Last week, I had the pleasure of getting in five days of training at Ft. Bragg. Along with some great training, I also had a really good time. I trained at several different places with different groups of people; but I specifically wanted to say thanks to Billy, Toni, Jeremy, Jimmy and many others for helping me out during my stay. It was good to get around a different group of guys and also have enough guys to really wear me down. I should have some photos on the way, so I will post those as soon as I get them.
Tonight, I am going to the grand opening of the new Scheels sporting goods store in Springfield, IL. I will be there from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM if anybody is in the area and wants to look me up.
Sorry about the short blog I’ve just been training and spending time with the family.
Air Dates & Times for 2011
Beginning March 28, 2011
Tuesdays, 6:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM CST
Thursdays, 2:00 am EST / 1:00 am CST
Saturdays, 8:00 pm EST / 7:00 pm CST
The show description for this week:
Show #29 “Member of the Year”
(Airs the week of July 11th, 2011)
Texas Trophy Hunters® “Member of the Year” wins a big time south Texas whitetail hunt and finds out there is more to hunting than just the numbers.
Here is the Bible verse for this week:
Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)
Hey just got this promo video from my buddies at Cage Fitness and thought I would share it. We have spent quite a bit of energy on the next phase of the Cage Fitness program. Check out the teaser and I can’t wait to see you at the MAIA Supershow in Las Vegas.
First of all, I want to wish everybody a happy and safe 4th of July. As I’m sure most of you know, Independence Day celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, in which the United States declared its independence from Britain. Of course, that freedom had to be bought with many lives on the battlefield and it still requires constant vigilance to protect and maintain. So don’t forget about our troops overseas and continue to pray for them as they defend our freedom.
A good friend of mine came out with a new product: Lucky Brand Jerky. He sent me some and it’s pretty good stuff. Don’t now where he’s at right now as far as marketing or distribution; but I do like it. Here is a flyer with some information if you would like to order some to try out:
The UFC was pretty interesting. Tito did win against a tough opponent, so I guess he’s still alive in the UFC. Although it has been a little while – his last two wins in the octagon were in ‘06 against Ken Shamrock. Tito is one of those guys that feels he needs to be in the public eye to feel good about himself; so maybe this win will boost his self-confidence. The Chris Leben fight didn’t quite go like I thought it would, I just didn’t think it would end that quick and as the title of this blog implies, Boomer lost to me again. The title fight was pretty interesting, Cruz was just too quick and too unorthodox for Urijah. I do agree with the judges’ decision, but Urijah could have gotten that fourth round and I’m a definite believer that you’ve got to beat the champ.
Air Dates & Times for 2011
Beginning March 28, 2011
Tuesdays, 6:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM CST
Thursdays, 2:00 am EST / 1:00 am CST
Saturdays, 8:00 pm EST / 7:00 pm CST
The show description for this week:
Show #28 “Long Time Coming”
(Airs the week of July 4th, 2011)
After three seasons of near misses, a dedicated bow hunter from New Jersey seeks success in bringing down his first Rocky Mountain elk.
Here is the Bible verse for this week:
I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. (Psalm 116:1-2)
Two Saturdays ago, I went to Colorado to the Ft. Collins MaxMuscle where they were putting on a fundraiser for a 7-year old boy named Jackson Maybon. Jackson has had problems his whole life, but they just found out he’s got Cerebral Palsy as well. The owner of the gym that coordinated everything, Ron, did an awesome job with putting the whole event together. There were over 2500 people who showed up for the event and they raised over $7000 for Jackson – the event went very well. Here’s a picture of me with Jackson and his family:
Last Saturday, I flew up to Minneapolis for my buddy Dustin’s grand opening of his new store, called Element Arms. It was an easy appearance as I signed a few autographs, took some pictures, but mostly looked at guns and even found a few I might need to bring home. Dustin used to work for DPMS, but now is doing his own thing and here is his website: ElementArms.com
This next picture was taken several months ago while I was in a deer blind hunting whitetails. Well as you can see I’m pretty bored, so I tried to get as many sponsored products as I could in one photo and this is what we came up with. Can anybody name the sponsors and the products? A prize will be given to the first person to get them all right. This contest will be held through the forums, so don’t post your answers on the blog. If you don’t have a forums account, it’s free to sign up and it only takes a few minutes; but you will have to contact Nate at webmaster@matt-hughes.com so that he can manually activate your account (you can also contact him if you need help registering for an account).
