Matt Hughes - Made in America

"When I arrived in Lake Charles, a van was waiting for me, ready to drive me to whichever hotel I was staying at.

Monte and the UFC had worked it all out, which was fine by me.

Even when I dropped my bag off in my room, I still was kind of in disbelief about the whole situation.

I went downstairs and there, in the flesh, was a big guy I recognised right away. Despite his nickname, Big John McCarthy wasn't particularly huge in person.

"Only when I shook his hand did I accept that I had entered into the world of the UFC. The Big Show.

"The fights where your friends don't have to drive; they can just turn on their TVs and watch you on their sofa.

"Since all the fighters think thy know him from watching him on TV, Big John makes it a point to treat them like they're one of the UFC guys already, even if it's their first fight. Or at least, that's how it was for me.

“I stripped down to my underwear and got on the scale, my first official weigh-in for the UFC.

“It was just me, Big John, and another UFC person in a tiny room.

“Big John calibrated the weight. It was almost like this wasn’t really that big of a deal, like I was weighing myself in my own bathroom.

“’You’re a pound and a quarter over,’ he said.

“Shoot. I knew it. ‘I can go run this off right now. Will you be around?’ I asked, the adrenaline already going.

“’Don’t worry about it Matt’ he said. ‘You have until tomorrow.’”

Hughes' first fight in the Octagon was against Sambo champion Val Ignatov, and he reveals his thoughts on how the clash went down...

"I walked out, slapping the hands of the few fans who bothered to stretch their arms out.

Pat followed directly behind me as I made my way to the Octagon.

The fence was a little lower and the cage a little smaller than it is now. There were thousands of fans, but hundreds fewer than they had hoped for, judging by the empty seats.

On the floor of the Octagon itself was a drawing of a cheesy muscleman holding a belt - thw UFC mascot or something.

But there was Bruce Buffer in a black shirt and black suit making the announcements. This was it. This was the Big Show.

The fight was three rounds of me throwing the guy around, getting some ground and pound, and doing some damage.

After fifteen minutes, they called us in the center and Bruce Buffer announced my win by unanimous decision. The fans cheered politely and then waited for me to get out of the ring.

They were there to see Tito Ortiz fight Ken Shamrock, not some nobody from Hillsboro beat some nobody from Bulgaria.

I hadn't expected a huge reaction, but I hadn't expected it to be like Japan, either. I thought about my brother Mark and my buddies watching on TV back on the farm. They'd be excited.

I knew they were jumping up and down back home, even if people in the arena weren't.

source: thesun.co.uk