When Joe Riggs-Matt Hughes fight was announced...

Ogata said:
Yes boobies are nice:
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Riggs had a much better skill set than a lot of Matt's opposition, reportedly always one of the best fighters in the gym, solid wrestling, had some of the best ground and pound, and some very slick boxing he just always found a way to lose. Had he worked a bit more on his submission defense and had less personal difficulties, I believe he had the tools and the athletic ability to take him to a title, to his credit he did win some respectable titles outside of major organizations...an early WEC MW title, a bareknuckle title & that Bellator fight master series tournament, probably could of won a title in Strikeforce too. I don't think he had any business fighting at WW, moving up and down between weight classes ruined him, he was a solid sized MW.

Still, a respectable a career...one of the better skilled journeyman type fighters in the sport. I'd say he's top 10 in that catagory.
 
Riggs was always known as the guy who performed extremely well in camp/practice, but could never put it together in an actual fight.
 
cheesus said:
Riggs had a much better skill set than a lot of Matt's opposition, reportedly always one of the best fighters in the gym, solid wrestling, had some of the best ground and pound, and some very slick boxing he just always found a way to lose. Had he worked a bit more on his submission defense and had less personal difficulties, I believe he had the tools and the athletic ability to take him to a title, to his credit he did win some respectable titles outside of major organizations...an early WEC MW title, a bareknuckle title & that Bellator fight master series tournament, probably could of won a title in Strikeforce too. I don't think he had any business fighting at WW, moving up and down between weight classes ruined him, he was a solid sized MW.

Still, a respectable a career...one of the better skilled journeyman type fighters in the sport. I'd say he's top 10 in that catagory.
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Extremely vague category that you just created
 
Hughes should retroactively be awarded a title for that fight. If Riggs had weighed less (scale broken or not), Hughes would have another title. It makes no sense and by todays standards he would have it. I'll always concider him to have ten championships.
 
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Ogata said:
When it was announced Riggs was fighting Hughes, what was the general reaction on this forum?
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A sigh of relief that a fight was happening, but also a sigh of disappointment because Riggs had no chance.

Ogata said:
Did you guys think Riggs had a chance or was a dangerous opponent to Hughes?
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See above.

Ogata said:
What did you think of Riggs vs Hughes fight?
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Played out pretty much as expected.

Ogata said:
Had Riggs trained fully for the fight, could he have beaten Hughes?
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No.

The entire thing end to end sucked. The weigh-in was a disaster, but no one really knows what happened - rumor is he missed weight twice, then hydrated, AND THEN they found the scales were off, and offered to fix them and weigh him again (after he guzzled a gallon of water). But there was little info on how much the scales were off, or how they could have been off then but not for the rest of the fighters. So we really know nothing.

When Riggs accepted the fight he voluntarily left Hughes' gym - a decent gesture from a decent guy. Hughes spend the entire time shredding him every chance he got, his old 'friend' and training partner - and Riggs was never invited back. It showed Hughes' true colors way more than any of his GSP confrontations.

In the end, Riggs tried to step up and got nothing back in return. He lost his gym, barely made any money, took heat for missing weight.....all in all, a shit show. Everyone except Riggs should be ashamed of that entire debacle. Especially Matt Hughes.
 
Kvothe_the_kingkiller said:
A sigh of relief that a fight was happening, but also a sigh of disappointment because Riggs had no chance.



See above.



Played out pretty much as expected.



No.

The entire thing end to end sucked. The weigh-in was a disaster, but no one really knows what happened - rumor is he missed weight twice, then hydrated, AND THEN they found the scales were off, and offered to fix them and weigh him again (after he guzzled a gallon of water). But there was little info on how much the scales were off, or how they could have been off then but not for the rest of the fighters. So we really know nothing.

When Riggs accepted the fight he voluntarily left Hughes' gym - a decent gesture from a decent guy. Hughes spend the entire time shredding him every chance he got, his old 'friend' and training partner - and Riggs was never invited back. It showed Hughes' true colors way more than any of his GSP confrontations.

In the end, Riggs tried to step up and got nothing back in return. He lost his gym, barely made any money, took heat for missing weight.....all in all, a shit show. Everyone except Riggs should be ashamed of that entire debacle. Especially Matt Hughes.
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I was actually a big Hughes fan in those days before the rise in media access shed so much more light on the lives and personalities of the competitors and all I ever really saw of them were their pre fight interviews and their performances inside the octagon.

