First it was Randy Couture, now it’s Matt Hughes. The UFC seems to be locking down former champions left and right.
Hughes, a former UFC welterweight champion, on Thursday affirmed his desire to remain active, stating that he has signed a new multi-fight contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
“Last week I went out to Vegas and I signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC, which is much like my last contract,” said Hughes via a post on his official website.
Who he will fight next is not yet clear, although his most recent opponent, Matt Serra, whom he defeated by unanimous decision at UFC 98 in May, would like another shot at him.
“I'd love to fight Matt Hughes again,” Serra told MMAWeekly.com last month. “I'm not going to attack him personally, but at the same time I do feel I won that fight, or at least I should have got the nod. If not, it's a draw and let's do it again.”
But according to Hughes, at least one other name has been mentioned. “They still have to find out who, where and when my next fight will be... Nothing is decided yet. However, one name the UFC did bring up is a person I’ve never fought before.”
That would seem to preclude Serra, but again, it doesn’t sound as if anything is remotely close to set.
In an interesting aside, Hughes also mentioned that he’d like to branch out into Ted Nugent territory, which seemed to have the UFC brass’ approval.
“I also brought up the fact that I wanted to do a hunting show,” he said on his website, “and they thought that would be a good thing.”
No specific details of the duration of or number of fights on Hughes’ new contract were available at the time of publication.
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