Issue 049
May 2009
John ‘The Hitman’ Hathaway is one of the young rising stars in the UK, something he deftly proved at UFC 93.
He battered Irish fighter Tom Egan to a crushing defeat in only four-and-a-half minutes of one-sided action. Hathaway was able to keep up a relentless pace throughout the contest, an ability he puts down to the hours of hard training as he puts in at the Zero Tolerance Fight Skool in Brighton, and the world-famous London Shootfighters gym.
Where are you now?
I’m at home just waiting to go to the gym. Today was quite an easy day for me; I just went to breakfast with my girlfriend and I’m training tonight. A very easy one today, but I’m up to the London Shootfighters tomorrow, that’s going to be a hard one!
What do you remember from your first fight?
The first one was against Jim Morris. It was actually on one of Sol [Gilbert, John’s trainer]’s shows on the ZT Fight Night. Literally, we clinched and I managed to get him down. I took top position, started pounding and he rolled over, gave up his back, and I managed to get the rear naked choke in. I couldn’t have asked for a better first performance to get those jitters out of the way.
What is the hardest fight you’ve had so far?
In competition, it would have to be Charles Barbosa, maybe Tarcio Santana, both of the Brazilians that I fought were probably my hardest bouts. Obviously, I’ve had harder training camps. Every time, preparing for a fight, it gets better and better, and more interesting. I’ve learnt more and become fitter, faster and stronger. It’s the training camps that are always getting harder for me.
How did it feel the first time you took a hard shot in a fight?
I’m spurred on by the fact that I want to win… taking shots didn’t really phase me too much, but it’s always nice not to get hit! (laughs) I’m a competitor, so I always come in to win and I’m not going to stop until I get the victory.
How did you feel before your UFC debut?
I felt good, you know, I felt that I was there to do a job and there wasn’t much that was going to stop me from doing it! I was feeling pretty confident, pretty happy. It was really nice fighting in his home town, with the crowd on his side, because it spurred me on to fight harder.
You kept up a relentless pace, that must have been exhausting. Do you think you could keep that going for three rounds?
I’d hope so. I still felt good after four and a half minutes of a crazy pace. I knew it was going to be a bit of a crazy fight, so I’d done a lot of training to fight like that, what with it being our first times and both of us wanting it so much.
What was the contact like as you landed some of those elbows?
The couple that landed were good contacts on the elbows, I didn’t get any cuts, but some of the punches I landed were hard as well. I wanted to have a spectacular fight and I was trying to land massive elbows. It wouldn’t have helped me in the long run; I should have started off smaller, instead of going big straight away.
John Hathaway spoke with Jim Page