For the UFC this weekend there are only a couple of fights that I’m really interested in watching:
Silva vs. Leben: To me, this is going to be very interesting. The majority of people I’ve talked to about this fight say Wanderlei will win. I, on the other hand, think Chris will weather the storm and come out in the later rounds and get the victory. I see this fight 60%/40% in favor of Leben.
Ortiz vs. Bader: I’m really surprised Tito took this fight. It seems like Tito never takes a fight that he doesn’t think he’s absolutely going to win. I see Bader taking Tito down and just being too much for him. If they were just hitting pads I would say Tito might look prettier, but this is a fight and Tito doesn’t like to get hit. I’ll say 65%/35% for Bader.
Now you know there is a certain someone on the forums who likes to bet the fights with me; so if he wants to send me a text, he knows my picks.
Air Dates & Times for 2011
Beginning March 28, 2011
Tuesdays, 6:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM CST
Thursdays, 2:00 am EST / 1:00 am CST
Saturdays, 8:00 pm EST / 7:00 pm CST
The show description for this week:
Show #27 “Passing the Torch”
(Airs the week of June 27, 2011)
Our Host Matt Hughes enjoys a whitetail hunt in December, in the company of the best minds in the whitetail industry. Horace Gore and Dr. Kroll help Matt pursue a unique double drop tine buck. Will he get the kill?
Here is the Bible verse for this week:
My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart. (Psalm 7:10)
Just wanted to wish all the dads out there a happy Father’s Day. I’m always interested in the origin of the holidays we celebrate and I was a bit surprised by what I learned about the origin of Father’s Day. The idea for it came to Sonora Smart Dodd back in 1909 after she had listened to a Mother’s Day sermon at the Central Methodist Episcopal Church in Spokane, Washington. She chose June 19th (her father’s birthday), 1910 to celebrate the very first Father’s Day. However, the day was received with mocking and scorn by the general public. It was gaining attention, but for all the wrong reasons and the earliest Father’s Day celebrations were marked with jokes, satire, parody and derision of fathers. In 1913, a bill was introduced to make Father’s Day officially recognized by the government; but it wasn’t until 1972 that Richard Nixon established Father’s Day as a permanent national observance day. Fortunately, the day is now for commemorating all the positive aspects of fatherhood (sacrifice, courage, selflessness and love) which is how Sonora Dodd originally envisioned it. I’m sure there is a lesson for us dads somewhere in that story.
Again, Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there!
As most of you know, I’m the host of Trophy Hunters TV and they recently received three Telly Awards for the show. I don’t think I had a lot to do with the awards, I think production did most of the work and should receive all the credit. Here are the awards they received:
Silver
“Tyranny to Texas”
For Political Commentary
Bronze
“Hunting with a Heavy Heart”
Nature/Wildlife
I will be going down to San Antonio, Houston and Ft. Worth on separate weekends for the Texas Trophy Hunters Extravaganzas. These are big events and will have everything hunting related from pocket knives to camo to guns to hunting blinds. The guys in the studio tried to come up with a comical video to promote the shows, here is what they ended up deciding on (the videos are identical except for the location specific information):
Houston:
San Antonio:
Ft. Worth:
This Saturday I’ll fly to the Max Muscle Store in Ft. Collins, Colorado. They’re doing a fundraiser for a 7-year-old boy named Jackson Maybon. He’s had problems his whole life and they just found cerebral palsy as well. The goal of the trip is to try and raise enough money to send him to Germany for treatments. So if any of you are in the area and want to stop by, I’ll be there from 11-2.
