Matt Hughes, the UFC Hall of Famer and former welterweight champion, responded to orders of protection filed against him by his family with an apology — sort of.
Hughes can’t go within 500 feet of wife, Audra, and their children after a number of alleged incidents involving them, including Dec. 12 of last year, when he was accusing of hitting his wife in front of their children. There is also a restraining order against him by his brother Mark after Hughes got into an altercation with his brother’s 15-year-old son, Mark.
Hughes admitted the brain injury he suffered when his truck was hit by a train in 2017 has changed him as a person. But he also denied doing harm to anyone he loved and believes those close to him are creating false accusations to get him out of their lives.
“I understand that it is not fun to teach a grown man to learn to do everything all over again. I understand that I am a burden to those around me,” he wrote on Instagram. “I understand that I am an inconvenience to my family. Unfortunately, my marriage was not perfect long before the accident but NEVER, NEVER, NEVER would I, or have I, physically hurt those who I care about most.”
The alleged incidents were ugly. Audra Hughes claimed her husband choked her when she wouldn’t give him the key to his car — driving wasn’t good for his brain condition — and then he demanded the code to his gun vault. He choked her again when she refused a second time, allegedly smashing her head against a shower wall, and telling her: “This is what choking is!” She also accused him of threatening to shoot her in July 2018 after taking his phone for “communicating with multiple women,” according to TMZ.
Hughes suggested the real reason for the allegations is to get him away from his caretakers.
“I do not resent those who are trying to hurt me and paint me out to be a monster through these false accusations,” Hughes wrote. “I understand now that they are just doing what they need to do in order to rid me of their lives forever so theirs can return to normalcy. I feel awful that my accident turned their world upside-down also.”
