If he went in the ring against Sylvia, his skills would dominate the fight. I realize he's old, but he was in great shape for his last 2 fights. He is(was) one of several guys in the light heavyweights that I think could beat Tim Sylvia.

He's definitely still in good shape, he trains hard, but the sheer size difference would make it tough for me to believe that he could win easily...  This could be an exact mirror image of Hughes vs. Gracie.  Pure skill definitely didn't win out there.

Pure skill DID win in the Hughes-Gracie fight. Hughes used excellent submission defense, and Gracie had no striking ability, or defense against Hughes' strikes. His submissions were the only card in his deck. And Hughes was not only able to avoid the submission, but also beat Gracie into oblivion. Gracie may have been better at BJJ, but Matt Hughes RIGHT NOW is clearly the better and more skilled mixed martial artist.

I'll have to politely disagree, I saw that fight as a super in shape Hughes using his strength to control and then beat senseless Gracie.  Don't get me wrong, I know Hughes has skills, and Gracie has beaten tons of people much larger than him in the past.  I just think that his slight skill advantage was made void by the overwhelmingly stronger Hughes.

 

I'm pretty sure that if you talked to Hughes and asked him what his strengths were, he'd say physical strength, cardio, and pre-fight training way before he said technique.