Remember Matt Hughes? Well his son is now an MMA fighter
I remember Matt Hughes very well because he was one of my favorite MMA fighters back when UFC wasn't just something that everyone watched. Hughes was there when it wasn't a globally legal sport and was one of the pioneers in making UFC the global brand that it is today.
His son Brandon Mills (not sure why his surname is different) already had an undefeated amateur career at featherweight and will soon be making his debut in his first professional fight coming up soon.
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Brandon I am sure is no slouch, but talk about pressure to perform when your father is a Hall of Famer and one of the most widely recognized UFC fighters of all time. The blood relation will certainly open some doors for him that would be closed to most people but if he fails, he is going to fail badly in a way that will likely be more disappointing to him than if he wasn't related to Matt.
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There isn't much footage of him at all available online so it is difficult to say whether or not he can actually be a force in the sport. From what little I have seen he doesn't seem to have the killer instinct that his father has but honestly, those shoes are too big for anyone to fill.
He seems to have good evasive skills but not really enough on the power side of things. He appears to be a submission specialist whereas his father was an "everything specialist."
It's far too early to say what this could result in but there is a distinct lack of legacy fighters out there in the world and I would imagine that we will end up seeing more of these as time goes on. Fighters have children and of course they would like to have a go at following in dad's footsteps if they can.
Brandon will make his professional debut with a minor promotion called "Caged Aggression" which is an organization that I have had almost nothing to do with at any point. You can see the full card for the event here if you are at all interested.
I think that Brandon needs to work on his chin from what footage I have seen because although he has the skills and evasive maneuvers necessary to excel, he seems to be easily rattled. The problem with this is I don't know if you really can "work" on your chin. Having a chin isn't normally really something that can be taught, you either have it or you don't. Even people with huge chins like Roy Nelson just one day lose it and never get it back.
Yep, remember him. Also, remember his match against Royce Gracie.
I'm gonna have to look that up because while I should remember it, I don't!
there's the link if anyone wants to see it. That was a while ago. Rogan probably still had hair.
Oh yes, thank you, I am going to check it out later today. Have a nice day ahead. What I forgot is that Royce is taller than Matt.
If you have a glass chin then you are going to struggle. I wonder if his dad is really happy with his son following in his footsteps because if I was an ex boxer/fighter I wouldn't want my kids doing it. I suppose it is how you view things in general and tend to be protective over my kids and maybe I am just different.
I bet Matt probably has mixed feeling but also a world of experience to make sure he ends up in the right or safer promotions. As someone who did a few MMA fights myself, I know that I wouldn't recommend it but most of that is for financial reasons. Hughes gets to bypass all the BS promotions and get straight to the ones that are going to pay for his son.... so there is that.