Hughes interview: ‘I don’t like Serra but I have to control my emotions’

Lawrence Taylor imploring his N.Y. Giants back in the day to go out there "like a bunch of crazed dogs" may have worked on the football field but it's really not the best approach in the Octagon where things are much more cerebral than people believe. Matt Hughes is fired up for the fight against Matt Serra. His wife is jacked and so are many of his loyal fans. But with the fight just two days away he wants to make sure he enters the cage in the right frame of mind (2:05 mark):

"I'm trying not to get all mental about this. I don't want to walk in that Octagon and run on emotion," Hughes told Cagewriter that he's tired of talking about his dislike of Serra. "I'm not talking about it much and not thinking about it much."

Hughes said Serra and Frank Trigg are the only opponent he's truly disliked. The former weltwerweight said he only ran an emotion once in both Trigg fights. That happened when he received a low blog from Trigg:

"I got on top of him he gave me his back and I tried to go for a choke. Then he rolled back and gave me mount. I was actually pretty happy because I got to hit him more. It's the truth. I remember thinking, 'I'm glad.'

Hughes said if he gets in a dominant position he would love to dole out some extra punishment to Serra.

Join TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah on Cagewriter for a live chat on Friday at 1 p.m. ET. Maggie Hendricks will chat throughout UFC 98's main card on Saturday night. Cofield will have live fight-by-fight updates. And following the card, the only postfight show from the MGM after UFC 98 is right here on Cagewriter starting at 1:30 a.m. ET. You can listen here  

• UFC 98 Presser Part 2: Hughes doesn’t want to be compared with Obama
• Hughes interview Part 2: Serra makes it personal, Dana doesn’t
• Serra thinks Hughes may be taking Gracie lightly
• Serra interview: He’s getting a lot of fan mail from the Midwest
• Hughes’ trainer says bad blood will never end with Serra