HUGHES BROTHERS SET FOR UFC REUNION Thursday, May 29, 2008 - by Ken Pishna - MMAWeekly.com
It has been more than eight years since former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes and twin brother Mark have competed in mixed martial arts at the same event. That era, however, may soon come to an end.
Matt, in a pre-fight media conference call for UFC 85 on Thursday, was posed a question he didn’t expect, that being about the possibility of his brother returning to the Octagon.
“This is an unexpected question,” said Matt, the elder brother – by five minutes – of the Hughes twins. “I do know that Mark is going to sign a contract with the UFC where he won't compete for anybody else. And that'd be right here coming up. That's all I can really tell you. That's all I can really comment on,”
Mark sports a 6-2 professional record in MMA, including a win at UFC 28, but hasn’t competed in nearly five years. Apparently poised for a return, Matt says that Mark doesn’t have a fight lined up yet, but is adamant about his return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a place Matt has called home for several years.
“There's no fight scheduled (for Mark), but he is going to sign a contract with the UFC to fight for them and nobody else."
Of course, with the twin brothers under contract, the obvious question is if they will compete on an upcoming fight card together. On that issue, Matt was less certain.
While he indicated that he would like to fight on the same event as his brother, Matt said, “To be honest, we tried that in the past with the old owners and they just never went for it. But that's been six, seven years ago probably. So, we'll just see what comes out of it. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Hopefully if it does, it'll be in the Midwest there somewhere.”
With the sport now under sanctioning across most of the United States, including Illinois and Missouri, there has been speculation that the UFC will soon operate an event in either Chicago or St. Louis. So it appears that Matt’s hopes of fighting in the Midwest, with his brother, has now become a distinct possibility.
He's been out of MMA for 5 years and receives a contract from the UFC? It's cool that he is fighting again, but I would have thought he had to pay his dues all over again to see if he is worthy of the UFC contract. I only say this due to Zuffa trimming their roster.
He's been out of MMA for 5 years and receives a contract from the UFC? It's cool that he is fighting again, but I would have thought he had to pay his dues all over again to see if he is worthy of the UFC contract. I only say this due to Zuffa trimming their roster.
You must not understand the concept that another organization could make it seem very easily like it was Matt Hughes fighting, even it says Mark Hughes, their names are wayy too close and they look identical, I mean Mark and Matt? Yeah alright that's a great idea, give the twin brother of the greatest WW ever to the competition, to make his return to MMA in another org? After all, they are 100 percent genetically identical, Matt is obviously a genetic freak.
I don't see him making much of a splash. He's 35 years old, he hadn't fought in 5 years and he's only fought once in the last 7 years. He was never particularly dominant when he did fight regularly. The game is already starting to pass Matt by, I can't imagine Mark will be a threat to anyone remotely good.
annihil8torz - He's been out of MMA for 5 years and receives a contract from the UFC? It's cool that he is fighting again, but I would have thought he had to pay his dues all over again to see if he is worthy of the UFC contract. I only say this due to Zuffa trimming their roster.
Wasn't Ricardo Almeida out of MMA for 3-4 years? and he went straight into the UFC(but he was actually supposed to fight on a smaller show but the show got cancelled) I like Almeida but I don't see anybody complaining about him. Besides Mark probably isn't going to do much in the UFC anyways.
