First off, I went to a show saturday night. We had two guys from the HIT Squad fight: Jacob Hey and C.J. Fernandes. Both won in the first round. The crowd was great, very polite. The fights were in Pekin, which is in IL, and I saw some Team Hughes gear walk in and a few One More Round shirts. There are some pictures from the two fights on the HIT Squad website: thehitsquad.com

Got a friend over Iraq who is a civilian working for government, he goes by Boomer on the Forums. I’ve asked him to come up with one his famous “Boomer Tales.” In it he talks a little bit about what he’s been up to over there and a little bit about the upcoming GSP/Serra fight.

HAIL HAIL Matt Hughes fans!! This is Boomer com’n at yea live from Baghdad! I CAN’T BELIEVE I am all the way across the globe and missing all the HIT Squad action in the MMA world for the month of April. I missed Tommy at the Ultimate Fight Night (I would have been in the crowd), AND I miss’d 2 more of Matt’s modern day gladiators take the field of battle in Illinois. (Again, I would have been in the crowd) My God my God … why .. why has thou forsaken me?? I mean COME ON!!! Hehe, well I can’t be too angry at my job though, it is what funds my treks across the country to support Matt and his warrior band of brothers. I’ve had a few PMs and e-mails from folks asking what it is a civilian government employee like my self does in Iraq. Well, the duties are many and various .. but here is the basics of what I do.

The entire war effort over here falls under a military command called MNF-I or Multi-National Force-Iraq. Every country that puts forces into Iraq falls under this command and a four star General is responsible for it all. This four star General has a staff of one and two star Generals. There is a General over all Intelligence and is called the C2. Under him there is a program called DOMEX, or Document and Media Exploitation. A Colonel is in charge of the DOMEX effort and I’m his deputy .. Or #2. So it’s the four star General, the C2 General, the DOMEX COL, Boomer. Since there is a need for a static knowledge base in intelligence disciplines (or in other words a need for people who know the discipline not to be assigned somewhere else like military folks who rotate in and out of positions every few years) they create government civilian career positions around this need. SO … THAT is how Boomer the civilian government employee has a roll in Iraq!

You can read the rest of the Boomer Tale HERE and also see who he’s picking to win between St. Pierre and Serra.

Since we’re on the subject of GSP/Serra, honestly, I think GSP will win this fight very decisively. I don’t think that a submission will play a role in the fight. Obviously, Matt has power in his hands, so I don’t think Georges will make the same mistake this time of standing right in front of him. So, once again, I think Georges will be victorious. I’ve already asked the UFC that if Serra loses, I get him. -matt

First I’d like to say that Tommy was prepared for his fight, but it was just a bad match-up to be honest. I had nothing to do with putting the fight together, but after I saw the weigh-in and more of Johnson’s credentials, I knew that it was a bad match up for Tommy. So, bad match-up = a bad night. The rest of the night kind of went like I thought it would. The one thing I didn’t think would happen was Houston getting knocked out with one punch. Karo has been running his mouth about me for a long time, so it didn’t bother me seeing him getting knocked out the way he did. It was good to see DW and some of the other guys at the UFC, I haven’t been to a show for a little while so it was good to socialize a little bit.

Last Saturday, I went down to Dale’s Harley-Davidson and had a great time. When Dale’s-HD and I got together I didn’t know much about them, so I asked a few guys in my area about them and they all said they take their bikes down there for services. After I heard that, I knew Dale’s would be the right choice. Was really surprised with the huge turnout I was scheduled to sign for two hours and ended up being there for close to three. The good people down there, Matt (the owner) and I get along great. So hope you enjoy the pictures and I hope no one’s mad about the April Fool’s joke, it was all in good fun, just having a good time; but I still hear about how some people really bought into it and were fully supporting me, so thanks for that. -matt

You will be able to get an autograph and photos with Matt at the following:

Mt. Vernon, IL
	Saturday from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM Dale’s Harley-Davidson Annual Birthday Party 205 North 44th Street Mt. Vernon, IL (Store open from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM) www.dales-hd.com	05 April 2008

I guess I can officially say, “April Fools!” The part of yesterday’s blog about me moving up to 205 to fight Shogun Rua was just an April Fool’s joke. Sorry to disappoint those of you who might have been looking forward to that.

I also wanted to show you all this. Robbie and I will be in Effingham, IL on May 3rd. There will be a couple of the HIT Squad guys fighting in this event, so I hope to see some of you there.

I will be cornering Tommy for his fight tonight, by the way. Some people were asking about that. I hope everyone has a great weekend. -matt

First off, I wanted to wish Tommy good luck for his fight tomorrow night. He’s got some photos from when he was training at the gym posted on his website. So, if you haven’t seen those yet, you can check them out at tommyspeer.com.

Well, for a long time I’ve talked about going up in weight class and I’ve decided to finally do it. Only I’m not going up to 185, I’m going up to 205 to fight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in June. I’m bulking up now and packing on muscle and I’m thinking that it will be nice to not have to cut weight for a change. I think it’s a great match-up for me and I’ve told Dana that if I win this, then I want a shot at the 205 title next.

