1-26-10 | McEntee: Greg Hughes loves a good fight| Salt Lake Tribune

Rep. Greg Hughes, a rising star in the Utah Legislature, husband, father and businessman, still has a good bit of the boxer in him.

Growing up fatherless and Mormon in Pittsburgh, he learned that backing down from a fight would never get him anywhere. He's a member of the Conservative Caucus in the House (although I wouldn't have thought they needed one) and named speaker pro tem for this session.

And, along with Sen. Howard Stephenson, he mixes it up on "Red Meat Radio," the conservative Saturday morning talk show.

I met Hughes for the first time Monday when he invited me to his Capitol office to talk. It wasn't long before he explained it all to me: "I'm a contrarian!" he said, arms wide.

Case in point: A huge BYU football fan, Hughes has season tickets and spends every game yelling at the players. When the person behind him asked if he'd be using that seat all year, Hughes said, "Yes, I am!"

Hughes likes to talk about his beloved late mother, a somewhat distracted artist who converted to Mormonism in her early 20s, and his Grandma Max, who chain-smoked unfiltered Raleighs and whose strength and support helped him make his way through childhood.

And about the guys who ran the boxing gym. They were the ones who took him in, taught him the sport, gave him guidance and laid down the rules that guide him today -- fight hard, but fight fair.

That last one has been a little tough for a guy who loves a verbal tussle. Hughes got into ethics trouble in 2008 but was exonerated on all counts. Several colleagues, however, issued a letter admonishing him for conduct unbecoming a member of the House.

He told me he had been "rudely argumentative" with at least one person during that time, and that he's watched himself closely ever since to avoid another episode.

So this year, he supports the Legislature's proposal for ethics reform, fearing that a citizen's initiative now circulating would open lawmakers to baseless accusations. He also wants to give qualified military veterans property tax exemptions, and will work to make ambulance service more competitive. Oh, and he doesn't want to see any tax increases in a time when the state and nation are in the early stage of recovering from the recession.

But back to boxing. Hughes served an LDS mission partially in Papua New Guinea, and some of the local men had been filching his and his companion's things. So Hughes started getting them into boxing (his companion refused on the grounds that it was against the rules). Sparring brought respect, Hughes said, and one day, someone returned what had been taken.

He did make one big mistake, though. He'd set up a match, and a big tough guy got into the ring with him. The guy swung, hitting Hughes in the left eye. Everything went black, and the referee called the match. The worst thing was, the missionaries' stake president and his wife were paying a visit the next day. Hughes showed up with that eye blackened and swollen shut.

Fitting, really, for a guy who defines himself as a contrarian.

pegmcentee@sltrib.com