After 11 years as a pro fighter, followed by five more years as a retired fighter, coach and all-around lovable MMA figure, here are the final stats on Matt Serra’s career: 11 wins, seven losses, a record of 7-7 inside the UFC, winner of Season 4 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” winner of the UFC welterweight title, setting up a championship reign that lasted for just over a year and included one unsuccessful attempt at a title defense.

Oh, and now we can add one more thing to the list: UFC Hall of Famer.

The decision was announced during Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 128 broadcast, and it was followed by an interview with Serra himself, who was his usual charming self while accepting the honor (watch it above).

He explained how he got the news from his former boss turned reality show traveling companion, UFC President Dana White, and how he tried to show enthusiasm and appreciation while also keeping an eye on his young daughter, who at that very moment was busy bonking her head on the furniture.

Classic Serra, am I right? Real, relatable, charismatic. He’s as likable a guy as you’ll find in MMA, so sure, you want to see someone like that lavished with honors.

Still, you know what’s coming next. We all do. It’s the inevitable questions about whether a guy who had a cup of coffee with the welterweight title before retiring with a .500 record in the UFC is really hall of fame material.

Here’s how these conversations usually go. If you like the inductee in question, you point to his accomplishments. If you don’t like him, you point to all the more deserving candidates who haven’t been inducted.

It’s easy to do both with Serra. He took the welterweight title from 13-1 favorite Georges St-Pierre at UFC 69, scoring what is probably still the biggest upset in MMA history, and he did it against one of (if not the) greatest fighters of all time. That’s pretty good, and it came with a compelling narrative of a plucky underdog cashing in his title shot for all it was worth. That’s a feel-good movie moment in a sport that usually settles for crushing your dreams under the muddy work boot of reality.

But then, that was one fight. St-Pierre easily took the title back in the rematch, and Serra lost two of his next three before retiring with a record that, at least on paper, is the very definition of mediocrity. So now, what, he’s a hall of famer because he’s a good guy?

And where are all the other pioneers? Where’s Frank Shamrock, a former champ who beat Tito Ortiz in a fight that still looks like the very moment MMA climbed out of its primordial ooze? Where’s Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin – even Tim Sylvia, if we’re so impressed by belts?

You can play this game all day. We have. We will. They play it in just about every sport with a hall of fame. The difference is, in those other sports no one has to wonder if simply being friends with the boss was enough to get an athlete enshrined among the greats.

This, too, is a permanent part of this particular conversation. Remember earlier, how I referred to Serra’s selection for the UFC Hall of a Fame as a “decision”? That’s entirely accurate. There’s no voting process that we know of, and certainly not one that even resembles the process in other sports. Near as we can tell, it’s just the UFC president picking who he wants and ignoring who he doesn’t.

That’s the UFC’s right. It is, after all, a company hall of fame (and not even an actual hall so much as some pictures on the wall). It doesn’t claim to represent the sport of MMA.

But doing it this way also kind of sucks for guys like Serra, who might legitimately win a vote to get in if one existed. And if he did, that honor would really mean something.

At the very least, it would be tougher to second-guess, since there wouldn’t be this lingering suspicion, however unfair, that his primary qualification is remaining friendly with the boss after all these years.

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