Below is an excerpt (provided by The Sun) of Matt Hughes new biography entitled "Made In America". In the excerpt to follow, Hughes is relaying conversation he had with Tim Sylvia:

“Tim Sylvia walked over to me during practice. His back was hunched a bit, like Pat’s is, but Pat I could look in the face.

‘Can I talk to you a second?’ he asked.

“Sure thing.” He led me into an office and we sat down on two chairs.

“No one here’s got a problem with me except you,” he began.

“When I first started, Jens would say I’m a fat piece of s*** who’s never going to amount to anything, and he’d get me crying, but now even Jens likes me. Is there a problem?”

He was waiting for me to tell him there was a big misunderstanding or to apologize, like I wasn’t aware of what I was doing.

“Yeah, I really don’t like you,” I told him.

“Is there a reason why?”

“I don’t think you’re a team player and I don’t think you work very hard,” I said.

“How am I not a team player?”

“Remember that whole thing with that girl?” I reminded him.

He waved those ridiculously long arms of his in the air. “They weren’t even going out!”

“Yeah, but you knew that your teammate had a thing for her and you went for it anyway. But I don’t even care about that. I’m talking more about training.

“When somebody’s got a fight coming up, everybody tries to make sure the guy’s got some training partners to get ready.

“Everybody tries but you. Your first priority is always Tim, and I don’t think that’s a good attitude.”

I wasn’t angry or even annoyed. I had as much emotion as if I were talking about the contents of a fridge.

“I don’t think you work very hard either. You’re a little sore and you don’t come in.

“Jens, who’s a champion, has been sore and he comes in. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been sore.

“No one’s ever going to be 100 percent. You just suck it up and you do it, period.”

I didn’t care one way or another what he said in response – I assumed he’d get defensive or angry.

But he didn’t; he was reasonable.

“I’m actually hurt to hear you say that. I’ve been a huge fan of yours for a long time and I’ve been trying to model myself on some of your work ethics, and the way Jens works out and stuff like that, and it’s too bad you feel like this.