Matt Hughes recently lost to George St. Pierre at UFC 79-Nemesis, but that didn’t stop him from going out on a tour to sign autographs on a recent book he made called "Made in America."
Hughes went out on a book tour to several different cities including Minneapolis, St. Louis, Las Vegas and even the heart of New York city. He expected a lot of criticism when he went out to NYC because it is in fact the hometown of current welterweight champ Matt Serra.
It was actually quite the opposite Hughes explained:
"I was a little surprised…I really thought that being in the New York area I would get a lot of
Serra fans, but it was the opposite, and I’m not trying to knock Serra,
but I had a lot of people say that they wanted me to come back and
fight him. I was surprised at how nice everybody was. No matter what
area I was in, people were super and there are a lot of respectful fans
out there"
What’s up with this "Made in America" book?
"I got approached by Simon and Schuster to write it. So when they
approached me and since I had so much material for a book, I decided to
go ahead and do it…The number one thing that I wanted the book to get across was
honesty…I wanted people to know that what they were reading was the
truth I had a fairly long discussion with my wife about it and she
wanted the
same thing, so there’s a lot of stuff in there that didn’t need to be
in there, but we just wanted a true account of what actually
happened…There’s been a lot of talk about a sequel, but I’m not gonna
worry about that right now…If there is a sequel, it will happen in a
couple of years.”
So what’s next for Hughes in the UFC and mixed martial arts?
“I feel healthier now than I ever have, I’m really happy with my camp
and who I’ve got, and I’ve got to put all the blame on me for that loss…I just didn’t go out there and do the things we worked on. I was
hesitant and just wasn’t pulling the trigger like I should have. My
camp got me in shape, I was ready to go, and I was just a little bit
hesitant, so that’s on me, not on anybody else. So as healthy as I am
and as much as I want to compete, I’m not going anywhere. First off, I
would never retire off of a loss like that – never. Number two, I just
feel super healthy…I told (UFC President) Dana (White) that I might take a little time off
to see my family and because I’m starting this new gym, the H.I.T.
Squad, and I’m getting my clothing line out there…But I want to see Georges and Matt fight, and I told Dana that I’d
probably like to fight Matt Serra after that fight. If Matt loses, I’ll
be looking to fight him…The fans will definitely see me in the Octagon again."
We hope to see Matt Hughes back real soon and best of luck to him with everything. They still owe us that Hughes vs. Serra fight, but we’ll have to see if Serra can stop GSP and defend his title. Can’t wait for this rematch!!!
(props to UFC.com)
