Matt Hughes Takes A Laid Back Approach to UFC 123 Bout with BJ Penn

Added on Nov 16, 2010 by Brian Blake in

UFC & MMA

It really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that former UFC Welterweight Champion, Matt Hughes, is a pretty happy guy these days.

Already claiming two big wins this year, 2010 has proven to be a good one so far for the mixed martial arts legend. A win in his upcoming rubber match over fellow UFC veteran, BJ Penn, would make it that much sweeter.

It was just a year and a half ago that it appeared Hughes was on his way out of the sport that made him a household name. After avenging his 2004 loss to Penn, Hughes looked to defend his title and claim his second win over current welterweight king, Georges St. Pierre. St. Pierre needed just two of the five scheduled rounds to take Hughes’ title via TKO.

Hughes successfully rebounded with a decision win over the durable Chris Lytle ultimately setting up a third fight with St. Pierre. Just as in their second encounter, St. Pierre needed just two rounds, this time forcing Hughes to verbally submit to an armbar from the French Canadian fighter.

Hughes went on to drop his third fight in four outing when hard hitting Brazilian Thiago Alves caught him with a flying knee in their 2008 clash. With the loss, Hughes seemed to be at the end of the road.

His luck changed, however, in May of last year when he squared off against the brash Matt Serra. After three hard fought rounds, Hughes was declared the victor in what was ultimately crowned UFC 98′s fight of the night.

After enjoying the win for nearly a year, Hughes stopped Renzo Gracie with just 20 seconds left in their bout as he punched his way to a TKO win. Most recently, Hughes needed just over three minutes to submit Ricardo Almeida at UFC 117, making him 3-0 since 2009.

One would think that the pressure would be on as he looks ahead to his upcoming bout with Penn, but the recent success of Hughes has seemingly helped him put his career in perspective.

“So I’ve tried to cut all the pressure away, you know, I’m not going out there trying not to lose. I’m actually going out there trying to win, having a good time,” he recently stated.

Winning definitely makes for a good time, but it seems that just the fact that he is being more active than in years past is helping Hughes rejuvenate his career.

“I am liking the activity because in the past I’ve been fighting and then taking a long time off and then fighting again. This year has been good for me because I really stayed on track the whole time. I’ve never really got out of shape. So it’s been really good for my body just to stay in shape. You know, I don’t spar every week if I don’t have a fight coming up or do heavy training. So, you know, I’m 37 years old. I’m one of the older guys out there and I got to slow down a little bit with the training and train more smarter than training hard.”

Throughout his career, Hughes, while immensely successful, has never been the most outspoken of fighters. He shows up and he wins. Plain and simple. Even in victory, it doesn’t always appear that he’s having the greatest time in the world.

That surely won’t be the case this Saturday night, win or lose, as he takes on Penn in the co-main event of UFC 123: Rampage vs. Machida.

“Well, I’ve just – I felt really good and I’m going out there having a good time.”

That being said, the night will turn out to be that much more fun if he ends up with his hand raised in victory.

Then again, maybe not, while no one, at the age of 37, completely expected him to be in this position, he’s more than happy to be there.