UFC has announced that former welterweight champion Matt Hughes will take on Thiago Alves in the main event of UFC 85 in London.
After Chuck Liddell suffered a hamstring injury that knocked him out of the main event at UFC 85, I questioned whether UFC could put a main event in place that would sell on pay-per-view. Hughes-Alves is the UFC's attempt to do that, and the fight will air on pay-per-view, not on Spike.
I still maintain that UFC 85 does not provide very good bang for the pay-per-view buck, and that it's a tough sell when it comes two weeks after a much better card at UFC 84 and one week after EliteXC and World Extreme Cagefighting are putting on good shows.
But Hughes is a popular former champion, and Alves is on a six-fight winning streak and coming off an impressive victory over Karo Parisyan. Given the circumstances, UFC did a solid job of keeping a decent card in place after its biggest star got hurt.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-26-2008 @ 4:29PM
michael matthews said...
matt hughes that will be a great fight if matt dose'nt get caught early otherwise matt all the way .hollar if you hear me?
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4-26-2008 @ 5:02PM
michael matthews said...
matt hughes vrs thiago great fight not a chuck ladell fight but i'll watch it matt should win if he does'nt get caught early matt will ground an pound an take a submision if thiago leaves something out.
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4-26-2008 @ 9:02PM
brickman said...
matt has to ease up on choke holds and knock this up comer back to the drawing board. i would like to see matt face of with the great anderson silvia but in order to make it happen he has to knockout who ever he is fighting and do it in a blaze of glory.
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4-27-2008 @ 9:41AM
al said...
Matt Hughes(170) and Anderson Silva(185) are not even in the same weight class so I don't think that match will happen.
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4-27-2008 @ 1:18PM
wade tinnen said...
Hughes, Alvez should be a good fight and I will definitely watch it but, I'm still wanting to see a Hughes, Serra card.
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4-29-2008 @ 2:01AM
PB&J said...
Matt Hughes at one time seemed unstopable in his division but that is clearly no longer the case(see Pierre vs. Hughes match). Hughes said a while back that he wanted to get his welterweight belt back then move up in weight and be the first to hold a belt in two divisions, unfortunately I don't see that reality happening. So far he's gotten beaten convincgly by Pierre twice. Matt needs to win this fight, if he doesn't he might really want to consider when to retire. Great fighter but appears to be past his prime.
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4-29-2008 @ 3:07AM
dude said...
Matt was a great fighter. He is one of the guys that got me watching MMA. He will lose this fight in the first round by knockout or submission. Sorry to say but Alves is a rising star and will put him away early.
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4-29-2008 @ 3:07PM
hawk said...
i hope your wrong i would like to see matt go out a winner an he win by ko or sub .
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