Caught in the Middle
Matt Hughes has been one of the most dominate champions the UFC has ever known. This book is essentially his life's story, and how a man went from a small rural town to the big lights of the UFC.

The book is honest and revealing: Everything from street fights to his conversion to Christianity, to his near death experience at the swirl pool to his long up and downs with his current wife. The book does a great job of capturing Hughes' voice and personality.

I found this book to be more entertaining than Iceman: My Fighting Life (although I would never say that to Liddell's face). Nevertheless, both were great reads and provide extraordinary behind-the-door information about the fastest growing sport in the country.

Country simple. But not in a wholesome way.
Wow. I thought I was stunned by level of drivel in this book but I'm even more stunned to find that 17 people gave this book 5 stars. I would love for them to tell me which parts made them laugh out loud.

Over and over in the reviews, the book is praised for its brutal honesty. Sure, it would be great if Jeffery Dahmer were candid about the tickles and delights of dismembering people and shagging them after he had killed them, but I'm not sure it makes his actions any more palatable. In fact, if 'ol Jeffrey, who also became a born again christian, were to tell us how he had learned and changed as result of his new found christian ways (or just with a little introspection), we may even be able to find *him* acceptable.

Matt, on the hand, tells us about how he's nasty to people and then leaves it at that. Throughout the book, his little anecdotes have no connection to each other and almost never lead up a realisation or a bigger point. It's almost like sitting next to someone on the bus who incessantly gives you a commentary like "That shop is open. That tree is green. That man looks angry."

And often he almost brags about some of the occasions when he was less than kind to others and feels fully justified and content with his actions.

Saying that, I don't have to like the protagonist of a book to enjoy reading it. But I think if I were to tap Matt, and I don't mean with an armbar or choke but rather like you'd tap a tree for sap, I'd probably discover the essence of boring. Though sadly, boring is not in great demand and so my discovery wouldn't help me recover the cost of this book.

Anyway, I don't doubt this guy's work ethic (and it's paid off too as he is a pretty damn good fighter) but it's possible that he did little besides train and fight because nothing much else seems to have happened in his life. Though he's happy to include loads of conversations of the "could you pass the salt?" ilk so that he could at least rob us of whatever more exciting time we could have had if we weren't reading the book.

Ah, the simple life.

It's sweet that everyone sees him as a simple country boy and family man. I mean just when the guy is about to get jiggy with a hot girl, this is what he writes:

I sat down on the bed, and she sat on top of me.
"So what's your favourite colour?" I asked her.
"Green," She said.
"Mine too."

Uhm. What is he...five? I haven't heard that kind of chat since I was in kindergarten. Well, at least he's being nice and lovely there. Imagine most of the book with that level of excitement but smeared with a good dollop of nastiness and arrogance.

If you are a fan of Matt Hughes, you'd be better off spending a couple of hours re-watching all his fights than you would the few hours you'd never get back if you read this book.

What I expected
After TUF Season 2 I had summed up Matt Hughes as a bully who whas his own biggest fan. A read through this book confirmed my belief. I was surprised that an editor didn't have him expand on many references to UFC events that many readers wouldn't understand. I consider myself and my husband avid MMA fans and there were even comments we needed to research to understand the context. Knowing that he had become a Christian, I was surprised how he presented previous questionable acts. He still seemed to be proud of some of the things he had done that aren't necessarily "Christ-like" actions. I absolutely understand he was a different person pre-conversion but a little contrition on his part would have made this all a little easier to swallow. Revelation -- whether about self or others -- that moves the story or shows some kind of emotional development is acceptable in my book. However, telling stories (i.e. his great uncle's incontinence)that may be embarassing to others just to tell them screams of immaturity and insensitivity. Matt Hughes still isn't high on my list but I don't regret the read. I just wish I had waited until the library had a copy of it.

UFC fighter tells his story
Matt Hughes, as the cover blurb states, may be the "most dominant champion in UFC history" but he sure isn't the nicest guy in the world. I'm not certain that this matters a great deal.

His autobiography is however exciting, truthful and well-structured, thanks mainly to the hard work of his co-author, the wonderfully-named Michael Malice. I like the honesty of his account and the humor too. Perhaps the funniest thing is the photo of Matt Hughes sat in front of a manual typewriter, claiming to be "spending another long night completing the manuscript" of his book. In truth Hughes wouldn't know a manuscript if one bit him on the nose.

It's this lack of self-knowledge which gives the book its strange tone. Hughes, thanks to the Herculean efforts of his friends and twin brother finds God on a Mexican hill-top. As a lapsed Christian myself, I found this quite moving. But he then identifies himself as someone who is always trying to help others, despite there being hardly any instances of him helping anyone outside his own close circle of family and training buddies in the whole book.

Also, despite his bad behavior (including deserting his son from a casual relationship) he criticises MMA legend Randy Couture several times for getting a divorce, even though he barely knows the guy.

On the positive side, his UFC fights and the atmosphere of Pat Miletich's training room are well described. He's also without vanity, telling the assistant on a photo shoot (quite truthfully) that he gets his clothes from a Salvation Army charity shop. His story is also interesting because he must be one of the first amateur wrestlers (he was a two-time All-American champ) to make a career out of MMA - sadly there aren't the same avenues for minority sports stars as there are for college football or basketball players.

Above all, I like his unapologetic attitude towards his profession. "Fighting solves everything," he says and he talks of "that switch within us that gets turned on and can only be turned off by violence". Thankfully with a little help from his wife (and God perhaps) Hughes is just about able to contain his demons and he should be applauded for sharing his life, warts and all, so openly in this surprising and often laugh-out-loud funny book.

Excellent condition and excellent book!
This book was a fast read, it was exciting and very easy to imagine Matt Hughes in every senario. Excellent story from beginning to end!