Matt Serra can't recall when he realized that he wasn't of average height.
When asked about his growth history a few days before the season premiere of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality show, the UFC welterweight fighter pauses and ponders.
"I was a normal height back in the day," says the 33-year-old, who shocked the MMA world, if not himself, his family and the students at his two Long Island schools, when he beat Georges St. Pierre via strikes to snag the title in April. "I was a decent-sized kid growing up. I was never a small kid."
This writer treads carefully while discussing the most sensitive topic because it's obvious that Serra, the first American to receive a black belt from Renzo Gracie (in 2000), has the skills to render a shortage in "my" height department.
"I haven't given any thought to the subject," he says. "At 14, I was a big kid."
Well, at some point, Serra fell behind a tad, and at 5-foot-6 (5-foot-6½, technically), he typically gives away a few inches to opponents.
Serra, who will share coaching duties with Matt Hughes on the sixth season of "TUF", owns a 9-4 record, almost a journeyman's ledger. But his record is deceptive. His losses have come to top-tier practioners (Shonie Carter, BJ Penn, Din Thomas and Karo Parisyan), and his standup game has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years to the point that they are equal with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills.
That less-than-sterling record has been an asset, as has been the height factor, because Serra is generally under-feared, if not dismissed as a credible threat, before he enters the cage.
Could the same dismissive attitude apply when Hughes and Serra tangle on Dec. 29, two weeks after the "TUF" season ends, at UFC 79?
Probably not, because the level of dislike between the coaches is palpable. That should make for a compelling plot when the reality show unfolds, and presumably, Hughes will be motivated to shut up the talkative New Yorker.
Serra doesn't mince words when he discusses his dislike of Hughes, a UFC poster boy from the nation's heartland who has a chops-busting persona that grates on the amiable-across-the-board Serra.
Serra explains the regression in their relationship.
"We used to get along back in the day. We never had an issue; we used to be acquaintances," he says. "Then I saw him during the fourth season [when Serra was a cast member and Hughes showed up for a guest spot] and he was messing with people, being arrogant. He wasn't a cool guy."
Hughes, at the time, was gearing up to face Serra's pal, St. Pierre. So he came to the show to get under the French Canadian's skin, and it looked like his tactic worked. He busted on GSP, and took digs at cast member Din Thomas, just for good measure.
Serra admitted to his teammates that he thought Hughes was a jerk, and voila, a heated rivalry was born.
"Hughes plays up to the camera," Serra says. "I don't want it to come off like I'm a bully, saying this and that, but I think a lot of people feel the same way, and don't care to say it."
UFC head honcho Dana White, who is pals with Hughes, acknowledges that the 33-year-old Illinois resident likes to needle.
"He busts chops," White says of Hughes. "He likes to play mind games. That's his personality outside of the Octagon too. But for a fight, he raises it 100 times to get inside your head. He's also a standup guy, though, and he's helped build the UFC business."
White says the level of dislike between the coaches started to simmer and reached a boil during the show.
"The hatred grew and grew and grew," he says. "Hughes came to this show and he said to Serra, 'What's up, champ?' And Serra told him 'We're not friends.' He called Hughes out on the carpet, and it's on. It's brilliant. Vince McMahon couldn't write scripts this good; we have better storylines than that fake WWE stuff."
White promises this season will be top level and will feature solid cage action, as well as the coach vs. coach soap operatics. He wasn't crazy about second season's charisma-free cast and Season 4's reclamation project.
White maintains he doesn't see the Serra-Hughes match as a walkover for Hughes.
"Serra is a tough kid; he'll fight anyone," he says. "Me and [UFC commentator] Joe Rogan really doubted Serra in his match against St. Pierre; we didn't think he had a snowball's chance in hell. That pissed Serra off. Hughes was excited when Serra beat GSP, because maybe he's looking at Serra as a walkover. Matt just may be like Randy Couture: Always looked at as an underdog, too small, or too old. And I think Serra has better standup than Hughes."
Serra doesn't buy it, really, but you could theorize that he sees in Hughes the sort of cocky jock notorious for dispensing wedgies in high school, one who perhaps targeted the timid and the undersized.
"Me and Hughes, we're two different kinds of people," Serra says. "I'm a New Yorker, I say what's on my mind, because not being that way, what's the point of that? People may think this is hype, but you look back before at my other fights and you see that I don't talk trash. You asked me, I answered."
Michael Woods, the news editor for TheSweetScience.com, has written for ESPN The Magazine, GQ and The New York Observer.