The respective coaches of the Ultimate Fighter season 6 finally collided at UFC 98.
Coming in, both welterweights needed to regain momentum. For Hughes, his record wasn’t the same since dropping the UFC Welterweight title to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 65. Hughes did get a victory over Chris Lytle at UFC 68; however, he failed to beat Georges St-Pierre in a rematch at UFC 79, and also lost to Thiago Alves via TKO at UFC 85. Hughes only had two wins in his last five fights, a first in his UFC career at this point. His professional record was 42 wins and 7 losses at this time.
After shocking the world by beating Georges St-Pierre for the prestigious belt at UFC 69, Serra would ultimately drop the belt back to the 2020 Hall of Fame inductee at UFC 83. At this point in his career, Serra had won three out of his last five fights, also beating Chris Lytle (via unanimous decision at UFC 48) and Ivan Menjivar (via split decision at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale). Serra’s professional record going into his fight against Hughes was 10 wins and 5 losses.
With so much hype generated for the two top welterweights, the clash between Serra and Hughes didn’t disappoint when it took place on May 23, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Check out the thrilling fight between both men below: