Latest / Motivational Podcast / Hitting to Hurt – The Journey of Muay Thai Champion Jonathan "The General" Haggerty

Transcript

Hitting to Hurt – The Journey of Muay Thai Champion Jonathan "The General" Haggerty · Motivational Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hm hm.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Hm. So when they said and the new so throughout
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: training camp, that was the saying that my trainer and
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the new world champion, and they just stuck in my
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: head and I thought I got this. I probably had
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: about five percent chance winning that fight. Like I said,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: nobody believed I was going to win that fight. But
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I studied him for a long long time growing up.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I watched this guy, same, big respect to him. It
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: was the legend, and I was very confident. I shouldn't
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: have been confident. I had fifteen fights and yeah, to
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: get both hands start now, Sammy starting.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: I saw stepping and elbow there, Jonathan Haggerty is, I
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: means I'm blinding.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Out the hired under this up a multi time world champion.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: You know what was I like when you when you're
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: raised it in the air.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I had my family and my granddad and my friends
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: came out to Singapore for my granddad to be there.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: He's my number one fan, and to win in front
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: of him, if ring in front of everyone. Really the
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: best thing was the gold confetti at the end. When
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: it just came down, I just thought I had a
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: broken nose as well. Broke my nose in the second round,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I couldn't breathe and my trainer was laughing at me
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: in the corner.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: My dad was laughing at me in the corner.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Girl with me.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I can't breathe out my nose.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I just I got a girl with it now and
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the best now of my life. So after that fight,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I broke, like I said, I broke my nose, my
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: f my foot was, my feet were mangled with my elbows.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I couldn't straighten 'em. I I was. I was feeling
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a lot of pain after the fire, but when I
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: had the belt wrapped around me, like it took the
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: pain away. I got rushed into hospital on a hospital bed,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: and I was, I was hurt, a lot hurt, and
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: uh my trainer, I said, I had my belt on
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: me and then the tra my trainer took it off.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: I said, no, no, I need that belt. Yeah, I
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: feel pain free when I've got that around me.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I'm not bad with the belt at your feet. Was
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: it worth it?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Mm?
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Hundred? And you know what what made it the better?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: They wielding My opponent on the other hospital bed, and
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: we both he doesn't speak English, obviously from Thailand.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Same we both looked each other and when I had
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: uh and it was just it was a it was
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: a war, it was a great fire. It was uh.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I thought my training was lying to me.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Cause I remember before I messaged one Championship but a
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: few years ago saying, great show. I've still got the
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: DM on my phone. Great show. I would love to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: be a part of it.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: One day.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: They didn't get back to me, unfortunately, but then they realized.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: And then so when I won the world title. Now
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I went back onto the onto our chat on one
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Championship and I looked at that message and I'd love
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to be a part of it. And that's when it
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: comes to real like I knew what I wanted and
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: I achieved it, so I want the belt. And then
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I called out the best in the world, cause I
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: think if you're gonna be the best, you gotta fight
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the best. People must have thought I was mad when
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: I called out uh Lock tang gyp Loong Noon, the
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: most feared tire boxer in the world. Everyone will tell you,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: uh I called him out, big mistake, he tipped my belt.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I wanna be the best, so I gotta beat the best,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: and to lose the belt against him the first time,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: it was a bit controversial. I thought I won. He
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: won obviously, and it was devastating. I was heartbroken. I
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: was heartbroken, but I didn't let it get to me
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: too much. They offered me the rematch. I turned it down,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: so I'm not ready yet. Turned it down. I trained
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: for an ext jo two three months, got my head
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: right again. I said, yeah, I'm ready now, and then
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I had the rematch and he defeated me by tak
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: in the second round. But my mom wasn't really there.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I wasn't really there. I don't know why.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I can't explain, but I was devastated. But now on
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: my way back. Just got my first win back from
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: a flat loss against Tachi Nato. Two more wins, I'd say,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: and I'll I'll get that belt back. So I'm Jonathan
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: had former one flyweight world champion, three times muy time
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: world champion, UK born and raised. I grew up in