Sorry for the short blog this week, I’m here in Colorado helping Tommy get ready for his fight, so I’ll try to have more for you all next week. I just wanted to break the big news. -matt

I’m having a truck built for me by 2 Brothers Custom Trucks in Springfield, IL. They’re taking a 2006 Chevy diesel and mounting a 1966 Chevy body onto it, which is my favorite truck body style. They’re going to post weekly updates on their progress, so be sure to check back often. -matt

Click the logo to visit their project page:

First off I want to say congratulations to my son Brandon for placing 5th in the State Tournament in Iowa as a 6-year-old. Brandon wanted to quit this year halfway through and I talked him into staying with the sport. My simple words were “Anybody can quit, anybody can give up, it doesn’t take anybody special to throw in the towel.” I wanted him to know at an early age that when you start something you’ve got to see it through to the end. I’m sure Brandon is now glad that he stayed in the sport.

Hope all had a Happy Easter. Easter itself has come to mean candy, finding Easter eggs, bunnies and the beginning of Spring. Christians use Easter as a remembrance of Jesus’ death and a celebration of His resurrection; but unfortunately we celebrate it with a lot of customs and traditions that aren’t Christian at all.

The holiday of Easter was originally a pagan festival celebrating the beginning of Spring that dates all the way back to ancient Babylon, 2000 years before Jesus. It was celebrated using the images of flowers, rabbits and colored eggs that were hidden for kids to find and was preceded by 40 days of avoiding certain types of foods. On Sunday morning, everyone would go to a special sunrise worship service that faced the east and celebrate their savior’s resurrection. It was even topped off with a special meal of ham later that day.

Unfortunately, while that holiday was known as Easter (named after a fertility goddess), the “savior” they were worshipping was not Jesus, the Son of God, but Tammuz, the sun god.

Easter has always fallen close to the Jewish Passover on the calendar. Passover is the Jewish festival that celebrates God’s deliverance of the Jews out of slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 16). It also predicted Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was a completely different holiday from Easter and it would have actually been a sin for a Jew to celebrate Easter. It also would have been a sin for a Jew to not celebrate Passover.

So how did Christians get the two so mixed up? The Roman Catholic church would take existing pagan holidays and rework them with Christian names as a way of making the transition to Christianity easier for people. That’s the nice way of explaining their motives. Many Protestant churches have always been suspicious of the real motives behind the holiday and it wasn’t widely accepted in America until the late 1800s, after the Civil War.

Why does it matter? Well if someone spends all of their time focusing on the pagan parts of the festival and forgets to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, then they’ve missed the whole point of the holiday. So, I would urge every Christian to focus on the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and the sacrifice that He made for us and our salvation, not on the holiday of Easter.

I don’t want to tell people that they’re sinning by celebrating Easter, because I don’t feel it’s my place to be casting stones. If you feel that you can’t celebrate Easter in good conscience because of its pagan origin, then that’s a decision that you need to make for yourself as a believer in Jesus Christ. A lot of this is new information to me, so it’s something that I’ve decided to give a lot of thought and prayer to.

Here are a few links if you want to study more about this: thercg.org, history.com, allaboutjesuschrist.org, lasttrumpetministries.org.

Anyway, I’m feeling a lot better now, my schedule at the gym will now be regular again. So everybody have a good weekend and hope we have some good springtime weather for everyone to enjoy. -matt

First up I want to apologize, I’ve been extremely sick this week. Tonight will actually be my first time down to the gym since last Tuesday. But I feel a lot better now and I’m teaching class tonight. This weekend is NCAA Nationals so I know a lot of the guys from the gym and some of the coaches are going to go watch. I hope I can sneak over there a little bit and get to watch some of the wrestling. I remember the two years I competed at the NCAAs and it’s just something I’ll never forget.

I found this and thought it was kind of funny, but there is a little bit of truth in there too.

Doctors:
The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.
Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.

Now think about this:

Guns:
The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that’s 80 million.
The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.
Statistics courtesy of FBI.

So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
Remember, “Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.”
FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.
Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

Out of concern for the public at large, I have withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.

For the record, I don’t have anything against doctors, but it does make an interesting point.

To all a good weekend and I’ve got a big blog lined up for Sunday. -matt

The gym’s been doing great, we’re going to show a video of one of the ways that we warm up before we do a practice. As you can see things get a little intense, but hey look what we do.

Higher quality version: Click Here

Things also got a little competitive on the farm Sunday afternoon. We did some shooting and the loser had to buy dinner. Mark, long-time friend John Snoddy, my father in law Jim, my gun expert Dwayne Weller, late addition Jim May, and myself all shot at 100 yards. Of course, the real person I was competing with was my brother as they say a picture is worth a thousand words:

My shot:


Mark’s shot:

If you want to hear Mark’s side of the shooting story, go to Mark’s website.

With the pictures, the video and my little attachment here, I know it’s a lengthy blog, but this is what happened this week.

One last photo, this is Hanna telling me what to say in the blog:

-matt

Last Saturday went up to the Von Maur in Chicago for a One More Round appearance, had a good turnout. Later that night was UFC 82, Heath Herring did a good job staying in the fight and winning the second and third rounds. 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. Anderson looked tough but once again I saw holes in his game.

On Sunday, the weather was nice, so Mark and I got to go out and do some shooting. We brought out some bigger guns and shot 200 yards. It was a little windy so we ended up packing it up early, but we had a good time. One gun that I’m very impressed with is my .243 caliber Howa. It shoots real good for me, I did have to do a trigger job to lighten the trigger up a little bit, but it is a good shooting gun. I’ve got some buddies from Shelbyville that I’m going to probably use this gun to teach them how to shoot.

Some photos from Sunday:

As we speak it’s snowing outside, so I’m hoping to get enough snowfall today to go out and play with my tractor. -matt