Welcome to the conversation, John.
At 22 years old, and with a win over Diego Sanchez now firmly in his pocket, You have to feel John Hathaway is looking like the future of the division. When you look at this overall game, he is well rounded and only getting better. He has all the tools, and will begin looking to beat some of the top contenders in the division.
While everyone will remember the Sanchez-Hathaway fight for the knee in the first round that almost put the iron-chinned Sanchez out, I will instead remember it for the way that John Hathaway stuffed Diego’s early takedown attempts. That was the key to the entire fight. When Diego is at his best, he is out hustling his opponents, taking them down, and grinding them into submission. Since he was not able to do that, Hathaway instead had Sanchez looking like a fish out of water throughout the entire fight.
The only real complaint I would have about the fight is that I do believe that Hathaway should have finished the fight after that early knee. He is young, and like Dana White said in the post-fight, once Hathaway gets more comfortable in the UFC, expect him to take advantage of chances like that.
The question that arises after a young prospect wins a big fight is always the same: How do you proceed? Does he get another big fight, or does the UFC continue with him on the slow road? Here is one interesting option: There is a fight between fellow prospect Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit coming up. It’s a match where Carlos Condit, a former prospect himself, really needs to put up or shut up. He had had more than enough time to get use to the UFC and needs some better performances than he has recently. MacDonald is a very, very hot young prospect who is only 20, but may ultimately be a little too small for 170.
If you put Hathaway up against the winner of this fight, you have some win-win scenarios. Condit would have to continue his gut check and perform to earn the money that they thought he was worth when they brought him over from the WEC. If MacDonald wins, you can place him against Hathaway and see if he really can hang at Welterweight. If not, he moves down to lightweight and follows a career path similar to…bring it full circle…Diego Sanchez.
So, we finally found a Brit that knows how to wrestle. If he continues to improve at the rate that he currently is, we could have our first British world champion on our hands as well.
Tags: carlos condit, Diego Sanchez, John Hathaway, Rory MacDonald, UFC, UFC 114, Welterweight
Original Story:
http://www.3rdstringsafety.com/2010/0...
