Fatherhood, Hughes Grudge Match Await Serra in ’09

If Matt Serra were matchmaker for a day, little uncertainty exists as to who he would meet next inside the Octagon. His dislike for former welterweight champion Matt Hughes and his desire to take on the former Pat Miletich protégé have been well documented.

Fortunately, the 34-year-old Long Islander will not need to channel his inner Joe Silva, as he expects his return to come against his longtime rival in a matter of months.

“We’re looking for a fight with Hughes around January or February,” Serra told Sherdog.com.

Initially slated for December 2007, the showdown between Serra and Hughes was put on the back burner after Serra suffered a herniated disc in his back during training. While a knee injury sustained by Hughes in his TKO loss to Thiago Alves in June has postponed the anticipated matchup yet again, Serra welcomes the wait; he incurred his own injury in his loss to reigning UFC welterweight king Georges St. Pierre at UFC 83 in April.

“I severely bruised my ulnar nerve,” said Serra, who won and then lost the 170-pound title in back-to-back bouts with St. Pierre. “I’m really just starting to train now. [The UFC] told me it was going to take that long [for Hughes to recover], and the first thing I said was, ‘That’s a good thing.’ Even if they did offer me another fight [before I fight Hughes], it wouldn’t make sense to me.”

The Serra-Hughes rivalry has all but subsided since it peaked on season six of “The Ultimate Fighter,” during which Serra made his return to the reality series, not as a competitor but as a coach and the newly crowned UFC welterweight champion. Despite statements Hughes made questioning the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt’s credentials as a top welterweight, Serra needs no extra fuel for the fire.

“This fight should happen,” Serra said. “A lot has been said by both sides, and I don’t plan on talking without walking. I plan on fighting. I would love to be the nail in his coffin.”

Serra, a former lightweight, does not feel weight will factor into his attempts to impose his will against Hughes, who, for much of his career, has succeeded through his ability to outwrestle and outmuscle opponents.

“Matt Hughes is a one trick pony, but he’s very good at that one trick,” Serra said. “Top position is his thing, both submission wise and ground-and-pound. That’s what he’s the master of, and I know that. I feel that my jiu-jitsu is going to have to be where it should be, and I plan on doing more wrestling.”

Though fighting in a division where he is almost always smaller than the man standing across the cage from him, the 5-foot-6 Serra feels comfortable as a welterweight and intends to continue his career at 170 pounds.

“There are more fights that make sense for me at welterweight,” he said. “I used to fight at 155 pounds, and that [weight] cut is brutal.”

Aside from plans to fight Hughes and other elite welterweights in the near future, Serra -- who married his wife, Ann, in May 2007 -- also expects to become a father next year.

“I’m really excited about that,” Serra said. “Everything is happening at the right time.”

How the new addition to his family will affect him as a mixed martial artist remains uncertain. Serra, however, thinks he will be able to balance his personal and professional responsibilities.

“I’m fortunate enough that we don’t both have to work, with my academies, seminars and fighting,” Serra said. “There were times when there was so much pressure on me. Now I fight because I want to fight. I don’t have to fight. I’m looking forward to my fight with Hughes, and I’m living the dream.”