused the doctor to call time on the fight.

In a rematch, Hughes fought Dennis Hallman at UFC 29: Defense of the Belts.] Hallman was the only man to have defeated Hughes in MMA at this stage in their respective careers. Hughes was defeated in the armbar in under 20 seconds.

On November 2, 2001, Hughes won his first UFC World Welterweight championship at UFC 34: High Voltage. Then-champion Carlos Newton trapped Hughes in a triangle choke during a comeback battle, but Hughes pulled Newton in the air and crashed him to the ground, knocking Newton unconscious as Hughes was about to pass out from the hold. At UFC 36: Worlds Collide, he successfully defended his title by knocking out former Shooto Middleweight Champion Hayato Sakurai via TKO as a result of strikes at 3:01 in the fourth round.

In their following rematch, Hughes took on Carlos Newton in the main event of UFC 38: Brawl at the Hall, the promotion’s first appearance in the UK. He was successful in trapping Newton in a modified crucifix position, which allowed him to land unrelenting strikes to Newton’s face until the referee halted the fight at 3:27 in round four, giving him a technical knockout victory.

At UFC 40: Vendetta, Hughes faced Gil Castillo in his subsequent championship defense. Hughes won by technical knockout over the former Middleweight contender. Hughes defeated future UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk at UFC 42: Sudden Impact by unanimous decision. At UFC 45: Revolution’s main event, Hughes took on Frank Trigg, a former WFA Welterweight Champion.

Up until UFC 46: Supernatural, Hughes held the championship. However, he was defeated by Hawaiian Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert B.J. Penn by rear naked choke at 4:39 of the first frame.

At UFC 48: Payback, Hughes competed against Penn’s training partner Renato Verissimo and won by unanimous decision (30-27; 30–27; 29-28). In the opening round, he was trapped in a very tight triangle choke. At UFC 50: The War of ’04, Hughes successfully defended his welterweight championship by armbarting Canadian challenger Georges St-Pierre in the last seconds of the opening frame. Hughes was supposed to face Georges St-Pierre in a rematch at UFC 63, but the organization said that B.J. Penn would fight for the championship instead when St-Pierre suffered a serious groin injury.

Hughes’ time as champion came to an end when Georges St-Pierre knocked him out through TKO in the second round of UFC 65: Bad Intentions on November 18, 2006. Hughes defeated Chris Lytle by unanimous decision at UFC 68: Uprising on March 3, 2007, earning a 30-27 victory on the three judges’ scorecards.

Hughes and BJ Penn had previously fought at UFC 46 and UFC 63, and on November 20, 2010, they squared off one more at UFC 123: Rampage vs. Machida. In the opening round, Penn came out strong, catching one of Hughes’s kicks and throwing him off balance with a counter hook. After down Hughes with an overhand right, Penn delivered three crisp blows to the jaw. Hughes’ trilogy versus Penn concluded with a loss 21 seconds into the opening round of the fight.

On January 24, 2013, the UFC said that Matt Hughes has given up fighting and been appointed a vice president of athlete development and government relations.