Matt Hughes, I Thought You Were a Country Boy

Many people in my life have ended up being a disappointment to me.

The MMA fighter who claimed to be a good Christian and a country boy, should never have been one of them.

In explanation: I have loved the country and my cousins who live in a small farming community, all my life. I am proud of this heritage.

Going to the farm to visit them was always a red letter occasion for my whole family, even our standard dachshund loved the experience.

Butchie Boy went on a hunt with my father, my father's cousin and his cousin's oldest son acompanied by their "authentic" farm dogs, cornered and bravely killed a big boar coon.

No doxie has ever been as proud and held his head higher in a show ring than Butch did when he came strutting home with the other hounds trailing dejectedly behind after that hunt!

Farm humor is usually a very dry wit-type of statement made in an ordinary conversational voice, but loaded with subtle sarcasm. It may even go unnoticed by some city folks.

And boy, do I know this for a fact!

I was often the butt of this type of humor and admit it stung at times.

I doubt that my oldest cousin would remember commenting to me at the dinner table when I was twelve years old, that listening to me chew on a lemon drop was like hearing a hog cracking corn.

Not a very flattering comment for a young impressionable fatherless child to carry around for years on end, as true as it happened to be.

While my father was alive, though, he could not get enough of this down home humor.

In ways, the Hughes family was a lot like my cousins'.

Small communities: in my cousins' case the population was in the low hundreds; in the Hughes' case the lower thousands.

Both raised pigs at one time, handling birthing, care and castration of the numerous litters.

Country folks love to make fun of squeamish city folks with every opportunity, although I do not remember ever having pig testicles or dead baby pigs lobbed at me as Matt Hughes has admitted doing with City friend Marc Fiore.

There was a spectacular preserved one-headed, two-bodied baby pig that many a carnival sideshow would have payed to put on display down in the far recesses of the cellar. One of my younger male cousins took me down to see it to watch me faint. I didn't. It was a source of fascination for me.

However, when I watched Matt Hughes bedevil Georges St. Pierre on the TUF 4 show, I thanked God that savvy and smart-mouthed city boy Matt Serra was there to defend him against the insufferable bully that famous and privileged Matt Hughes has become.

It did not surprise me, as much as offend me, when I heard of Matt Hughes, a very sore loser, state that he had walked out of the GSP vs Jon Fitch fight because he found it "boring."

Neither was I surprised when good Christian Matt was one of the first to throw stones at Georges for "greasing" even though videos have come to light showing how generously Stitch Duran greased Hughes on his hairy chest before his second round with Thiago Alves in London, (June 2008).

Claiming to have lost to Georges because he was so slippery in the last two of their fights seemed to me to be the same countrified bravado the farm dogs showed Butchie, before he killed the coon.

So now am I not surprised that Hughes is planning to take bathroom or refreshment breaks during Anderson Silva's next UFCfight. Just the sour grapes talking.

Yeah, that is very Hughes of him.

Even my country cousins from their minuscule farm town have always displayed better sportsmanship and class than Matt Hughes has.

They are church goers who live the Bible but never brag about doing it.

Simple people, in a way, but not crude or unintelligent at all.

I am proud of my cousins and the children they have raised. They have done a far better job than their city cousin who still eats lemon drops with a little too much enthusiasm.

Something did surprise me about Hughes' latest blog statement, though.

He does not think his friend Chuck should give in and retire, as mutual friend and supporter Dana White has adamantly insisted.

Chuck, in Matt's opinion, still has a few fights left in him.

Everyone knows about how close Hughes, Liddell and White have been over their UFC years.

Seems like now the three are at loggerheads.

Matt disses on Anderson Silva, as did Dana; while at the news conference after the fight, Chuck became angry at reporters and jumped in to defend the Brazilian, even becoming extremely emotional about the attacks being made.

Dana White insisted that Liddell remain in the octagon after his fight and take additional mental punishment by being told that he was retired as a result of his loss.

Matt Hughes who is in a similar situation in his  UFC career does not think Chuck should honor Dana's unilateral decision. The kiss Dana placed on the Iceman's Mohawk shavedhead without speaking, went unacknowledged by anyone present.

Dana says he fears for Chuck's health.

Chuck appears unresigned to retirement and very depressed to find himself in such a prickly predicament.

Hughes has mentioned going up a weight class to challenge champion Anderson Silva at 185, after his fight with Matt Serra. How interesting! I would love to see Hughes slaughtered by another foreigner!

Is this a WWE type situation in the making or what?

Maybe Hughes et al. would be wise to not try to determine other peoples lives when they have so much already on their plates.

As I learned on the farm: take all the food you want, but then you have to eat it.

Clean plates and clear consciences were de riguer an the farm.