Matt Hughes certainly isn’t opposed to putting on his gloves and competing in mixed martial arts (MMA) again.
Hughes turned a lot of heads when he hinted at a possible return to active competition back in March. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight title holder hasn’t fought since Sept. 2011.
Hughes spoke with Ariel Helwani on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour” and revealed he wasn’t satisfied with retirement:
“I would love to come back. I didn’t want to retire in the first place. My wife said she didn’t want me to fight anymore. It wasn’t as fun as when I was just out kicking ass, she didn’t like the worry. And [UFC president] Dana [White] kind of said the same thing, so that’s why I went and retired.”
Hughes admits that leaving the sport on a two-fight skid hasn’t sat well with him.
“I think it’s just the fact that I lost. I just dislike getting, you know, Koscheck was my last loss, and BJ was my loss before that, and I fully believe that if those fights went all 15 minutes, I would have got my hand raised. I really do. But I got hit in the wrong spot and I didn’t make it out of the first round both times. I still think I’m very competitive, I think I could be, I haven’t trained real hard in the past couple years, but that’s the problem that keeps me thinking I would have a chance of going in there.”