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: area's kind of rough rout here, and all of my
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: friends sort of went the wrong path, but I sort
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: of kept on the straight and narrow thanks to my
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: parents opening up a gym. But yeah, my dad was
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: an MMA fire originally, and that's what got me into it.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: He knows where he wants me to be, and he
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the guide. He guided me the right path. And yeah,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: he's a he's a role model to Mero model. Without him,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I don't think anything could have could have happened. That
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: was about seven seven six, so soon soon as really
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: never had a job. It's growing up as a kid,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: it's always been fighting. I was just in the gym
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: from a young age, so that was it. Really I
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: had no choice but succeeding the fighting one. So as
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: a junior, I didn't have much fights in tire boxing.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Juniors normally have loads of fights, like literally a hundred
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: fights juniors. I had about four. And then I got
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: pushed into taking machine guards off. Get pushed straight in
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: it into the swing of things, and am I started
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: fighting men at a young age. And my dad wasn't
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: very keen on it, but my trainer was sort of
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: he knew I could.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Do it, so he pushed me.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: And then then from then onwards I started knocking him out.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I sort of get started getting real, started getting to
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: the rankings it with men.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: When I was at seventeen eighteen.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Remember one time I had to lie about my age
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: to fight a man. A man nobody believed in me
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: and thought I'm just to still a kid fin still
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: had braces on, and I got in there. He was
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: number one for ten years and I stopped him in
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: a round two, and I think that's where everyone started
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: to believe, like, this guy's the real deal.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: That was it. I just knew from then that's what
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I wanted to do this. I've got to believe in yourself,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: And I grew up with everyone but around me, my
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: team around me kept by pushing it into my ears.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: You're the one. Now, you're going to be the best.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: And from then onwards, I just thought I'm going to
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: go to the top.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I was I.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: I had fought in fights, and then there was all
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: the promotions were getting.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Me to fight the best tires in the world.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: And in my head when it was offering me these fights,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: I was thinking, no, I don't want to fight. I
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: had fought in fights. I was still basically a beginner.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: But then I took them, and I took risks and
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: I prospered. The night before you can't you can't sleep
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: at all, you know. I woke up the next morning
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: one of these fights against one of the best tires
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: in the world. I woke up that morning to fight.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: I had no speech. I was so nervous. I couldn't speak,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: like I had no speech. And then as soon as
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: you get into the arena, you're in the back room.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: And you can smell the tit oil.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: As soon as you smell it that and you see
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: other people warming up, you think, yeah, it's game on.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Now there's no going back. You want to run out,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: you can't. You just gotta get on with it. So
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: now you're stepping up to the stage to walk out
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: to the fight the crowd of one fifteen hundred people,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: and it's very nerve wrecking. It's very nerve wrecking. As
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: soon as you step over the ropes and you touch gloves,
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: you got no feeling in your body. They hit you,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: you can't feel it, you hit them, you can't feel it.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: One thing.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: You can just about hear anything apart from my coach, Christianos.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: You've got the biggest mouth in the room, and that's
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: all I hear. And then it's just go time from there.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Kill their instinct, just kicking. When I think of fear,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I think of my body shaking, adrenaline and just block
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: it out, just block it out.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Like I said, getting in that ring, it's very fear.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: It's a lot of fear getting part of that. I
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: need fear to fight. I fight better with it, deal
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: with it after the fight. In the fight, if you're
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: feeling pain, you can't show that you're you're otherwise you're
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: they'll capitalize on that. You need to just get on
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: with it.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: After the fight. You can crawl. You want.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: A lot of things that you could be doing fun wise,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: but you need to have your priorities straight and be
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: where you want to be more size art.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: We call it the art of eight limbs.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: You got your feet, he needs your elbows, your punges, everything. Really,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: it's it's beautiful good sport. It's a respectful sport as well.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: You know that respect behind it.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Tradition it's five rounds total elbows.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: You know, you have to be aware all the time.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: You don't.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: You can't just sit in the pocket because one elbow
