It was a night that possessed a little bit of everything in Denver at UFC 135.
There was another impressive performance by the young UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, plus he brought some sanity to the world of Steven Seagal. We witnessed what was probably the sad end to Matt Hughes' career, a big upset from a guy who the UFC tried to pay to stay away and stamina issues in the high altitude.
- Jones, and his opponent Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, earned an extra $70,000 for Fight of the Night. Josh Koscheck got the same for Knockout of the Night and Nate Diaz pocketed the extra cash for the Submission of the Night.
- Fighting on just 19 days notice, Koscheck took out Matt Hughes. It was the second straight time Hughes lost via first round KO/TKO. His 38th birthday is less than three weeks away and he's got nothing left to prove. Hughes has plenty of money and will always be taken care of by Dana White and the UFC. White thinks it's just a matter of time before the former welterweight king officially says he's done.
"I think he's going to retire. I just don't think Hughes wants to use the word retire," White said during the UFC 135 press conference. "I just talked to him out in the hallway and he's going to fly out to Las Vegas (home of UFC's corporate offices) in the next month or so, and sit down and talk. I'm pretty sure he's going to hang it up."
He worked a bit with Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida before they scored big knockout victories earlier this year. Following those wins, the 59-year-old Seagal surprisingly claimed he taught the fighters their slick finishing moves. Silva and Machida were gracious and let the old guy soak in some attention.
Jones, another fighter who can produce those highlight reel finishes, took a different approach with Seagal. He spoke to the 7th-dan degree black belt in Aikido, who asked if he could come visit Jones in the locker room on fight night.
"I didn't think that would be a good idea. My training staff works very hard on me and I'm their prodigy. I wouldn't want to disrespect them by welcoming in someone's else master into our room, our house, our family," explained Jones.
- White made it point to mention that he brought Mark Hunt to press conference. With his upset win over Ben Rothwell, the New Zealander has now won two straight with the UFC.
Hunt's story is pretty cool. The UFC owed Hunt fights because he was carryover from the PRIDE deal in 2008. The promotion offered to pay Hunt, who was just 5-6 at the time, to stay home. Hunt insisted he wouldn't take the money unless he fought for it.
"I give him all the respect and credit in the world," White said. "I'm glad that he opted to come over here and fight, and I'm proud that he fought in the UFC."
Hunt fought in Japan at 290 pounds. With the help of the American Top Team camp in south Florida, he re-worked his body down into the 260's.
- Quinton Jackson seemed to take the loss in stride.
"It is what it is. I trained really hard. I can't beat myself up," Jackson said. "I'm disappointed because I wanted to make my boxing coach [proud]. I wanted to be his first world champion. Other than that, I'm just happy because I made a lot of money," Jackson said with a big smile.
- Following the victory in the cage, Jones said that Rashad Evans had ruined his moment for a second straight time. Halfway through the presser, Jones was blunt in responding to a question about what he said.
"I don't want to talk about Rashad today," said Jones.
He did open up a bit at the close of the presser when asked about Evans knowing his secrets because they trained together.
"I will say this about Rashad, he does not have my number. He's not even close to having my number. Me and Rashad, we sparred a few times and every time we sparred, I know what could've happened," Jones said. "He talks about one day at practice where he held me down and he lives that day in his head every day. So, we'll see."
- White snapped back when told about rumors that Jones and Evans could meet as early as Dec. 10 in the main event of UFC 140 in Toronto. He said there's no way that's happening, but promised to deliver a great main event.
- Nate Diaz spoke repeatedly about fighting Takanori Gomi in a controlled manner. He didn't want to get caught by the Japanese knockout artist. White raved about Diaz's performance, but laughed at the assertion that the fighter fought conservatively.
"If that was playing it safe, I can't wait until he goes crazy," joked White. "He punched from the minute the belt rang until the end when he finished it. He was in his face, stalked him and put it to him."
- White raved about the Denver crowd inside the Pepsi Center saying it got so loud his ears actually hurt. He said the promotion will return, but was non-committal on when.
- Speaking of returns, Jackson reiterated his desire to fight in Japan next February when the UFC goes back there for the first time since 2000. White said every guy who used to fight in Japan and just about everyone who's never fought there has asked to be on the card.
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