Matt Hughes chokes out Ricardo Almeida
Matt Hughes re-established himself as a welterweight contender at the Ultimate Fighting Championships’ UFC 117 event on Saturday, beating Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert Ricardo Almeida with a first round submission victory.
Hughes dropped Almeida with a strong left hook, and then pounced on Almeida. He applied a front headlock to the Brazilian. Almeida refused to tap but the efficacy of the hold was proven when he lost consciousness seconds later, forcing referee Josh Rosenthal to stop the fight.
Almeida had actually requested the fight as way to avenge other BJJ masters whom Hughes has defeated. Early MMA legend Royce Gracie was crushed by Hughes at UFC 60. Another BJJ star, Matt Serra, who was taught by Royce’s cousin Renzo Gracie, challenged Hughes next and was also beaten. Finally Hughes took on Renzo most recently, defeating him to have won two fights against legendary Gracies. Almeida, a third degree BJJ black belt under Renzo, wanted to restore some pride to the Gracie jiu-jitsu stable, but failed to defeat Hughes, who had long flown the banner of American wrestling.
"It's an old-school wrestling move," Hughes said of his submission after the fight. "I've been good at it. I'm happy to beat a good Brazilian with a wrestling move." Hughes is absolutely no slouch in the submission department and realistically, despite holding no belt level, should be considered one of the very best grapplers in the division. But submitting a world-class expert like Almeida is something to be proud of for Hughes.
Hughes, 36, had faced questions about whether he could still compete with the elite of the division. Hughes is a legend in the mixed martial arts community, commonly considered the most dominant welterweight in the UFC’s history. But after losing his belt to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 65 in 2006, Hughes won one victory over Chris Lytle, then lost to St-Pierre and was handed a crushing defeat by Thiago Alves at UFC 85.
After that, he seemed to be want to wind his career down, taking a grudge match against Serra, which he won by a controversial split decision. Many surmised Hughes had lost a step, and that he would no longer compete with the elite of the division. He took an easy fight against Renzo recently at UFC 112 and won.
But against Almeida, bookmakers had pegged Hughes as a 3-2 underdog. Almeida is several years younger than Hughes, and his strength and BJJ prowess was thought by many to be too much for the former champion to handle.
With the win, UFC president Dana White suggested Hughes could be in the hunt for a title shot, but winning his belt back would still be a long shot. But still, on Saturday night he added another page to a legendary career, and showed the 170lb division he’s far from done.
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