I agree - Matt Hughes had plenty of time to defend himself but was unable to recover.Mintmaster wrote: ↑You mean the ref called it too early? Are you freakin' nuts? He got hit by a hard kick, 9 undefended punches, then 3 undefended elbows! You want him to lose consciousness or get brain damage?
Some people were saying he called it too late, but BJM gave him a few extra seconds because, well, it's Matt Hughes. After watching it in slo-mo, it really looked like BJM took his time to call it. The guy's legs were completely limp after the kick, and he could barely flail his arms around.
Regarding your first 2 points, there's some good post fight interviews on YouTube (over half an hour). Hughes said the first kick didn't affect him at all, the second missed his nuts and probably hit a nerve or something, and these calls probably affected GSP more than the kicks affected himself.
I definately have to commend Hughes for being so honest there and wiping out all possibility of controversy. Even made himself look a little silly by saying he didn't know it was a kick that hit him at the end. He doesn't seem like the prick a lot of GSP fans make him out to be (though his Canada comments irked me just a tad, even if it was merely promotional trash talk).
As for the post-fight interviews, Hughes did say those things. It may have been wholly truth, or it may have been good sportsmanship (ie. Hughes said all the right things but maybe the low blows took some out of him). I also found GSP's comments to be quite amusing... probably the French accent and the funny, studdering noises helped with that The "Awwww... DAMNNNNN!!" part was great!