You may have thought that Fedor’s bee story was the joke, but Matt Hughes is the one enjoying the April Fool’s Day hilarity. It’s not quite like Fightlinker’s pony tomfoolery, the Tommy Lee vs. Kid Rock UFC fight, or the bastard in the forums who kept Rick Rollin’ everyone — I got it twice and had to shut my computer down, Bastard — but here is Matt’s blog entry from today:
Well, for a long time I’ve talked about going up in weight class and I’ve decided to finally do it. Only I’m not going up to 185, I’m going up to 205 to fight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in June. I’m bulking up now and packing on muscle and I’m thinking that it will be nice to not have to cut weight for a change. I think it’s a great match-up for me and I’ve told Dana that if I win this, then I want a shot at the 205 title next.
Sorry for the short blog this week, I’m here in Colorado helping Tommy get ready for his fight, so I’ll try to have more for you all next week. I just wanted to break the big news. -matt
You’d think Matt would’ve picked a fake opponent who hadn’t already backed out of a June fight because of injury for his “joke.” I also don’t want him to shoot me for pointing that out. So let’s take this a step further: imagine Matt going up even further in weight against, say the recently UFC-departed Tim Sylvia. I’d guess it would end in Matt running for his life.
Wonder what little Matty had in that backpack? Snacks, juice boxes, and the latest Harry Potter novel would be my guess. As for the other most hated fool from the UFC, it’s always fun to be reminded again about Big Tim’s fear of spiders and love of girlie drinks.
The eight greatest MMA fighters who have never won a championship or major tournament…
8. Gilbert Yvel (32-12-1)
There are two reasons “The Hurricane” hasn’t risen to the lofty heights of champion: his lackluster ground game and his ridiculous temper. Yvel has undeniable knockout power, particularly in his kicks and flying knees, and 28 of his 32 wins have come via KO/TKO. On the other hand, a quarter of his 12 losses came from well-deserved DQ’s. If he could have gotten out of his own way, this guy could have been on top of the world.
7. Yushin Okami (22-4)
Okami had a good shot to win Rumble on the Rock’s 175-pound tourney in 2006. As you’ll recall, he was staggered by an illegal kick from Anderson Silva in the first round, picking up a DQ win that allowed him to continue on to fight Jake Shields. But Shields beat Thunder in a decision (and ended up winning the whole thing), and Okami’s title hope disappeared. Now in the UFC, Okami is a top contender for the middleweight title — but good luck getting past the division’s undisputed ruler.
6. Jeremy “Gumby” Horn (79-17-5)
Although he has logged an impressive record in over 100 pro fights — beating guys like Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Josh Burkman, Dean Lister, “The Hurricane,” David Loiseau, and Vernon White — “Gumby” has never won the big one. He had two chances to pick up a title (UFC 17 vs. Frank Shamrock for the middleweight crown and UFC 54 in a rematch with Liddell for the light heavy belt), but was stopped both times.
After Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was forced to withdraw from his bout with Chuck Liddell due to a knee injury, Rashad Evans has been picked to replace him as Liddell’s opponent on the June 7th event that will take place in London, England.
Scheduled to make his return to the Octagon this June against Chuck Liddell at UFC 85 in London, light heavyweight star Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has instead been forced to withdraw from the bout due to a ruptured ACL in his left knee, the same injury he had surgery on to repair last October after his UFC 76 fight with Forrest Griffin.
Surgery on the injured knee will be scheduled shortly, and there is no word on when Rua will be cleared to return to the Octagon.
Liddell’s opponent for UFC 85, which will be held at London’s O2 Arena on June 7th, will be announced shortly.
Damn it, we were really looking forward to that one. All we can say to Rua is find a competent surgeon or find a new line of work; we’ve seen more pictures of you in a hospital bed than in a gym. And who knows who Liddell’s replacement opponent will be, because all of the UFC’s other top 205ers are already busy around that time. Check it…
Quinton Jackson, Forrest Griffin: fighting each other in July Lyoto Machida, Tito Ortiz: fighting each other in May Wanderlei Silva, Keith Jardine: fighting each other in May Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou: scheduled to fight Kazuhiro Nakamura in May Thiago Silva, Rashad Evans: likely to fight each other in May
That doesn’t really leave anyone else that would give Chuck a serious challenge. We’d guess that either T. Silva, Evans, or Sokoudjou will be pulled off the match they were slated for to fight Chuck. Thiago and Sokoudjou might be interesting opponents, but a win for Chuck wouldn’t do much to prove he’s ready for another title shot, and a loss would sink him. Fucking Shogun — this kind of ruins everything.
