M&F followed UFC champion Matt Hughes as he prepared for the fight of his life the only way he knows how: with hardcore weight training By Joe Wuebben Photos by Terry Goodlad You’re Matt Hughes. You may very well be the greatest welterweight in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, 170 pounds of pure brute strength raised on a farm in Hillsboro, Illinois. In your UFC tenure, you’ve knocked out Carlos Newton twice, the first time claiming your first belt; you choked Frank Trigg into submission, again twice; and you made Joe Riggs, a young, cocky, brash youngster squeal — yes, squeal — in pain with an arm lock. Takedowns and grappling are your specialities, as you’re a former wrestler. But in a matter of weeks you’ll fight a living legend, the man responsible for launching the UFC. On May 27, you’ll step into the Octagon to face Royce Gracie, the 39-year-old former champion making a comeback after an 11-year break. Your ground game is good, but his is, well, legendary. Royce’s father, Helio, introduced him to jiu jitsu, a ground-fighting martial art that specialises in submission grappling, at an early age in their hometown of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Royce began competing in tournaments at 8 years old. For the record, Helio and his brothers became so adept at grappling that there’s actually a branch of the art known as Gracie Jiu jitsu. Let’s just say that Royce mastered the art, and then some. So you’re one hell of a grappler, but who knows how that will stack up against Gracie’s skills. Your goal in the fight? Stay on your feet. Hit the ground and you may be tapping out shortly thereafter.
FOUR HOURS OF POWER Okay, so you’re not Matt Hughes. If you were, you’d be more than a little concerned about the upcoming bout. Hughes, however, is taking it all in stride. “I won’t do much different for this fight,” he says. “My training will be pretty much the same, except I’ll work on my hands more for stand-up fighting. Hands are a weakness of mine, but they’re more of a weakness for him.” Allow us to translate what “pretty much the same” means. It’s rising at 6 a.m. for a one-hour run, followed by breakfast, then 21⁄2 hours in the gym — one hour of lifting and the rest spent on light drills, light jogging on a treadmill or wind sprints. Hughes returns to the gym in the evening for a 90-minute class with pro fighters, consisting of boxing, grappling, and any technique work he’ll need to employ in the Octagon. All of which adds up to roughly four hours a day. He does this five or six days a week. Hughes’ weight training, as you’d expect, serves the purpose of adding strength and size to his frame, but there’s more to it than that. “Lifting works a lot more than just the muscles,” he says. “It helps me psychologically as well. I want to lift and get as strong as possible so that when it comes time to fight, I’ll be mentally prepared; I’ll have done everything I could have possibly done to be ready.” STANDING UP TO A LEGEND Hughes trains one bodypart a day: chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, core on Wednesday, shoulders on Thursday, legs on Friday, and arms on either Saturday or Sunday. He does 4–5 exercises per bodypart, four sets each, with a typical rep scheme of 15, 12, 6 (the last set to failure), then reducing the weight for 10–12 burnout reps. His sessions never take more than an hour. “I move quickly in my workout, doing a lot of supersets, going back and forth on multiple machines.” Unlike most gym rats, Hughes doesn’t place chest first in the week because it’s his favourite bodypart; he claims exercises like the bench press don’t do much for a mixed martial-arts fighter outside of maintaining balance in the body. Back and shoulders are his favourites, making his mainstay exercises the dumbbell overhead press and upright row for delts, and the low row, shrug and pull-up for back. “I love back and shoulders,” says Hughes. “Back training is the most useful because in our sport, we’re always pulling. And pull-ups are about the best exercise you can do. ” Staying on his feet against Gracie also means Hughes will need strong legs to stand on. And that’s why his leg-press routine is so brutal. He begins with three light sets of Smith-machine squats, then veers from his 12–6-rep scheme by loading up the leg press with 400-plus pounds and performing a set of 50 reps, then a set of 60, then 70. So you’re Matt Hughes and you’re confident about your upcoming bout — so long as you can stay on your feet. “My stand-up is a lot better than his, and I’ll prove it in the fight.” M&F For further information on UFC 60 Hughes vs. Gracie, visit www.ufc.com