A buddy sent this to me and it’s pretty amazing how dangerous something as simple as stepping off a curb can be sometimes:
Air Dates & Times for 2011
Beginning March 28, 2011
Tuesdays, 6:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM CST
Thursdays, 2:00 am EST / 1:00 am CST
Saturdays, 8:00 pm EST / 7:00 pm CST
The show description for this week:
Show #12 “All In the Family”
(Airs the week of June 13, 2011)
Matt and his father-in-law hunt whitetail deer in the cold climate of Minnesota.
Here is the Bible verse for this week:
Jesus said, Ask and it shall be given; seek and ye will find: knock and it will be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth. (Luke 11:9-10)
First off, I hope everybody has a good Memorial Day. Memorial Day started just after the Civil War as a day to honor those who have died during war. So please don’t forget to remember all the soldiers who died to make the freedom that we enjoy possible. Here are a few cartoons to get the point across:
Last week I spent the whole week in Canada bear hunting. I went to a place called Buck Paradise. Bear hunting is pretty fun in that you can wake up in the morning, fish or do whatever you want until about 3 or 4 o’clock, then go hunt in the evening. So it’s just a lot different than deer hunting because when I go up to Canada deer hunting, I sit from about 5 am to 10 pm in a stand. So you can say bear hunting is just a little bit more relaxing.
Thursday evening came around and I saw a nice cinnamon bear come up to the bait and I knew he was my guy. So I drew my bow, fired my arrow and, within 30 yards of where I shot my bear, he lie dead on the ground. So got the bear on the boat, went back to the lodge and caped him out (skinned him). The next day we woke up, went fishing, did some video stuff for Trophy Hunters TV. Now that was the easy part, the hard part is going to be getting home.
I had left my family Sunday morning about 4 am, flew to Edmonton, Canada and then drove 6 hours to Buck Paradise. So now it’s 6 days later and it’s Saturday morning and I wake up at 5 am, get ready and take my 6 hour drive to the airport. Get there plenty early, check in with Delta, take my bags to security, watch them go through and head to the gate. About 2 hours before I’m supposed to depart, I hear over the intercom that my flight is cancelled because Minneapolis has power trouble and they’ve shut the airport down. So now it takes me about an hour to go down to customs, pick my two bags up (one of which is a locked bow case and it comes through a special oversized baggage door). So I head back up to Delta to rebook. Of course, I’m the last in line because I had to get my bow. Takes me another hour to get through the line and rebook. I’m now going to take Air Canada to Edmonton, then take American from Edmonton to Dallas/Ft. Worth the next day. Then DFW to St. Louis. Which gets me in St. Louis around 3 pm, where my father will be waiting to pick me up on Sunday. So I head straight down to Air Canada, rebook, take my bags back through customs and I go through security. As I’m going through security, I hear them calling my name to get to the gate, I guess they laid a bunch of TSA employees off in Canada a week before time and they were running slow. So I get to the gate and they tell me that I’ve got to go back down to customs, pick up my bags, recheck for an hour later flight and come back. So I run down, grab my bags, recheck and try to make it through security this time to catch my flight. I actually get to the gate five minutes early. Get to Alberta, everything goes great, get to my hotel (which the airline paid for), and treat myself to a nice meal. Get back to my room, didn’t have anything to do so I just took a bath and shaved (I hadn’t shaved in 9 or 10 days – maybe the most hair my face has ever had). Go to bed early, wake up again at 5 am, get to my gate and eventually head to DFW. I tell you I’m very excited to get home, I’ve got a 17 month old daughter that is now talking pretty good and just about potty trained, as Audra has been working hard with her. Plus, there’s Hanna and Joey who also miss their dad and I guess it’s been long enough that maybe even my wife would say the same thing. No problems going to Dallas, I get to my new gate in DFW headed to STL, meet some folks there that are flying in to St. Louis to go to some type of a concrete convention. They end up boarding the plane first and sit in first class as I walked back to my seat. So now I’m in my seat and everybody has boarded the plane. I now have a lady who works for American come up to me and tell me that I need to get off the plane. At first I don’t understand what’s even going on. I begin to think that the people in first class sent her back to joke with me. So I don’t get up, nor do I plan on getting up. She finally tells me that TSA needs to get into my bag and that it’s locked. I get up, grab my carry on and walk to the front of the plane and I’m not happy. Get out to the desk and there is a man waiting for me to take me to the TSA. I tell him the problems I have had and also inform him that he’s got to put up with my bad mood. Over the last 24 hours, I had been praying to God to stop the testing. Get to TSA and all they do is tell me they took care of it, so I didnt’ have to get off the plane at all. Actually the TSA guy said that if I bought TSA locks I wouldn’t have had this problem. My reply to that is it kind of defeats the purpose if you buy TSA locks. I finally get to STL, my dad waited for me and I eventually got to see my family that evening. By far this is the worst trip I’ve ever had; but that’s life and I got through it.
