Fantasy #1 Contender Tournament Round 1: #8 Hughes vs. #9 Daley
by Zach Krantz on Sep 24, 2009 7:51 PM EDT
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The UFC Welterweight Division has a plethora of young talent, a dominating champion, and many exciting match ups to choose from, but the one thing they lack is a true number one contender. I doubt the UFC would ever put together a welterweight tournament to determine a true number one contender (oh do I hope to be wrong), but we at WKR can have our own virtual (we're dorks, deal with it) tournament. The bracket and rankings have been set and it is time to begin the tournament. Let your vote choose who wins the most prestigious, meaningless, fake, yet enjoyable UFC Welterweight number 1 contender tournament.
The first match up is between #8 ranked Matt Hughes and #9 Paul Daley. Fighter details after the jump.
Matt Hughes 44-7 (16-5 UFC): Former UFC Welterweight Champion and future UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes is a true legend. Hughes is 8-3 since his lost to B.J. Penn and his only losses are to Thiago Alves and George St. Pierre, twice. However, he is 2-3 in last five and has definitely lost a step, or two, or three. He still is a top 10 welterweight in the UFC and can more than hold his own against top level fighters.
Paul Daley: 22-8 (1-0 UFC): Coming off a shocking upset against Martin Kampmann, Daley has made a name for himself in the UFC after only one fight. He is one of the best strikers in all of MMA and can beat anybody if the fight keeps standing. However, 17 of his 22 wins are by KO/TKO and he has never had a grappling submission in his whole career. He is the epitome of a one dimensional fighter, but a very dangerous dimension.
P.S. I should have set it up for Hughes to fight Trigg:
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disagree. I still think Hughes is still strong enough and his wrestling is good enough that he can get Daley to the ground. He will then sit on him for 15 minutes for a riveting (sarcastic) UD. There would be a few spot moments of anticipation when Daley has a few escapes, but this would be a bad match up for Daley.
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Yeah, Daley isn’t Thiago Silva. Hughes’ wrestling wins this.
MMAMoneyLine
by MMAMoneyLine on Sep 25, 2009 9:57 AM EDT up reply actions
I would love to see Daley connect but I think Hughes would do what he did in the Serra fight
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if he does connect before hughes dry humps him for 15 minutes, its over.
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by sonofapsycho on Sep 24, 2009 11:42 PM EDT up reply actions
The thing is…Hughes hasn’t shown a high level of explosive wrestling ability lately. I know in his prime he absolutely did but I haven’t seen it lately. Daley’s takedown defense is better (out of necessity) than Serra’s. I think this would pretty much be a pick-em fight on the books (so it makes sense that they’re a 8 v. 9 fight). I’d go with Daley since I think he possesses the higher finishing ability right now and the fight starts in his realm every round.
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by Brent Brookhouse on Sep 25, 2009 12:23 AM EDT reply actions
Hughes vs Lytle would be the comparable bout in terms of style.
Sure Lytle has good submission skills whereas Daley really doesn’t, but Lytle loves to stand and bang as does Daley. Lytle was taken down and controlled for 15 minutes and there really isn’t much reason to think this bout would go any differently.
Granted, that bout was 2.5 years ago but as Hughes showed against Serra he still has the ability to get his opponent down to the mat and keep him there.
Daley would have the proverbial “puncher’s chance” and showed some decent takedown defense against Jake Shields last year but in the end I see Hughes taking the victory even though I voted for Daley — classic case of want to win versus should win
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