Old rivals Matt Serra and Matt Hughes looked to have rekindled their old beef earlier this year with a feud that started on Twitter and quickly entered the realms of speculation online. However the possibility of a rematch was quickly squashed by UFC president Dana White, who said, “I get it, they don’t like each other… But this doesn’t need to happen.”
“It looked like it was getting some momentum and I thought, ‘Oh s**t man, another pay day,’ said Serra yesterday. “I’ve got three kids. And then all of sudden Dana made some statement: ‘Why make it?’ It looked like it wasn’t going to happen… I’m not that guy to be like, ‘Please can I have a fight?'”
Serra yesterday told an interesting story about a conversation he had with his old grudge-match opponent backstage at a UFC event around the time this issue was up in the air.
“[Hughes] comes over and he’s like, ‘Hey, old man.’ He’s got his hand out and I’m like, ‘We shaking hands now? Yeah, sure, why not?’ I brought him in the other room and we talked a little bit, but the thing is it’s hard for me to be cool with someone who’s not trying to be cool with you… It’s like, dude, I know you’re not genuine, I know you don’t really like me. We don’t like each other but we’re not going to fight, so whatever man…
“I was talking to him a little bit – ‘I feel like my way back into the UFC is you, and you me [but] I don’t think [the UFC are] biting.’ I go, ‘You’re buddies with Dana. You guys are BFF’s. Talk to him.'”
As apparently neither Matt was able to convince White to make the rematch happen, Serra has now hung up his gloves for good.
The man who once took the title from 170lb great Georges St-Pierre also revealed he is now using testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). TRT has become something of a dirty word in MMA, causing a great deal of headaches and controversy before its use in the sport was eventually banned by the Nevada State Athetic Commission (NSAC).
According to Serra, though, being retired does grant him certain freedoms he’s happy to take advantage of for the good of his health.
“I got on the TRT,” Matt said in his interview onThe MMA Hour. “I had some back issues, I’m always on the mat and I figured I’d get my levels checked because I had some guys going who were around my age or a little bit older… As long as I’m not fighting, who cares?… TRT’s fun.”
