Sherdog.com: When you fought Hughes and eventually got stuck in that choke, looking back on that moment, what happened? Was it just a slip on your part or was it more or less a mental lapse that you drifted off into? Whatever the case when you made that mistake, did you know right then and there that the fight was essentially over?

Trigg: The mistake that I made was that I missed the Kimura and I missed the sweep that Carlos Newton hit on him when they fought the first time. I ended up giving him my back for the third time in the fight and that was the final mistake. He then took my back in no time. The point where I was like, “Oh shit it’s over!” was when I was tapping. That’s when I finally knew that the fight was over. The reason for that was because I lost mental focus. I lost my mental focus in the middle of the fight.

Sherdog.com: After UFC 51, we did the video interview for Sherdog and in that video, you called out Hughes and stated he may be afraid to fight because he wouldn’t sign to fight you at that time. According to various sources close to the situation, Matt had been saying that he didn’t want to fight you again because he had already beaten you so handily and that you didn’t deserve another shot at him. It was more or less a waste of his time to fight you. What transpired along the way to actually get Matt to sign up to defend his title against you?

Trigg: He didn’t have a choice. The first thing that must be made clear is that we as fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship — and this is the rule of the road — we don’t get to choose who our opponents are. Zuffa, specifically their matchmaker Joe Silva, will tell us who we’re going to fight next. It is our responsibility as fighters to accept that fight. That is what we do, at least for me. I don’t pick my opponent. I don’t get the choice or the benefit of saying, “Hey Dana, hey Joe, hey Lorenzo, hey Frank … I want to fight so-and-so” and that is who they get for me to fight in my next fight. It doesn’t work like that. They pretty much say, “This is who you are going to fight right now, this is what will be good for our organization, it’s good for the sport, this is who you’ll fight, this is the deal. Sign off, we’ll get you a memo and then you fight this guy.”

They put me in front of him in January or February — I’m not exactly sure when it was — and they gave me the right to be the number-one contender. I beat Dennis Hallman, who beat Hughes twice. I beat Charuto in the second round while it took Matt to beat him in a very close decision. Some say that it was a controversial decision, but I beat the guy up in the middle of the second round. That earns me the right to be the number-one contender. That is why I get to fight Matt Hughes again even though it’s only been about a year and a half. He can say whatever he wants. He did, in fact beat me the first time. He did, in fact, choke me out. He did, in fact, make me tap. That goes against the legend that I am un-tappable. I have only been beaten twice — I’ve been knocked out and I have been tapped out. Matt tapped me out and that is a reality. He can say that he has nothing to prove but he does have something to prove. I have to prove that he can still maintain the belt, that he can still hold the belt. This is a fact! This is the reason why Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales have fought three times in boxing! It gives you reasons why Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran have fought three times. There’s a reason why these guys continue to fight and re-fight.

Part of it is because the fans want you to take these fights again. They loved the first fight and they want to see it again. Another part of it because hey, this guy lost but has worked his way back up the ladder and is deserving once again. I am the next guy in line so step up and fight me. I am next in line. It’s kind of like a Tito-Chuck situation where Tito kept ducking Chuck, kept ducking Chuck, kept ducking Chuck. Then he finally had to fight Chuck; he pretty much didn’t have a choice. But Tito took it like a man, stood by his words and said, “Hey I am going to stand up with you and go toe-to-toe.” We all know the result of that one. But I have earned my right to be the number-one contender again like all these other guys before me. So Matt can say whatever he wants but I am the guy that he has to fight and I just wanted him to accept it.

Sherdog.com: Now with all do respect to Matt Hughes as he’s never done me wrong in any way, but in my opinion you shouldn’t be fighting him for the title. I still believe that B J Penn should still have the title and I still feel that he got shafted by the UFC. What are your thoughts on that situation involving BJ and Zuffa?

Trigg: I think everything went exactly as it should have with Zuffa. B J Penn was stripped because he chose to fight for another organization. He won the title for the UFC and you are the champ for the UFC, you have an exclusive deal that you can only fight for the UFC when you are the titleholder.

Sherdog.com: But BJ didn’t have a contract with Zuffa. His contract expired after he fought Hughes. To my understanding, he didn’t have a new contract with Zuffa once that fight ended and he was trying to negotiate a new deal with the UFC.

Trigg: That is the contract you enter when you fight in a title fight. That is the contract that I have when I enter the title fight with Matt. That is the acceptance of fighting for the UFC — that you accept that as part of the deal. That is what it is. This whole thing is built on relationships. This whole thing is built on your ability to stand up and say, “This is what I am going to accept whether I like it or not.” Just because you get offered three, four, 10 times more money to fight somewhere else doesn’t necessarily mean that you gotta go and take that money because you have a principle.

Sure I could go make a million dollars fighting someplace else or I can make a $1,000 fighting here in the UFC. But I have a contract and my contract states that I can only fight for you for the length of this contract. At the end of this contract I can do whatever I want. So they went to court, Zuffa was proven in the right, BJ was proven wrong and we can always have this he said/she said thing. BJ was stripped of his title. He’s only fought one time at 170 so technically he’s not even a welterweight. Even in boxing where you have the title, if you fight two times out of that weight class, you are out of that weight class and stripped of that title (not exactly true).

BJ has fought twice, no three times out of that weight class. No, it was twice out of that weight class. He fought Rodrigo Gracie at 185 and he fought Machado at 220. Obviously he’s not fighting at welterweight anymore, so it’s not even really a point for discussion. BJ vacated the belt the same time he vacated the weight class. He shouldn’t even be ranked at welterweight anymore; he should be ranked in that absolute or pound-for-pound division because he’s been floating around so much.