Legendary welterweight Matt Hughes is at the center of a police investigation stemming from an April bar brawl, this according to HeavyMMA.com.

UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes is at the center of a police investigation filed in Illinois.

TMZ reported this morning that Hughes was involved in an altercation inside of a bar on April 23 in Taylor Springs, Il. The report says that Hughes became involved in an argument with another bar patron and pushed a man into a woman, breaking her nose in the process.

Hughes is expected to face Diego Sanchez at UFC 135.

HeavyMMA.com will have more on the story as it develops.

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E. Spencer Kyte of HeavyMMA.com writes that if Matt Hughes seems like he’s enjoying himself these days, it’s because he is. And the former welterweight champion plans on having fun against B.J. Penn on Saturday day at UFC 123.

There is a point in the careers of many elite athletes where their once dominant skills start to erode, the twinkle in their eye turns into a glossy stare as they go through the motions.

Somewhere along the way, the Jim Gray du jour sits across from them, softly and earnestly asking what caused the decline, often eliciting the same response: “It stopped being fun” or some variation on that sentiment.

Sitting on the sidelines, far away from the daily grind of being a professional athlete, many wonder how such a thing could be possible, ready and willing to trade our daily routine with those of our athletic idols at any moment. But every job gets stale after enough time, and being a professional athlete is no different.

At that point, there are only a handful of options: riding things out, continuing to collect a paycheck is the path many take, while some decide enough is enough and opt for retirement. A small percentage choose the path Matt Hughes has decided to follow, accepting that his glory days are gone and getting back to having fun inside the cage.

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From HeavyMMA.com:

Former UFC champions B.J. Penn and Matt Hughes have agreed to face off for the third time in a welterweight bout at UFC 123 in November.

CagePotato.com first reported the news on Monday evening.

UFC 123 takes place Nov. 20 at The Palace in Auburn Hills near Detroit. The event is headlined by a light heavyweight bout between former champions Rampage Jackson and Lyoto Machida. The Hughes/Penn bout is expected to assume the co-headlining role.

Hughes and Penn have a storied history together. The pair first faced off at UFC 46 in 2004, with the underdog Penn submitting Hughes to become the welterweight champion. Hughes got the better of Penn in the rematch at UFC 63, winning with a third-round TKO.

Penn recently dropped his second straight fight to Frankie Edgar for the lightweight title. Hughes, meanwhile, is riding a three-fight win streak, with victories over Matt Serra, Renzo Gracie and Ricardo Almeida.

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Nate Lawson of HeavyMMA.com breaks down the payroll from UFC 117 and surprise, surprise, Anderson Silva and Matt Hughes walked away with the most dough from the event.

Anderson Silva’s fifth round submission victory over Chael Sonnen in the main event of UFC 117 earned the middleweight champion some walking around money.

According to the California State Athletic Commission, Silva netted $200,000 for his efforts earlier this month. Matt Hughes and Jon Fitch each earned a nice paycheck as well, bringing in $200,000 and $108,000, respectively.

No other fighter brought in six-figures for their efforts in Oakland.

Main event loser Chael Sonnen’s payday was quite a bit weaker after the submission loss in a fight he was clearly winning. The middleweight top contender brought in $35,000, while co-main event loser Thiago Alves earned $60,000, and Roy Nelson took home $15,000 for a 15 minute beating at the hands of Junior dos Santos.

The full payroll from UFC 117 reached to just over 1 million dollars and can be found below.

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E. Spencer Kyte of HeavyMMA.com details the 10 things that we learned from UFC 117.

It Isn’t Over ‘til It’s Over
For four-plus rounds, Chael Sonnen dominated UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Manhandling him at every turn, Sonnen followed through on every pre-fight promise for the first twenty minutes of the fight.
As everyone was settling in to watch the fifth round play out just like the four before it, it happened; Sonnen gave Silva a small opening and the champion took advantage, hooking on a triangle, forcing Sonnen to tap and miss out on the middleweight championship that he looked ready to claim.

