10 Things UFC Wants You To Forget About Matt Hughes

By Sam Heard /

7. Christianity And TUF 6

Matt Hughes is renowned as being a Born Again Christian who regularly posts snippets of scripture on his website. Clearly these religious values arguably make him an even more attractive poster boy for the UFC as we all know how well Christianity is received in America. However, Hughes€™ religious beliefs would have a bizarre influence on his coaching role on the sixth series of TUF, leading a team opposite Matt Serra. Prior to his position on TUF 6, Hughes had been a regular on the reality series, establishing a name for himself as the arrogant coach who demanded the most gruelling, physically-taxing training sessions from fighters on his team. In the series where he would be coaching against rival Matt Serra, Hughes€™s religious views altered the face of his normally exhausting training sessions. During one workout, rather than having his fighters work on their strength, conditioning or fighting technique, Hughes distributed bibles and asked the fighters to study a passage and tell him which biblical figure he represented to them. This improvised bible session was not only extremely peculiar but was also wasted the fighter€™s time €“ indeed, Mac Danzig would use the session to take a nap. This season was also memorable as Hughes would get into a series of arguments with future light heavyweight champ Rashad Evans who went on to win the tournament. Normally a fighter€™s Christianity would be a thing to be promoted but it was Hughes€™ inexplicable decision to try and force his beliefs on his team members which made the whole things seem somewhat unsavoury.