How good was Prime Hughes as a wrestler? Better than Khabib or Askren?

[CereserBr]

Question for the smart, knowledgeable sherbros: Was Matt Hughes the real deal? I know he was a P4P great back in the day and he beat GSP and Penn!

 

[HeDucking]

Retard farmboy strength + juice.

 

[trblesome1]

I honestly don't think Hughes was at that high a level in wrestling I think the guys he was fighting just had no TDD

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Prime Hughes was a beast !!! Just think the level of wrestling now a days is so much higher in mma since everybody cross-trains.

 

[ArtemV]

no and NO. Hughes would get beaten by the majority of olympic wrestlers at his weight. There is a big step up from high school/college wrestling, an universal wrestling.

 

[Gabe]

Yeah Hughes was a beast. Lol at the thought of Khabib beating him.

 

[BigMuffler]

no and NO. Hughes would get beaten by the majority of olympic wrestlers at his weight. There is a big step up from high school/college wrestling, an universal wrestling.

Not saying Hughes was better than Khabib/Askren, but in an MMA context this isn't universally true. If you're talking pure wrestling, sure.

 

[wartor]

Wrestler, or MMA wrestler? Different things. Hughes was amazing for his time. Then came Hughes 2.0 (AKA GSP). So was he good at both yes. Great not top level but good enough.

Better than Khabib or Askren? YES.

The sport has evolved and even the rules have changed. So hard to really compare.

 

[Slapchoppin]

his wrestling was the best because he was the only one with a twin to pound behind the barn

 

[beer59]

Wrestling, shmestling. I'll never forget K-1 Hughes. Never.

 

[Ryoto Machida]

Yeah Hughes was a beast. Lol at the thought of Khabib beating him.

Please tell me you're joking.

 

[blackjackz]

No way Khabib puts away that country breakfast..

 

[Gabe]

Please tell me you're joking.

Yeah any sane person should assume a lightweight would beat the second greatest welterweight of all time. Khabib couldn't get Tibau down he certainly wouldn't get a prime Hughes down.

 

[KYS]

Retard farmboy strength + juice.

Brutal.

 

[Toner]

Prime Hughes was one dimensional and wouldn't even be a top 5 WW today. One of GSP's most overrated wins in his overrated resume.

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

In terms of pure wrestling?.. much better than Khabib, not as high level as Askren.

 

[Ryoto Machida]

Yeah any sane person should assume a lightweight would beat the second greatest welterweight of all time. Khabib couldn't get Tibau down he certainly wouldn't get a prime Hughes down.

Prime Hughes barely beat Charuto. Sherk took Prime Hughes down three times and he'd be a FW if he fought today.

 

[Cooliox]

4-time division 1 all-american

45-9 in his mma career, including 42-5 in his prime... 2-time UFC WW Champion, including 7 successful title defenses... Hall of Famer

He did all that with his wrestling since he had an average stand-up at best.

Please don't ask such stupid questions. You're on sherdog, at least pretend to know what you're talking about with regards to MMA. Thank You.

 

[cooks1]

Looking just at wrestling in a vacuum, there are many people in MMA with better pedigrees.

But in terms of his particular type and style of wrestling being suited for MMA, Hughes is one of the all time greats. He controlled almost every clinch he was ever in. He had stifling positional control. He was able to develop great submissions off of his wrestling. And had some of the best ground and pound of all time.

While his stand up was never elite, He was always, always willing to take a punch in order to close the distance to get a takedown. It was in this area that perhaps the level of Hughes competition at the time was not able to come up with a good solution for him, which was why he reigned so long.

The welterweights of that era just did not simultaneously possess elite stand-up skills AND KO power. Some of his opponents had good stand-up. Some of them had KO power. Most of them did not have both. The were not able to give him enough of a reason to not close the distance regularly.

 

[BigMuffler]

Yeah any sane person should assume a lightweight would beat the second greatest welterweight of all time. Khabib couldn't get Tibau down he certainly wouldn't get a prime Hughes down.

You say that like WWs back then weren't like the size of LWs today. Weight cutting is one of the few quantifiable evolutions in the sport.