Despite all the problem I had getting home, the hunt was great, it really was. Here is a photo of the bear that I shot:
This week, as I mentioned a few days ago, I went to see The Biggest Loser Finale. They tried to maintain a party atmosphere during the show and gave away prizes during the commercial breaks. I went out there with Cage Fitness to help support Don and Dan. So it really was a lot of fun.
I received this email this week and thought it was interesting, so I thought I should share it with you:
How they vote in the United Nations:
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:
Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time
Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time
Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States,
still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States
And receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States
Receives $6,721,000,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States
Receives $143,699,000 annually.
WHY?
WHO IN THE HECK STARTED THIS AND WHY?
THEY ACTUALLY BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS THEM.
Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers
who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes.
Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know.
(If you don’t know any taxpayers just delete it!)
GO GREEN – RECYCLE CONGRESS IN 2012 ! ! !
I also ran across this quote and thought it was appropriate on my website. I’ve never said this before, but here it goes, if you don’t like this quote, then I don’t need you here:
“An Islamic Terrorist is like a Chinook salmon. Life is good ‘til the Seals show up!”
Air Dates & Times for 2011
Beginning March 28, 2011
Tuesdays, 6:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM CST
Thursdays, 2:00 am EST / 1:00 am CST
Saturdays, 8:00 pm EST / 7:00 pm CST
The show description for this week:
Show #9 “The Mossy Oak Boys”
(Airs the week of May 23, 2011)
2 Exciting Whitetail Kills – A story about the boys from Mossy Oak and their Texas deer hunting adventures with Texas Trophy Hunters Association.
Here is the Bible verse for this week:
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life God has promised to those who love Him. (James 1:12)
I’m in L.A. right now getting ready to go to The Biggest Loser finale. I’m just going to be in the audience, I don’t think I will be on TV or anything. Full blog to come when I get back.
Last week, Audra and I went to Las Vegas. I had to partake in the UFC Fighters’ Summit. Once a year the UFC gets all the fighters together and talks about PR, health insurance, and other stuff. This is a 2-day long event, some is interesting and other stuff, like taxes and traveling, is pretty boring. The one thing I did find out is the UFC is now going to supply health insurance for all fighters. This is health insurance that will cover accidents, training, and also fight days. I think it’s a pretty big step for the UFC and I don’t know how this doesn’t make the front page of Yahoo News. So, all in all, Audra and I had a great time. She got to spend some time with the Stellas (if you remember we had a prayer request for Bobby Stella and her cancer) and we also got to eat at our favorite restaurant, Lucille’s. I actually had a fun time at the summits, I sat between Sean Sherk and BJ Penn, so we were able to jack around a little bit. It wasn’t all that serious at our table. There’s actually a really short video of us on BJPenn.com if you wanted to check that out.
