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PARK: Exclusive Interview With John Hathaway Ahead Of His UFC 114 Showdown WIth Diego Sanchez
May 22, 2010 - 5:58:18 PM PARK: Exclusive Interview With John Hathaway Ahead Of His UFC 114 Showdown WIth Diego Sanchez

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

In less than one week, at UFC 114 in Las Vegas, British Welterweight contender John “The Hitman” Hathaway will enter the Octagon for the fight of his life.

Hathaway will be making his fourth UFC appearance and will be hoping to protect his perfect 12-0 professional record when he takes on Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

In contrast Sanchez is making his return to the welterweight division, having been comprehensively dismantled and then eventually stopped by B.J. Penn last December.

Although Diego Sanchez and his war with Clay Guida was named “2009 Fighter Of The Year;” many felt “The Nightmare” had lost something from his arsenal when he made the drop down. Winning two fights by decision and then losing to Penn, Sanchez realized that the hard cut down to 155 lb. was maybe not worth his while.

Looking to spoil the welcome back party will be John Hathaway, aiming to use his size advantage to inflict the defeat on Sanchez. After Michael Bisping, Dan Hardy and Paul Daley all lost high profile fights this year, Hathaway will look to break that trend and come home with the win.

I caught up with Hathaway last week, who told me, “From watching some of [Sanchez's] fights, some of the bigger guys had good success against him. I kinda based my strategy around what has worked against him before. I think a lot of people don’t realize how big I am.”

Recalling the day Joe Silva made this matchup Hathaway added, “They called my manager Alexis. We both talked about it and just thought it was a great fight for me. Stylistically and who it is as well. We both jumped at the chance. A great fight and a great name.”

Hathaway has one huge advantage, over other UK fighters at least, in the fact that he has a strong wrestling base. Wrestling is traditionally the area of MMA where UK fights come up short. Dan Hardy’s fight with GSP and the Paul Daley vs. Josh Koscheck matchup are the best two examples of this.

The London Shootfighter puts a lot of his wrestling ability down to his Rugby playing years before he took up martial arts. “I started in MMA when I was seventeen. I saw my first UFC on Sky Sports when I was sixteen. It was a UFC Unleashed I think, and from there I just started paying more and more attention to it.”

“Coming from a Rugby background, wrestling was kinda what I just transitioned into first and took to first in MMA. My favourite thing in all of this was always wrestling. Wrestling and Boxing.”

That ability was never more evident than in his fight with fellow Brit Paul Taylor at UFC 105 in Manchester.

It was that dominating performance that earned Hathaway this high profile showdown in Vegas - a mere 18 months since making his Octagon debut.

Discussing the contract offer from the UFC, Hathaway told me, “It was a four-fight deal initially. For me it was more money than I had ever had for fighting so that was great. I have just signed a new four-fight contract so this is the first fight of that new deal.”

“I remember I went over to American Top Team just for a holiday and to have some fun and train with a different team. Then, when I got back, I found out about the UFC contract and I just started training at London Shootfighters straight away for my first fight. It all happened so fast after the [Jack] Mason fight.”

John Hathaway will be making the trip to Las Vegas in just his fourth UFC bout. For most fighters, to fight in Vegas is the dream, and for Hathaway this is no different. “I went to see one (UFC show) in Vegas not so long ago at the Mandalay Bay," he said. "It was a great, great show.”

“Las Vegas, it’s a great place and I am really lucky to be competing there. I have had a great camp leading up to it so I’m ready. I’m just looking forward to competing.”

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Chris Park is the MMATorch UK Specialist. Please email any comments or questions to Chris at; mmatorchuk@gmail.com or look us up at http://www.facebook.com/mmatorchuk2 our new MMATorch Facebook home for UK Fans!