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.

Read the entire article here.