The MMA Digest

Photo: matt-hughes.com

Matt Hughes gives his thoughts on episode 8 of The Ultimate Fighter 6 on his online journal:

In tonight’s episode, you saw me being a little rough with Tommy during practice. First off, I want to say when I was rolling with Tommy it was actually the week before. So that scene was actually from before J-Rock’s fight. They’re making it look like I rolled with Tommy that hard just before he fought, which never would have happened. Plus, they keep keying in on me saying that I wanted “emotion, emotion.” I said a lot of other things, but they kept showing that for some reason. What I was getting at was that this sport is all mental. By “mental” I bring up the second Trigg fight when I was kneed in the groin and the second BJ fight when I was caught in that submission. I could have easily just given up in both of those fights, but it never crossed my mind.

In coaching, not everybody’s the same and I think Serra ran his team as if everybody was the same. That’s just not the way it is. I think if War Machine has been on my team, I could have turned him around a little bit and not just thrown my hands up in the air and said that he was a nutcase. I think I could have helped him a little bit. Obviously Jon was weak in the mental department; but to be honest Tommy was the better fighter. So I don’t think Jon’s mental weaknesses had anything to do with him not being able to finish that choke hold or his arms getting so tired from trying the choke, Tommy was just the better fighter. That goes to show you that Tommy was super mentally prepared for that fight, because so many fighters, after having their opponent get them in the rear naked choke and having blood running down their face, would have quit and Tommy didn’t.

I don’t really care about Matt Serra’s “Matt Hughes impression.” It just goes to show you that during his practice times that he was obviously worried about me and entertaining his guys. When we practiced the last thing on my mind was imitating him. So I just chalk that up to him showing who he is.

I’m super excited that I finally got another guy into the next round. I finally get another win, so it put me in a good mood. I think that Serra has six guys in there and I’ve got two quality guys in there. -Matt