{"id":264222,"date":"2017-11-22T06:43:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T14:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=264222"},"modified":"2017-11-22T06:43:58","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T14:43:58","slug":"matt-hughes-criticizes-ufc-explains-promotion-not-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-hughes\/matt-hughes-criticizes-ufc-explains-promotion-not-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Hughes criticizes UFC, explains why promotion is &#8220;not as special&#8221; as it once was"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking on a recent edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JydU45WJ0wc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Undeniable with Joe Buck<\/a>, former UFC welterweight champion and outright MMA legend Matt Hughes shared some criticisms of the modern\u00a0 UFC. In his opinion, the promotion&#8217;s frequent shows \u2013 there will be a show every weekend from now until year&#8217;s end \u2013 are making its product less enjoyable.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI think it\u2019s too commercial,\u201d Hughes said (h\/t Tristen Critchfield of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/g00\/news\/news\/Matt-Hughes-UFC-Not-as-Special-in-Modern-Era-with-Fights-on-Darn-Near-Every-Week-129371?i10c.encReferrer=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sherdog.com<\/a>). \u201cThey\u2019ve got fights darn near every week (on) one of the three channels they\u2019re on, and I think it\u2019s too commercial. I am so happy that timing worked out for me where I fought when I did. I really think that I fought in the golden ages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI started at UFC 22, and I don\u2019t even know what my last one was \u2013 around (UFC) 110 or 115 or something \u2013 but I think I was in the golden ages. It was when people got together to watch the UFC. It wasn\u2019t \u2013 because they\u2019re so often now.\u201d<\/span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThey\u2019re just not as special,\u201d Hughes said.<\/span><br \/>\n<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While Hughes is hazy on the setting of his last fight, it occurred at UFC 135, when he was knocked out by Josh Koscheck in the first round. This loss was preceded by another first-round knockout loss, dealt by our own BJ Penn. Prior to these losses, Hughes won three-straight, defeating Matt Serra, Renzo Gracie and Ricardo Almeida.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, Hughes was involved in a grisly accident, during which his truck collided with a train. Miraculously, Hughes has been making a truly incredible recovery. He was even <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-hughes\/matt-hughes-back-mats-just-two-months-accident\/\">spotted doing some light grappling<\/a> in the weeks following this accident.<\/p>\n<p>Hughes&#8217; full interview with Joe Buck, which was filmed before this accident, will\u00a0<span>air on DirecTV and Audience Network on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET\/PT.<\/span><\/p>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JydU45WJ0wc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Do you share Matt Hughes criticisms of the modern UFC? Do you think the promotion would be wise to promote fewer, but more stacked cards? Join the debate in the comments section!<span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 22\/11\/2017.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking on a recent edition of Undeniable with Joe Buck, former UFC welterweight champion and outright MMA legend Matt Hughes shared some criticisms of the modern\u00a0 UFC. In his opinion, the promotion&#8217;s frequent shows \u2013 there will be a show every weekend from now until year&#8217;s end \u2013 are making its product less enjoyable. \u201cI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":242456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10401],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matt Hughes criticizes UFC, explains why promotion is &quot;not as special&quot; as it once was | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-hughes\/matt-hughes-criticizes-ufc-explains-promotion-not-special\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matt Hughes criticizes UFC, explains why promotion is &quot;not as special&quot; as it once was | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Speaking on a recent edition of Undeniable with Joe Buck, former UFC welterweight champion and outright MMA legend Matt Hughes shared some criticisms of the modern\u00a0 UFC. In his opinion, the promotion&#8217;s frequent shows \u2013 there will be a show every weekend from now until year&#8217;s end \u2013 are making its product less enjoyable. \u201cI [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-hughes\/matt-hughes-criticizes-ufc-explains-promotion-not-special\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-22T14:43:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Matt-Hughes.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-hughes\/matt-hughes-criticizes-ufc-explains-promotion-not-special\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-hughes\/matt-hughes-criticizes-ufc-explains-promotion-not-special\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Matt Hughes criticizes UFC, explains why promotion is &#8220;not as special&#8221; 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