Well, as I was out in Vegas with the UFC, Mark caught a break in the weather and was able to get some corn in the ground. If you want to see a few pictures of that, then you can click here.
All in all a pretty slow week. Except for the trip to Vegas, I’ve just been doing some light training, nothing heavy yet.
I got a buddy down in Florida who has a radio show called Knock Out Radio. It’s some pretty interesting stuff and you can follow them on Twitter or check out their website.
Air Dates & Times for 2011
Beginning March 28, 2011
Tuesdays, 6:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM CST
Thursdays, 2:00 am EST / 1:00 am CST
Saturdays, 8:00 pm EST / 7:00 pm CST
The show description for this week:
Show #8 “Battle Scars – Part 2″
(Airs the week of May 16, 2011)
4 Whitetail Kills – In this second part of our special two-part mini-series, we pay tribute to the soldiers honored each year by the show of support, Hunt for Heroes.
Here is the Bible verse for this week:
I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name. (1 John 2:12)
To be honest, I’ve got to congratulate Mr. Obama on what unfolded with the Navy SEALS and the attempted-capture/death of Osama bin Laden. I’m congratulating our President, because ultimately he had to approve the mission. I was kind of shocked when Mr. Obama was elected President because we were in a war and he has no military experience; but I think a lot of this goes back to the groundwork laid by the Bush administration, because Bush did sign the Patriot Act (that Obama disagreed with as a Senator). Also, some of the credit should go to Obama for not actually closing down Gitmo, like he said he would. So, once again I want to thank Mr. Obama for saying yes to the mission and great job to the US Navy SEALS who got the job done.
The fights were very interesting Saturday night. The Aldo/Hominick fight, in my eyes, was fight of the night. I had never seen Aldo fight before, but I’m familiar with Hominick. Aldo did well in the first half of the fight, but you could kind of see him tire just a little bit later on. Hominick got hit with some heavy punches, but that guy’s got heart and I don’t think he had any plans of giving up that fight. Next, I watched Randy and figured he was going to be in trouble when he didn’t get Machida to the ground in the first round. I hate seeing Randy go out on a loss, but that’s just the way it is I guess. If there was one fighter than I tried molding myself after, in the octagon, it would be Randy. So, good luck to him in whatever he’s got going on next. As for the GSP/Shields fight, I really believed GSP was going to tear Shields up. The fight didn’t go like I thought it would at all. Let me tell everybody now, I like GSP, he’s a good guy and he’s somebody I wouldn’t mind sitting next to on a plane ride or at a supper table. So don’t think that I’m talking out of bitterness for the two losses, I’m speaking through experienced eyes that have been in these situations. GSP actually looked worse in this fight than I’ve ever seen him before. I really feel like Georges fights not to lose, he just doesn’t fight to win anymore. I like Georges, I like watching him fight, I wish there was some way I could help him to get that hunger back inside of him. Georges has the potential of being so much better than what we’ve seen recently. If Jake had won one more round he would have won the fight, based on how the judges scored it. So an interesting fight and a little disappointing at being the last fight of the night.
Last weekend, my father-in-law and I went out to the NRA show in Pittsburgh. Those shows are always fun for me because I get to see all my friends and I also get to be around my buddies at Otis, Browning and Hornady. I also got to chat with Heather who works for EAA and also Cage Fitness. All in all a great show, the NRA is my favorite outdoor industry show, and here is a picture someone snapped of me at the Browning booth:
Air Dates & Times for 2011
Beginning March 28, 2011
Tuesdays, 6:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM CST
Thursdays, 2:00 am EST / 1:00 am CST
Saturdays, 8:00 pm EST / 7:00 pm CST
The show description for this week:
Show #6 “Pronghorn Pursuit”
(Airs the week of May 2, 2011)
The winner of our Texas Sized Giveaway Hunt tracks down a pronghorn in west Texas and Mark Cuddeback finds a black bear in Manitoba, Canada.
Here is the Bible verse for this week:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)