Silva was behind on every card, with scores of 40-34, 40-35, and 40-36 heading into the final frame, and finding a finish when he absolutely needed to only serves as further proof that absolutely anything can and does happen in this sport and that it really isn’t over ‘til it’s over.

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Brett C. Jones of HeavyMMA.com highlights the winner options for UFC 117.

Anderson Silva

Option 1: Chael Sonnen

It’s rare that a fighter not only loses but is stopped and has a valid claim for a rematch, but indeed Sonnen proved that he belongs in the cage with Silva for another 25 minutes. The fight could absolutely end much quicker the second time around, and while that seems likely to long time witnesses of Silva’s career, it seems even more likely at this moment that Sonnen could again put Silva on his back and batter Silva to earn a victory. He’ll have to learn to defend the armbar from the triangle position, and there’s no indication that he will do so, but you simply cannot discount Sonnen’s first 22 or so minutes of success against Silva.
It’s been suggested by several people, including Sonnen, that the two could be featured as coached on TUF 13 in a USA v. Brazil edition, and that makes perfect sense not only to hype up the rematch as much as possible but also to give the division some time to breath. Sadly, this may mean that Yushin Okami, the last man to earn a victory over Silva, may once again find himself unable to make his way into a title match, at least for another year.

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UFC 117: Silva vs. Sonnen takes place Saturday night from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California and this card is stacked from top-to-bottom. The headliner is a contest for the UFC Middleweight Championship between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen. Here are my picks for this event.

UFC Middleweight Championship Bout – Anderson Silva (26-4) vs. Chael Sonnen (26-10-1): Sonnen gets the award for most smack talk prior to a fight, but he better make sure he backs it up, or else he is going to look like a complete jackass. Sonnen does have a good style to combat Silva, as he is an aggressive wrestler that knows he needs to get the fight to the ground. At the same time, Sonnen has struggled in defending submissions in the past, losing to lesser opponents like Demian Maia and Jeremy Horn via submission. Silva may get taken to the ground a few times in this fight, but his accurate strikes and jiu-jitsu ability on the ground tell me that sooner or later, he will end this fight. I like Silva to win by submission in the second round.

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With the much-anticipated fight between Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans taking place next Saturday, I decided to look back and think of other fights that had this much animosity between the two competitors. Here is my list of top five rivalries in the UFC since the Zuffa inception:

1. Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock – While the fights were pretty lopsided, you could always feel the heat and rage between these two. Tito was a showboat and Ken was mister intensity. They never really had a chance to be friends. The first fight really did a lot to help the UFC land a network television deal and bring more attention to the sport. Then, the two added to their rivalry with their coaching appearance on The Ultimate Fighter Season 3. Too bad for Ken he lost all three fights to Ortiz, but the rivalry was still classic.

2. Matt Hughes and Matt Serra – This rivalry is about two guys that want to be the Alpha Male. Serra is always playing the disrespect card and Hughes is an honest jerk. Hughes dominated the UFC Welterweight division for years and had no problems talking about how inferior his opponents were while Serra shocked the world a few years ago and Hughes called his title reign a “fluke”. These two also coached opposite one another in The Ultimate Fighter Season Six, which led to a fight at UFC 98 that Hughes narrowly pulled out. Still to this day, Serra has preached for a rematch and still proclaims his dislike for the future Hall of Famer.

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UFC 112 left a memorable mark in the history of the organization for a number of reasons.

First, it was the first UFC held in the Middle East.

Second, it saw one of the biggest upsets in the history of the UFC from a betting stand point.

Third, you saw one man display dominance over another in a fighting sense by literally not fighting.

Many fans and even UFC President Dana White are upset with middleweight champion Anderson Silva for his display against Demian Maia. For those who didn’t see the fight, Silva was so far superior to his opponent that he spent most of the fight taunting him and swearing at him in Portuguese. Silva displayed in the first round that he could simply do whatever he wanted, landing every strike he threw at him while taking no damage. So he then chose to start dancing, standing still with his hands at his arms, and challenging his opponent to hit him in the face rather than overwhelm him and finish the fight. The fight, which lasted 25 minutes when it really had no business going more than 25 seconds, angered the fans to no end and forced White to storm off and not even watch the final round.

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