It’s about time to get some picks in place for UFC 84 “Ill Will” taking place on May 24th in Las Vegas, NV. There are some great matches on this card and while they aren’t all critical to the so called rankings in the division, many are great just for entertainment value or the story behind the story.

With another 11 fight card in place, the write ups are getting pretty intense, so I will try to keep it brief and hopefully accurate.

Lets go…

Main Event:

BJ Penn Vs. Sean Sherk (Lightweight Title Match)

Sean Sherk won the Lightweight Title in a decision victory over Kenny Florian, defended it against Hermes Franca and then tested positive for a banned substance(Nandralone). Off the fight scene for close to a year, Sherk returns to a title shot against BJ Penn who currently holds the interim title after taking it in a recent and lopsided victory over Joe Stevenson.

Sean Sherk is an ultra compact wrestler with solid determination and great ground control. His stand up game is decent but not great… he can get by on his feet but needs the fight to go to the ground to get a win. BJ Penn is an Elite BJJ practitioner with outstanding take-down defense and good striking power. He is great on the ground and capable of winning fights on his feet as well. The questionable area for BJ Penn has always been conditioning.

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(Photo:UFC.com)

In a recent blog entry on Matt’s official website, (which is one of the best managed fighter sites on the web) he made some interesting remarks following the most recent UFC event…. UFC 82 in Columbus, OH.

Hughes was brief in his commentary, but made reference to the fact that he was impressed with the commitment to the fight that was shown by Heath Herring in his win. Agreed that Herring was tenacious if not terribly exciting as he ground out a win of the physically intimidating and clearly improving Cheick Kongo.

Hughes wasn’t complimentary of the fighters in the main event though, stating that Dan Henderson would have likely put in a better showing had his conditioning been at a higher level for the fight. Hughes goes as far as to say that,

“Anderson Silva ended up winning the title fight, I think if Henderson was in shape he could have lasted longer. I don’t know why somebody would go into a title fight not in shape and ready to go five rounds.”

It’s not an angle that I had considered or really noticed, regarding conditioning issues for Henderson. This is the same fighter that went 5 rounds with Rampage the last time out, so it hadn’t even crossed my mind. The way I saw the fight was that Henderson fell into Silva’s game-plan in the second round. He got rocked a bit and then was outclassed on the ground by a BJJ Black Belt. In that respect, Hughes is a professional, and the most dominant Welterweight fighter in the history of the UFC, so it is entirely possible that he knows more about it than I do.

In a final reference to the fight, Hughes makes a familiar statement that he does notice some issues with Anderson Silva’s game that could be exploited.

“Anderson looked tough but once again I saw holes in his game. “

Statements such as that obviously get fans talking about potential weight class moves and catch weight matches, although it would be nice to know exactly what weaknesses Hughes has identified and how he feels he can succeed where so many quality fighters have failed before him. In terms of wrestling, it is hard to believe that Hughes feels he would be a stronger wrestler than Henderson. His striking, while improved, is still less than crisp and he doesn’t appear to have KO power.

Similar to Chuck Liddell calling out Fedor, statements regarding holes in the game of the most dominant current champion in the UFC today certainly cause some raised eyebrows. The reality though is that Hughes is both providing some factual commentary while pseudo marketing his career. After taking a very quick and lopsided loss to GSP in his last outing, Hughes, a true Champion in the sport is likely considering lofty goals that he would like to achieve prior to retiring from the fight game.

Hughes has made no secret about mid term retirement plans, and fans will certainly be witnessing the twilight of a legendary career with any fight they see in the octagon from Matt Hughes in the future. Losing a rubber much to Georges St. Pierre is far from an embarrassing situation and there is plenty of gas in Matt Hughes’ tank if he wants to use it.

Check out the entire blog entry on Matt’s site here.