The former collegiate track athlete moved to Dallas brandishing a 0-3 record inside the Octagon, having dropped her short-notice debut to Tecia Pennington before losing consecutive decisions to Loma Lookboonmee and Luana Pinheiro. A good athlete with a tremendous work ethic, Saud was impressed with “Sampage” as soon as she turned up on the mats.
“It’s true what she said in the cage with (Michael) Bisping when he asked her,” he begins, repeating the story of his first real interaction with Hughes upon her arriving at the gym that she shared with the former middleweight champion turned analyst following her win over Luciano. “The first day I saw her, I could see the pain in her eyes. It’s like PTSD fighters get from losing or things not going right — they get a certain way where you can see the hurt on them, and I could see that on her, but I could also see the spark; the lioness.
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“I was like, ‘You’re really good!’ She goes, ‘What do you think I’m good at?’ and I said, ‘You’re good at everything; we just need to put it together.’ She looked at me with a smile on her face that I’ll never forget.
“Sammy is one of those fighters that a coach loves: somebody that can come in and show that the effort, the consistency, the toughness, and the mindset of ‘never give up’ pays off. It’s not just a cliche; we don’t just say it.”
Hughes, much like former Ultimate Fighter finalist Uriah Hall, is one of the few “re-builds” — athletes that had previous UFC experience, but took a noticeable step forward after aligning with Fortis MMA — that have become synonymous with the gym. For the most part, though, it’s the group that rose together through the regional scene and Dana White’s Contender Series that are the most well-known faces of the team; fighters like Geoff Neal, Ryan Spann, and Alonzo Menifield, each of whom has contributed seven or eight wins to the tally Saud has now amassed.
