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The following is part two in a series of articles on Matt Hughes's autobiography "Made in America." To read part one, an editorial on the quality of the book, click here or App users click the Opinion category.
10. Matt wrote "I had been close to my own death as I could have possibly gotten, but I hadn't found it to be such a horrible thing. It wouldn't have been a peaceful death, but it wouldn't have been an unspeakable tragedy. It wasn't something for me to be afraid of." I learned that his every day mentality is not much different from his mentality in the cage.
9. "Well, I'm just glad it went like it did." He is referring to his victory over Gill Castillo in 2002. "I didn't train at all for this and I knew if it went five rounds I'd totally gas. Gil's a great guy but he doesn't have a lot of heart. I thought that if I made it rough for him he would give up and fold, and that's what he did."
8. I had always heard other people say that Hughes did not always train for his early matches, but this confirms it.
7. "I was a good athlete, and the school knew it. They rewarded me for it. Teachers let me slip by because I was on the team. I got an A in classes I never went to; I needed another credit, so they tacked it on halfway through the semester." I was not sure Matt was an elite enough athlete to never attend class and receive A's.
6. Matt Hughes parents separated and divorced. I was unaware he came from a broken home.
5. "I wrestled a guy named GP Grabble and beat him pretty bad in the first round. Mark did well also, and it ended up being me and him in the finals. The battle lines had been drawn. We weren't twins or even brothers anymore. Now we were rivals. He got a reversal on me for two points and ended up taking me by a point. I was so bad at athletics in junior high that my brother beat me." This is one of the only funny parts in the book. This is a nice insight into his personal relationship with his twin brother. This book would have been better with more things like this.
4. Matt refused to fight Rich Franklin because they were friends.
3. Matt says to Tim Sylvia before his fight with Randy Coture; " 'Timmy,' I said, like I was talking to Joey (his 4 year old son) , 'it's going to be a little embarrassing for him, so don't trash talk. He's too good for that, and you're too good for that.' " I was surprised that both Matt and Tim assumed that he would not only beat Randy Coture, but would beat him so badly that it would embarrass him.
"How long can he take this he wondered. I didn't let myself get excited. For every move there's a counter. The crowd was hysterical. No one had been choked out while standing before. He was going to tap, the ref was going to stop it, and that's how it was going to be declared. Those were the rules when you come to play in my house. It was over. I hadn't even thrown a single punch." This answers the two questions that I have always had about fighting in the UFC. Does a fighter hear the crowd when they are fighting and what is it like to beat the crap out of Frank Trigg.
2. Matt Hughes once competed against Tito Ortiz in Abu Dhabi and lost.
1. "And for every move, there's a counter, and for ever counter there is a counter." Who knew Matt Hughes could teach his readers anything that they could apply to every day life.
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Eric Hobaugh is the new MMATorch book reviewer. The third part of his review of Matt Hughes's "Made in America" book will be published next Monday.
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