UFC President Dana White spoke with the media today about former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes' future with the company stating, "It doesn't matter what he says or what he wants to do, Hughes is gonna be with us forever. Whether he talk me into doing that one more time, which I'd prefer he didn't. I'd really like to see him retire. I get to the point with these guys, him, Chuck Liddell, these guys who dominated all these years and were such a big part of us growing. Why, what's next?"
"Matt Hughes , believe me when I tell you does not need money," White continued. "He's set. He doesn't ever need to work again. He doesn't ever need to fight again. He's got plenty of money. You're one of the greatest welterweights ever. Now that Georges St. Pierre has done what he's done, it's arguable but we'll see how he ends his career. What's the point? Are you gonna go for another title run? You just lost. You lost by knock out. Let's hang this thing up and do something else together."
White added, "He is the worst. When I go in to give bonuses to all the fighters at the end, he's always negotiating in there for everybody. On the Ultimate Fighter he was arguing with me for more money for all of the guys. He is the worst. If he wants to keep fighting it's not gonna be a fun conversation. He's gonna be negotiating and busting my balls. I would love to see him hang it up now and we'll do something else together. He doesn't need to fight. I don't want to see it anymore."
White also offered candid comments about Hughes' performance against Josh Koscheck at UFC 135, saying, "he looked good in that fight. In that first round, he looked good. Up until 4:59 of the first round he looked good. It's always tough to talk to a guy if he looked horrible. But there's also a thing with guys who are getting knocked out time and time again. Plus as much as we don't want to deal with it, when you start to get old, this is a young man's game."
Stay tuned to MMA Nation for more exclusives from today's post-presser media scrum.