Although UFC 135 will likely be remembered for Jon Jones’s peerless four-round fighting clinic put on against Quinton Jackson it could well serve the historical significance of being last time welterweight legend Matt Hughes fought a top tier opponent and suffered a first round defeat at the hands of Josh Koscheck.

It was somewhat apt that Saturday’s event took place in Denver, Colorado which was the home of the inaugural UFC. Although Hughes himself did not compete in the octagon until some five years later he is still viewed as an old-school UFC fighter who did much to put the fledgling sport on the modern day athletic landscape.

Although during his pomp he was the kind or fighter that fans either loved or hated, he has always garnered a large amount of respect. He has the most octagon wins (18) and has participated in the second most fights (24). He helped popularize wrestling and ground and pound as a dominant style in MMA and also, perhaps more importantly, was instrumental in bringing popularity to a weight class (welterweight) which was outside of the heavyweight and light-heavyweight divisions. This in turn helped legitimize the sport.

He was always vaunted as the greatest welterweight of all time although this title has clearly been relinquished to rival Georges St-Pierre. Few fighters have been in as many classic encounters as Hughes. His battles with Frank Trigg, BJ Penn and St-Pierre, to name just a few are entrenched in UFC folk law. He was also the first fighter to put away the legendary Royce Gracie in the octagon. Suffice to say Hughes was an obvious choice to be inducted into the Hall of Fame – something that happened in 2010.

Throughout much of his early tenure Hughes was generally seen as the nice guy, a well-to-do country boy who grow up in a small town and took values of hard-work and perseverance onto the wrestling – where he became an All-American – and ultimately into the cage. His walk in music ‘A Country Boy Can Survive,’ by Hank William Jr pretty much said it all.

However the highly successful TUF reality show showed Hughes – in the two series that he appeared as coach – to be frequently at odds with the opposing coach and their fighters and even those in his own camp. Whether or not it was intentional he proved himself quite adapt at playing the villain – especially in the sixth series when he engaged in numerous head games with the popular Matt Serra. Many fans of the show cited him as being arrogant and at times obnoxious. This all meant that in some of his most famous contests, namely against Penn and St-Pierre he was the fighter most fans really wanted to see get his comeuppance.

Since he lost his welterweight crown to St-Pierre in devastating fashion in 2006 Hughes, it could be argued, has never been the same fighter. With his aura of invincibility seemingly gone he would go on to lose as many fights as he won. Both St-Pierre and Penn would go on to win rubber matches against him and he would also lose in devastating fashion to Thiago Alves. He did however roll back the years and showed a flash of brilliance in 2010 when he defeated Ricardo Almeida via an Anaconda Choke.

At 37 there appears to be little Hughes can bring to the octagon now. His wrestling was always his go-to method in his prime but now, against younger, hungrier and superior wrestlers, he barely even goes there. His stand-up against Koscheck looked sharp on Saturday but ultimately he was left on the ground seeing stars in the first. The same happened in his previous encounter with BJ Penn. Hughes appears to be a fan favourite once again – he is undoubtedly a legendary figure. He would perhaps do well to follow Randy Couture’s example and call it a day with his head up hi… and perhaps not the example of say Ken Shamrock!

Matt Hyde