Matt Hughes (1)

Review by Jeremy Taylor
Any fan of the UFC—Ultimate Fighting Championship—will know immediately know Matt Hughes is. He’s the hard-hitting wrestler from Hillsboro, Illinois who fought his way to nine championship titles and a reputation as the most dominant champion in UFC history.

Even to many non-devotees of the UFC, Matt Hughes is well known as the ultimate enigma: a fighter—in perhaps the most violent mainstream sporting event on television today—who also happens to be a devoted husband, a loving father, and a committed Christian.

But he wasn’t always. In Made in America, Hughes, with a little help from popular blogger Michael Malice, tells the whole story of his not quite Norman Rockwell childhood, his wild days in college, and what it was like making his way up through the ranks in the early days of his fighting career.

Some of the stories he tells are light and amusing, particularly when he remembers what life was like growing up on a farm. Others are more difficult, like the time he lost a friend in college due to an accident on a river. Through it all, Matt’s natural intensity and competitive spirit come through loud and clear.

Though he has now been happily married for a number of years, Matt is hardly a romantic. His various relationships and one-night stands—mercifully narrated in minimalistic fashion—before he finally settled down with his childhood playmate Audra are evidence of that. Still, in his romantic ineptitude he comes across as enough of an Everyman that his exploits are interesting, even fun to read about in a sort of contemplative way.

Ultimate fighting is a violent, often bloody sport, and the many descriptions of Matt’s professional fights in this book are a fitting literary (using the term rather loosely) companion to the brutality of the events themselves. This is not a book for the faint of heart. But any UFC fan will enjoy not only learning more about Matt Hughes’s background and motivations but also the many other familiar names—Pat Miletich, Tim Sylvia, Dana White, Chuck Liddell, and Randy Couture, to name a few—that come up in stories both in and out of the Octagon. And of course, for UFC devotees, Matt’s perspectives on his classic fights—like his standing rear naked choke to defeat Frank Trigg or his victory over mixed-martial-arts (MMA) legend Royce Gracie—are sure to entertain and delight.

From a Christian perspective, this is an interesting book. Matt has lived the majority of his life to date as a non-Christian, and the anecdotes he shares reflect a lifestyle consistent with a lack of faith. But toward the end of the book, Matt relates his conversion to Christianity, and his life since does seem to indicate real change. He’s still abrasive, competitive, and occasionally obnoxious (which he freely admits), but he’s also marked by his faith in Jesus Christ and a desire to become more like Him.

The overall quality of the book is fair. The narration isn’t exactly Pulitzer-winning prose, and at times Matt seems to assume his readers know more than they necessarily do. But for any UFC fan, or anyone interested in learning about the sport of ultimate fighting from a true insider’s perspective, this book is well worth reading.… (mehr)