From a television ratings standpoint, Bellator MMA is on a successful run because of its penchant for matching former UFC stars in “legends fights.” The promotion just might have another on its hands if comments from Matt Hughes and Royce Gracie are any indication.
Hughes, a UFC Hall of Famer who last fought in 2011, recently talked up his interest for a comeback bout during an appearance on “Undeniable with Joe Buck.”
The former UFC welterweight champion, who officially retired in 2013 and was let go from his front-office role with the company in 2016, made cryptic references during the interview to both Bellator and Gracie.
Upon hearing the news, Gracie, 50, who has served as an ambassador (and one-off fighter) for Bellator, expressed his interest in a fight during an interview with MMAFighting.com.
“Man, that would be great,” Gracie said. “That would be great. Everybody wants to see this second fight.”
Gracie (15-2-3), the UFC’s first star who won three of the promotion’s first four open-weight tournaments and its first Superfight Championship, returned from an 11-year break from the Octagon in 2006 to face Hughes at UFC 60.
The 175-pound catchweight was over before it started as Gracie was mauled early and refused to tap after getting his arm hyperextended. Hughes went on to win by first-round TKO.
“I’d be in the fight,” Gracie said. “The strategy [for their first meeting] was right. Everything we planned and imagined he would do, he did. But I wasn’t in the fight.”
During the interview with Buck, Hughes specifically made mention to being wiling to come back “if I could find an opponent that I could definitely beat.”
“He’s confident, that’s good,” Gracie said. “That’s good when the guy has confidence. It’s not bad. I want to fight someone who thinks like that. It’s good when you have confidence. That shows he’s a champion, not a loser.”
Gracie returned from a retirement of nearly nine years last February to defeat 52-year-old Ken Shamrock by first-round TKO at Bellator 149.
Hughes held the UFC’s welterweight title on a pair of occasions from 2001 to 2006, making seven defenses in all.
