Hughes’ detractors don’t keep him awake

"Eddie," my friend often said, "if you stay in this business long enough, there is nothing you won’t see."

On Wednesday afternoon, in a hotel room at the MGM Grand, I finally realized what he meant all those years.

I’m just not 100 percent convinced he was talking about an Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter conducting an interview while in bed.

"Don’t worry," Matt Hughes said. "I have shorts on under here."

Yeah. We’ll take your word for it.

The first thing to know about Hughes is that this wasn’t by accident. He controls each second of his life as he hopes to an opponent in the octagon. When asked if his actions are more misunderstood or calculated, he said somewhere in the middle.

The second thing you need to know is that his idea of middle means calculated.

Hughes will fight Matt Serra in a welterweight matchup tonight in UFC 98 at the MGM Grand Garden, and insults that have grown to laughable heights between the two finally will be replaced with action. Words will become fists in an acrimonious relationship that dates to when the two were opposing captains on "The Ultimate Fighter 6" reality TV show.

It’s not a hype thing.

It’s a hate thing.

"He’s smug and stuck up," Serra said. "I don’t like him. It’s genuine. It’s like any other business. Some people are grounded and down to earth. Other people, their poo don’t stink. That’s him. I can’t stand the guy, but I get to fight him, so I’m lucky."

A few things: It’s somewhat disappointing when a tough, brash, entertaining, opinionated New Yorker like Serra uses the word "poo" and even weirder to type it; also, whether you sit on the side of the cage that loves Hughes or loathes him, there is no debating his place and persona within the sport.

Inside the octagon, he has written a Hall of Fame script.

Outside it, he doesn’t give a damn what anyone beyond his immediate circle thinks.

In other words, I hope he continues fighting.

His contract with the UFC expires following tonight, and a loss would be the fourth in five fights for the guy who owns the best welterweight career in history.

By losing, Hughes would enter a sphere now occupied by the likes of Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, famous names that delivered the sport into a mainstream consciousness and yet whose talent slowly but surely has diminished with age.

But more than titles and records, personalities make the UFC compelling. Liddell is a recognizable worldwide star in large part to his mohawk. People watch Dana White’s video blog not for mixed martial arts strategy tips but, rather, the next controversial thing the UFC president will say or do.

Hughes is 35 and a hard-lined conservative farm boy from Illinois who blogs about his love for guns and dislike for all things Obama. His idea of paradise is 1,500 acres back home, where he plants corn and drives tractors and would think it a perfect existence if another reporter never dialed his number.

"I tell you what’s on my mind," Hughes said. "I don’t know why I’m programmed that way. Maybe it’s from my upbringing on the farm. I grew up with hard work all day. Nowadays, it’s a chore to get kids to put up hay. But the people who know me know what I’m about and like me. People who don’t know or like me, I can deal with that.

"I’ve always been in control. I’ve always been on my own time."

Take the bed interview.

Forget his insinuation that it was an honest mistake of mixing up times. Hughes knew exactly when UFC officials had scheduled his media workout session on the resort’s arena level. He knew it and chose not to attend, eventually agreeing to speak with a few reporters in his room while either readying himself for an afternoon nap or rehearsing poses for some UFC calendar yet to be announced.

Whichever one, you get what you get from him. There is no guessing. It’s not a bad thing. Phony is worse than inflexible any day, and at least with Hughes you know where things stand.

I don’t know Hughes well enough to confirm he is the jerk many paint him, but I would take that side over many of the bogus, image-conscious athletes whose words are as fake as their smiles.

Hughes is not afraid to irritate sponsors with his views, willing to answer any question, not concerned with appeasing anyone outside his family and close friends, beginning with his wife and three children and a fourth on the way.

An interview from bed?

That’s him. Take it. Leave it. Like it. Don’t.

"It’s not like I sit around trying to figure out why people feel a certain way about me," Hughes said. "I guess I’m just blessed that way."

I hope the guy keeps fighting.

Although something tells me UFC officials will send a personal escort for him the next time a media workout session is scheduled.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.