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: just slip through. It's a game changer. Every time you
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: step in that ring.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: There's not a.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Possibility you could step back out and put your life
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: on the line. I'm fighting the best the world. I'm
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: finding people with three hundred facts.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: There's no joke. So you need to be fully prepared.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: So I've had three losses, I've learned more than them
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: on them.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Three losses, and I have any of the wins, you know.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: So I lost one, came back stronger one, I lost
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: another one, got signed to one championship.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So opened up doors for me.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Made me realize as well, like I am beatable and
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I'm coming up against the best in the world. Now. Yeah,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: you know, sometimes the setbacks, minor setbacks, major comebacks.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: That's my one of my sayings.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: So if anything's going wrong, it's hard to say, don't
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: worry about it, but things will get right fit into place.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Just ya, just keep that strong.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: I'm hitting to heart. I wanna take you out every shot,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: hold it. I wanna take you out. I wanna hurt
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: you severely. It's eve as he as it sounds, but
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: that's it's the reality of it. But after the fight, we.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Can, uh, we can be friends whatever.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: But when we're in that ring, it doesn't matter who
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: it is. It's getting turn. I turned everything down that
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: I missed out onto a party in life. Uh, sacrifices.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: I stopped everything to get to where I wanted to be,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: and it paid off. I know you do need to sacrifice.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: You can't do partying or whatever whatever. You need to
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: be levelheaded on mang. This is basically my life, man,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: this is basically my life. What like, what does it
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: mean to get that belt backs the world? To be fair,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I need to get that belt back before.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: We move on fun Championship is the pioneer of martial arts.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: So it's it's about everyone wants to have. He's the
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: only UK tie boxer to get that title. And have
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: that title, You're not gonna rest until it's done.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I think two more, two more knockouts and then hopefully.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: The one championship belt. Would you say that's an obsession, obsession, obsessed?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: I think that's about that is obviously about that everybody
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: wants and I've had and I've lost.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: So I want it more than anything.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Now again, I'm a I'm a fighter, and that is
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: the pinnacles more tire, So I might not be obsessed
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: to getting that belt.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So I don't think there's nothing wrong with it.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I think on the whole company won championship, everybody wants
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: to be on that.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: You know, everybody's screaming, I wanna be on one championship and.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: For s at the such a young age that I
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: got on it on that big stage, that motivated me
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: the most. You know, people look up to me young kids.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Now I train a group of young kids. I've got
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: a few world champions fourteen year olds. They look up
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: to me. I'm their role model. So that m make
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: that pushes me on more, you know, for them to
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: see what I can do, and uh so they can
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: achieve that as well. Just keep going, Just keep aiming
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: for it, you know, keep digging away, you foul, you
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: go get back, do what you do best, and if
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: you want it as much as you you say you
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: want it, you'll get You know, I I want this
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: belt as much as I want it, and uh I'll
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: do everything I can to go and get that belt back.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: If it means getting up at five in the morning,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: twelve k runs, you got, It's gonna be done.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I don't believe in failure.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: It's lessons learning it really and the you foul, it's
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: a learning curve. It's another opportunity to get back and win.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Just think tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: and and I'll have that one championship belt in nighttime
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: got a few few steps to climb. I'm on my way.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: I'm on my way there and I'll get there. I'll
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: sign an mm A contract with one twenty twenty two.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I would also do more tie and I'll be the
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Wite Ty World Champion and the MMA one.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Championship World Champion within five years.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Before that, really yeah, two years now. I want to
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: be looking in places and everyone's like, it's that. That's
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: the guy, that's Jonathan.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean? That's what I want.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm working for, you know, to be the best.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Next fight is twenty for November in Ireland, are ESK
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: World title against Arthur Mile. I see that go KO
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: round two