Then, of course, I realized that he was an arrogant, unsympathetic, bible thumping bully and decided I wasn't quite so invested in whether he won or lost any longer.
 
I thought Riggs could do Hughes, no homo, so the ending to the fight was an anti climax. I mean how you gonna just sit there and let him twist your arm, damn!
 
It was definitely a disappointment. Lot of us wanted to see karo Parisyan get his shot. But he never ended up getting it. Shame he had to drop out from that event.
 
CerebralKnievel said:
I was actually a big Hughes fan in those days before the rise in media access shed so much more light on the lives and personalities of the competitors and all I ever really saw of them were their pre fight interviews and their performances inside the octagon.

Then, of course, I realized that he was an arrogant, unsympathetic, bible thumping bully and decided I wasn't quite so invested in whether he won or lost any longer.
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Of course we were. He was the exception that broke the rule - a wrestler that attempted to finish fights, not win decisions. Old school. Use wrestling as a means to an end - to finish your opponent - not just win rounds.

What's not to like? Him, that's what. He's as un-likeable a person as any in this colorful sport. And ya, as you say, we had no way of knowing that in 2003. Not like today.

Great fighter though. And I still wish more wrestlers fought to win like him.
 
Ogata said:
When it was announced Riggs was fighting Hughes, what was the general reaction on this forum?

Did you guys think Riggs had a chance or was a dangerous opponent to Hughes?

What did you think of Riggs vs Hughes fight?

Had Riggs trained fully for the fight, could he have beaten Hughes?
Click to expand...

Don't recall the forum reaction back then, was under another account.
Riggs was definitely considered to have a chance and a dangerous opponent.
Stung Matt first punch, and barely missed with an uppercut.
Matt landed a great body kick to make an opening for a take down & finish.
Riggs was a good enough striker for the era,
but Hughes was a superb wrestler who stuck to gameplans.
Simple brute strength and good coaching (gameplans).

At the time, many future starts were still building,
and Riggs was "in the mix" the same a Lawler.
Hughes shot to stardom with the Grace win, if i recall correctly.
Diaz snuffed Lawler, Hughes snuffed Riggs.
They dropped their contention quickly.
Enter BJ, GSP, Hughes, and to a lesser extent, Serra.
 
I thought Royce Gracie had a better chance of beating Hughes at ufc 60. I thought Royce was gonna get him in some triangle choke. Boy was I wrong. Riggs had no chance.
 
ClosetVitorFan said:
I thought Royce Gracie had a better chance of beating Hughes at ufc 60. I thought Royce was gonna get him in some triangle choke. Boy was I wrong. Riggs had no chance.
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Yeah. this was prime Hughes here. People forget just how dominant he was. He was finishing nearly everyone during this time. Anyone without exceptional TDD or otherworldly BJJ was going to get wrecked.
 
Ogata said:
I hold this event close to my heart because UFC 56 was the first even that made me want to follow this sport and yet I have few questions for you guys. So the fight was suppose to be Matt Hughes vs Karo Parisyan and Karo hurt his hamstring and pulled out.

So then Joe took the fight and there was some controversy with the weight issue, it seemed that he made weight but officials fucked up and by the time they fixed the scale, Riggs rehydrated and so because of the mistake, Dana didn't give him shit for not making weight.

Now here are my questions:

When it was announced Riggs was fighting Hughes, what was the general reaction on this forum?

Did you guys think Riggs had a chance or was a dangerous opponent to Hughes?

What did you think of Riggs vs Hughes fight?

Had Riggs trained fully for the fight, could he have beaten Hughes?
Click to expand...
All I remember is Riggs Calling him "Matt Who's" in the pre fight promo then missing weight and getting starched.

<45>
 
I was training with Karo at the time so I was pretty disappointed that he didn’t get his shot I was a huge Hughes fan but I genuinely believe Karo had the ability to shock the world. He landed takedowns on everyone in our gym even footsweeping a prime Randy Couture and maintaining top control and took his back. Guy was a fucking wizard when it came to raw grappling ability and judo prowess. Sad that personal issues (opiates and Xanax) took control of his life around that time. He never truly reached the heights he could have otherwise.
 
And Hughes finished Riggs with a Kimura in half-guard. I never saw the fight, but Rogan says this every time someone attempts a Kimura in half-guard :D
 
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