Former two-time UFC Welterweight champion Matt Hughes, who is also a UFC Hall of Fame, retired from MMA in 2013 after back-to-back losses to BJ Penn and Josh Koscheck in 2011. Hughes was considered the No.1 pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the world and holds a record of 45 wins and just nine losses in his professional MMA career.
During a recent interview, Hughes opened up about his retirement and said that he never really wanted to retire, but did so at the request of his wife and UFC President Dana White. His friend and former UFC champion Chuck Liddell was also rumoured to be interested in returning to the octagon and Hughes said it would be a blast to fight on the same fight card.
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"I would love to come back. I didn't want to retire in the first place. Dana thought it was the best thing for me and so did my stinking wife. My wife said she didn't want me to fight anymore and that it wasn't as fun like when I was out there kicking ass. She didn't like the worry, and Dana said the same thing, so that's why I retired," MMA Mania quoted Hughes as saying.
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"I would love to go out and fight again. My problem is, I lost my last two fights and that's the only thing I think about is those stinking losses. What would be fun for me is to fight with my buddy Chuck Liddell, if he came out of retirement. It would be a blast to fight on the same card together."
During his interview, Hughes also spoke about his potential opponent should he make a return to the octagon. He wanted to avoid Tyron Woodley or Jorge Masvidal and wanted someone closer to his age that won't have a huge speed and quickness advantage over him.
"Of course I would have a list of who I want to fight and who I don't want to fight. I think I could still be competitive; I haven't trained in a few years. Now, I have no interest in fighting someone like Tyron Woodley or Jorge Masvidal, some of these young kids," Hughes said.
"I would want to have someone close to my age that has the same speed, quickness. I think I have all kinds of power and can recover well, but that speed and quickness is a tough thing to overcome."
While the UFC President still has to respond to Hughes comments, he said that if the UFC were not interested in signing him up again he would fight for any other big promotion that came with the right offer.
