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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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.

UFC Welterweight Bout – Thiago Alves (22-5) vs. Jon Fitch (25-3): This is a rematch of a bout from years ago in which Fitch won by TKO. Since then, both have greatly improved, but Alves has seen more progress. Fitch has failed to win by submission or TKO in the last three years, but he still has just once UFC loss in his career and that has to be respected. With Alves struggling to cut weight and having a year off from competition, I like Fitch to score the takedowns and earn the decision victory.

UFC Lightweight Bout – Clay Guida (26-8) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (14-4): Dos Anjos is on the rise, but he faces his toughest challenge to date in Guida. Guida is a relentless fighter that always is pushing the action and looking to mix it up. In this fight, Guida should be able to avoid the big strikes of Dos Anjos and score takedowns to earn a decision victory as he controls the fight.

UFC Welterweight Bout – Matt Hughes (45-7) vs. Ricardo Almeida (12-3): This is an intriguing fight as Hughes has only lost to Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves in recent years, yet he is a decided underdog against the largely unproven Almeida. Almeida has superior submission skills and speed, but both men are weak strikers and Hughes has a clear wrestling edge. I think if Hughes is able to be smart and cautions and avoid the submission attempts of Almeida while on his back, Hughes should be able to control this fight on top and earn another win to his storied career.

UFC Heavyweight Bout – Roy Nelson (16-4) vs. Junior Dos Santos (11-1): This fight has a lot of size and power as both men have heavy hands. Nelson doesn’t look like a well-conditioned or skilled fighter, but he has a great gas tank and is a black belt in jiu-jitsu. Dos Santos is also solid on the ground, but he has never had to show it as he has picked apart opponents on his feet. In this fight, look for Dos Santos to beat Nelson to the punch and score the first big blow, which will lead to a TKO win in round one. Dos Santos is a little quicker and a little crisper on his feet.