Renzo Gracie: Don't sleep on Matt Serra

Yea I’m with you on that one; I can’t stand Hughes and always liked Matt Serra; especially after his appearance on TUF the comeback; likeable down to earth guy, and an excellent fighter. LW is his division though; win or lose it’s time to move down. Serra vs Sherk would be interesting imo.

Renzo Gracie, also awesome; favorite fight with him was against Carlos Newton. Classy guy too; for someone with his noteriety.

The only name Serra has ever finished was GSP. All the other fighters were cans he submitted or decisions. The men he’s submitted were 0-0 when he fought them and are currently only 0-1. He lost to Shonie, Penn, Din, and Karo which I give him credit for fighing them but who cares, he lost. I think Serra is very over rated as a fighter and will inevitably lose to Hughes. Hughes is a legend who has proven himself and you give him shit John because he lost to the two best fighters in the WW division? Serra is much much much less deserving of any respect than Hughes is and Huges will show that to all the shit talkers. Matt via decision lol, I can’t lose now!

i agree with kev and john…. serra is a nice guy… he is respectful to his opponents (obviously not hughes) and is just a class act

i personally see him destroying hughes….. hughes’ only option is to lie on serra for 3 rounds

while serra can knock him out or submit him

i also agree with o damn i would like too see serra at LW

In fairness, Serra only takes issue with Hughes as a person, not as a fighter. I like Serra just because all them funny-talkin’ yankee-types make me laugh.

Again Serra only submits cans, what makes anyone think he’s going to be able to submit Hughes? His best shot would be to go for a KO but honestly he doesn’t have that drive that GSP and Thiago have. I’m predicting this fight is going to end a lot like the Chris Lyttle fight. I’m looking forward to Hughes sending Serra packing and then maybe we can see Hughes against Kos. John I know your a Jits guy and also from the East cost so I understand your bias. My roots are in wrestling so I’m hugely biased towards Hughes. Also I still ask the question, who declares themselves a class act? A pompus jackass, thats who!

I too am taking Serra in this one, although I see a submission victory rather than pounding Hughes out.

Serra will not be able to avoid every takedown attempt but I see Hughes’ lack of respect for Serra being key. He’s going to get lazy in Serra’s guard and from there a sub will come.

Again who the fuck has Serra submitted that you all think this. Serra has some sick jits no doubt but come on when do we get to see them? Serra thinks he’s a striker now so get over it.

Hughes has submitted 18 opponents, Serra 4. Serra has the better BJJ but look at Gorge Jurgel, great jitz, transfers horribly to the UFC. And Hughes has only ever been submitted by GSP and BJ Penn.

I think you are out of your mind to say Hughes only option is to lie on Serra for 3 round while Serra can knock him out or submit him.

cogito: when has serra declared himself a class act???

just because he’s never submitted any names in the past doesnt mean he is never going to be able too

i think serra will knock him out but a submission is also possible…

WB: Gurgel has got brilliant BJJ but he never got a sub because he never really tried… i remember watching his first couple of fights in the ufc and he would only try an average of 3-4 subs a fight and his last few fights in the ufc he never really tried any so saying that it doesnt always transition well is not true… i think gurgel could of submitted people if he tried to more often but he was always too concerned with having a boring fight

To me Jorge Gurgel represents everything wrong with MMA because rather than play to his strengths and try to win fights with his excellent BJJ he just has brawls with his opponents because he thinks the UFC fans find the ground game boring. Stand up fights are fun to watch but watching an excellent grappler devolve into a mediocre brawler because he’s scared of drunks booing him if he goes to the ground is a sad state of affairs.

WAR cannoli-dwarf!

