I usually play vs a good gief player (in sf4ae mostly) who now also uses hugo. I must say that when using kuma I have much more trouble vs his hugo too… the pressure that char puts on you, added to his range and armored moves. it is tough. but i found out you can grab hugo when he is running at you with the armored clothesline while in Bear stance! heh, just have to react to that fast enough without being hit=p
against gief, the major prob is spd beats in range any of kuma’s command grabs. but if you can input them earlier, you win. (both L versions of kuma and gief have same start.up). it all comes down to speed, don’t be out ranged though.
fast pokers are still the worst match up I think, it’s hard to get out of the pressure without meter.
Hugo vs. Kuma is free. Kuma beats out Hugo in so many ways.
Just f.hp him on his wakeup. Do it all day and just piss him off. He can’t do anything if you time it right except block, because it hits twice and therefore beats out lariat. As long as you time it right he can’t reversal EX grab either. All he can do is block and then you can walk up and circus him. Almost every Hugo I’ve fought got really, really upset fighting my Kuma. Just play smart and always anti air him and the matchup is completely in your favor.
plus he can do crouching charges because fear of the megaton claw overhead.
really Kuma fucks up all the charge characters because all of the charge moves are 1 hitters and aren’t exactly hard to see coming, bear stance when far away, pelt them with attacks up close.