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Former ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Jonathan Haggerty is teasing a possible transition into MMA in the future.
'The General' would be a fine addition to ONE's already stacked flyweight MMA ranks. He already has the kickboxing skills to make any fight exciting, all he has to do now is work on his grappling.
Easier said than done, of course. Grappling is a whole different world from Muay Thai and Jonathan Haggerty has to respect this fact.
In an interview with YouTube channel The MMA Super-Fan, Haggerty was asked if he does MMA drills or just helps MMA fighters with their striking. In response to the question, 'The General' replied:
"With the MMA sparring, I wouldn’t obviously do it while I’m in fight camp. I just do it when I’m out of fight camp just to keep active. Who knows, I could be going into MMA real soon. So just to get the rounds in, getting used to it, its no harm. But like I said, I won’t be doing that in fight camp."
Haggerty understands that in order to fully transition into MMA, he needs to have a separate full camp for him to acquire the necessary grappling skills. Still, he's already familiarizing himself with the fundamentals by dabbling in the sport during his off-season. While that's not enough for him to truly be competitive in MMA, at least he's slowly breaking into the sport little by little.
Catch the full interview here:
Jonathan Haggerty makes his bantamweight debut at ONE on Prime Video 4
In the same interview, Jonathan Haggerty was asked about his move up to bantamweight and if there was any particular reason why he chose to make the move. Haggerty is set to face Vladimir Kuzmin at 145 pounds on the main card of ONE on Prime Video 4. As for the move up in weight, 'The General' said:
"Yeah, you know. The last time I made 61 kilos, I made the weight, but it's really the hyrdration, really. Just keeping myself hydrated, it's difficult to keep the balance. The last time I made 61 kilos against Mongkolpetch [Petchyindee], I felt absolutely unreal. And in the next one, you know, my body must have just grown. I had a 12-week camp for Walter Goncalves and I started to fade in the last bit. I started to peak just a little bit early and, yeah you know, it was hard. I was doing it all by myself and I thought, 'I cannot afford to just not fight again this year. Let me go to bantamweight...Let me knock on their door.' Yeah man, I'm excited. Who knows, it might be the new me. "
Jonathan Haggerty had two fights canceled this year due to health reasons and hydration might be a part of it, as he said. ONE completely abolished weight cutting via dehydration so it might have been difficult for 'The General' to keep his 135-pound fighting frame and still be healthy enough to fight. Seeing him healthier with more mass on him might give us a more ferocious iteration of 'The General'.
