Counting down to the best MMA fighter of all time

#10 Matt Hughes (1998-2011)

Matt Hughes: Dominated the Welterweight division

The King of the Welterweight division, Matt Hughes dominated the best UFC had to offer for over a decade.

Debuting for the promotion in 1999, Hughes soon found himself in the Championship picture and he won his first Welterweight Championship versus Carlos Newton at UFC 34 in November 2001. That was Hughes’s first win of a six-fight UFC winning streak which was ended by BJ Penn at UFC 46 in an upset, where Hughes’s overconfidence led to being undone by a rear naked choke.

Hughes atoned for his loss when he began another six-fight winning streak which encompassed a second Welterweight title win, this time opposite George St. Pierre and also saw him avenge his loss to Penn.

That run also included a huge win over UFC 1, 2 and 4 tournament champion, Royce Gracie at UFC 60. Hughes was regarded as the greatest pound for pound MMA star in the world at this time and it is difficult to argue with that opinion. His superiority was such that he defeated every other fighter in his division.

Hughes lost his second Welterweight title to GSP at UFC 65 and failed to recapture the belt in a rematch at UFC 79.

Hughes only fought a handful more times with mixed results, losing his final two matches against Penn and Josh Koscheck.

However, Hughes’s impact in his heyday can never be dismissed. He was a submission machine at his peak and the most dominant Welterweight of his era until his crown was taken by GSP.