Only in mixed martial arts, right? Unless we're talking Rocky III, when Balboa and Apollo Creed worked together, it's bizarre to see fighters working together just months after one knocks the other one silly in a fight. But that's exactly what Matt Hughes is doing by training with B.J. Penn, the guy who beat him less than 11 months ago.
"I brought in a couple of special guests ? B.J. Penn and Pat Miletich. Being around such great fighters and coaches is humbling, No. 1; and No. 2, it was a great learning environment because we all learned off each other," Hughes wrote in ESPN.com blog.
Hughes said he also worked with Jeremy Horn, Matt Pena and DaMarques Johnson. In advance of his UFC 135 fight next week against Josh Koscheck, the experience was eye opening.
"All I had to do was show up, not do anything on the mat, and I was gonna sit there and learn. If I wanted to, I could have charged admission and people would have loved to just sit there, watch and soak it in," said Hughes.
Publicly, Penn and Hughes seemed to have a pretty heated relationship until the last few years. Hughes pointed out that Penn's appearance in his latest camp was actually paying back a favor. Just weeks after he was laid out by Penn at UFC 123, Hughes actually traveled to Hawaii to work takedown defense for the Hawaiian's fight against Jon Fitch in February.
Miletich, a former UFC champion from 1998-2000, hadn't worked with Hughes since 2007. Hughes left Miletich Fighting Systems in Iowa to open his own training center, but fighter and coach stayed on good terms since the split.
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