He was always comparing himself to GSP and how they could be be classy together and grab a beer (this was mainly on tuf). So if we are ok to state how others perceive us then consider myself a laid back lad who could throw leather with the best of them. BTW if a man has had 14 fights and only won by submission four times to men who had a combined record of maybe two to four wins thats not impressive. I’m not saying that Serra can’t submit Hughes but I am saying its unlikely. Serra stands more chance knocking Hughes out but again I think this scenario sounds unlikely. I know MMA math doesn’t work but do you know the names of the people who beat Hughes or Serra? How about how many fights they’ve been in and the average skill of their opponents? Again I’m not saying Serra can’t win or he doesn’t have good jits, I’m just saying he’s an overrated loud mouth. Not that Hughes isn’t a common cocky high school jock. But Hughes has done more far the sport and his fans than Serra ever will so maybe give him more respect? Or you could keep listening to his blogs about other fighters cause what he thinks about other fighters should really matter to you. Also I didn’t compare Gurgel and Serra cause IMO Serra has decent enough stand up that he can rely on that for most of his fights.

yeh i was talkin to WB about gurgel

give hughes more respect? i havent said anything bad about him i just really believe serra will dominate

i dont think he is overrated a lot of people think he is going to lose and he is an under dog comin into this fight

i’m sorry to disturb your love for hughes but in tuf when he was a contestant and then later a coach i think he come across funny and classy compared to the ego-maniac hughes who likes to bad mouth everyone and make excuses for his losses…. yeh he was a dominent champion and he did do a lot for the sport but that doesnt mean he can act like he does

Hughes will get caught early. Serra is a fast starter, he’s gonna catch him in the first 2-3 minutes of the fight.

john: I don’t think Hughes will be stupid enough to stand and trade blows with The Terror. But I do think too that Matt is an egomaniacal country boy "that’s tryin’ to survive[like in his entrance song].

Hughes should have never become champ he won on accident when he fought Carlos Newton. Newton choked him out via triangle and Hughes was out that was the only reason he dropped Newton in return knocking Newton out. When the ref stopped the fight Hughes was so out of it he did not even know that he won the fight. The rest is history.

Syd: If anyone on earth thinks they are better then they are, its Matt Hughes. I really would not be surprised if he completely overlooks Serra stand up, and overestimates his own stand up capabilities, and end up getting KTFO!

Newton held the cage when he had that triangle choke, preventing Hughes from slaming him earlier and breaking the choke. Normally I wouldn’t say holding the fence for a few extra seconds would do much but when you have a choke in it definetly does. Also Newton and Hughes had a rematch in which Hughes won… I think that proves he should have become champ.

You people… I don’t understand what in the hell you see in Matt Serra to think he will beat Matt Hughes. It is a devastating mismatch here. Hughes will take him down, and pound his face in. The only thing that Serra has for himself in this fight is the fact that hes a very durable guy, having only been finished twice.

Hughes will dominate this fight. Serra is a joke. Personalities aside, Hughes wins this fight 19 times out of 20. Serra aint SHIT!!

I know no more Hughes slams :(

this one has lay n pray all over it, but im really puling for serra in this one.

Yeah, he’d fair much better at 155. I really don’t know why he doesn’t go back down. I guess it made sense for him to fight at 170 to get on the TUF show, and then had to defend the belt after winning it. Now I guess he just wants to fight Hughes so bad, that he’s staying there. Win or Lose he should drop back down!

I think Jesse has an excellent point. If the first GSP/Serra fight never happened and if Serra beat, say, Frank Trigg in that dominant fashion, then went on to lose to GSP (like the second fight), people would actually rank Serra higher as a fighter. But beating GSP has actually lowered his rank, because people are so bitter about it. Hmm, hopefully these run-on sentences made sense.

I am going to help support your point by saying that the GSP fight is the only impressive thing that Serra has ever done! He got lucky and landed a punch to the back of the head and now alot of people think he is legit. Look at the B-level fighters that he has lost to: Carter, Parisyan, and Thomas. He hasn’t beat anyone that is worth a shit except the fluke with GSP. And just to add to my bitterness, he isn’t the one who should have been fighting GSP, it should have been Lytle.
     Also I get tired of hearing how good his jits is. Whatever, he has subbed three no names in his entire life. Hughes will dominate him from start to finish. I would like to see something similiar to the Hughes/Newton fight where they both go out at the same time.

Victory is ours, I think you missed Jesse’s point but I don’t want to be one to put words in someones mouth. Also Sarah excellent point, I’m not trying to convince people that Hughes isn’t a douche but I’m trying to say Serra is also so why pretend like Serra is a saint and Hughes is some crazy god loving Christian. BTW I hope your not a fan of Diego Kevin, he’s a big religious nut too.