When the wife was off picking up Joe’s present, I had her pick up Matt Hughes new book Made in America: The Most Dominant UFC Champion of All Time.

I think this was on Friday and I started reading it when she got home after work. I ended up finishing it that night. Now there were several contributing factors in that, not the least of which was the larger than average font. Also, it was only 300 pages long. That said, it really held my attention and that made it a pretty easy read.

Any stereotypes I might have had about high school or college wrestlers were held up nicely. Mr. Hughes was pretty full of himself and got in lots of fights! Now, I say that a little tongue-in-cheek. Life was obviously not all peaches, including the bankruptcy at the farm that ultimately led to the separation of his parents.

The latter half of the book gets more into what most people are probably interested in – the fights. Hughes takes us through the issues in and outside the octagon and gives a real feel for which ones were more personal than others. In the midst of this, he illustrates his conversion from church-goer to Christ-follower which nicely rounds out his tale of fighting, family, and faith.

Whether you are already a fan of Matt Hughes or not, your mind won’t be changed after reading Made in America. There is no deep philosophy on success or any great insight about winning at life or anything like that. The best I can say is that I now know a lot more about Matt Hughes, and that it’s a pretty interesting story. With as many title fights as he has won, I can highly recommend Made in America to any fan of MMA and especially the UFC!

And as an aside… my daughter apparently has a little trouble telling Matt Hughes and Shane Gadbury apart