Long-time member of Miletich Fighting Systems (MFS), Matt Hughes, is leaving the prolific fight camp on good terms to open his own gym in Granite City, Ill., according to FightNetwork.com.
The "Hughes Intensive Training (H.I.T.) Squad" will be located less than a one-hour drive from Hughes' Hillsboro farm — the trip to MFS in Iowa takes considerably longer.
Here's a snip from MFS Founder, Pat Miletich:
"Matt's been with me for almost a decade. We've had a lot of great years together. This is a natural progression for guys to eventually go out on their own.... I'm sure he's had a lot of offers to do something like this and he got one close to home. I know it's been tough on him driving up to Iowa all these years, spending the week up here and going home on weekends year after year."
Hughes is one of two coaches on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 6, which debuts on the Spike television network at 11 p.m. on September 19. He will challenge UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Serra for the 170-pound title at UFC 79 on December 29.
For TUF 6 Hughes enlisted the services of Robbie Lawler, Matt Pena and Rob Fiore to be his assistants. Now it appears the experience together will last longer than the six weeks of taping the reality series — the four will all be a part of the H.I.T. Squad.
According to the report, Hughes will begin to train at the new facility on the first of October and then open the "H.I.T. Squad" to the general public at the very beginning of 2008.
Veterans Jeremy Horn and Lawler, as well as Corey Hill and Jacob Hey, are the fighters who will help Hughes prepare for "The Terror."
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