Jonathan Haggerty defends his ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing title against former K-1 champion Wei Rui at ONE 171 in Qatar on February 20th. Beyond Kickboxing's Peter Le and Faraaz Nadeem caught up with Haggerty to talk about the upcoming fight and more.
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HAGGERTY'S TRAINING CAMP
9 weeks into his fight camp, Haggerty's in good spirits. "We're feeling hungry, we're eager to go, and we're excited," he remarked. The General's last outing in September against Superlek didn't go as planned, but his camp is still feeling the momentum from the previous training camp. Haggerty spent this training camp in the UK, then Thailand at Lamai Muay Thai in Koh Samui, and will spend the last week in Qatar. He's feeling a little bit of pressure to hold onto his belt as fight day comes, joking that he'll "try not to get knocked out in under a minute."
The General enlisted the help of a new breathing coach to improve his mental strength and athleticism, which garnered a lot of attention online.
"'This is like SAS training.' He said, 'we're gonna tie your hands behind your back. We're gonna throw you in the water.' And I just looked at him like, we ain't doing that today, brother!"
Haggerty was put in a gauntlet of exercises to increase his lung capacity, including frog-leaping with kettlebells underwater.
"See that shit there, it was hard… my lips went blue, like, the oxygen in your brain's just like… I didn't want to give up… and it was just like, fucking hell, that was hard."
A KICKBOXING AND MUAY THAI STYLE OF HIS OWN
Haggerty spoke to us about his transition between Muay Thai and kickboxing, or lack thereof.
"I thought it was gonna be a problem, [kickboxing] just come quite natural to us, thankfully," Haggerty observed of his training for his first kickboxing match in ONE with Fabricio Andrade and the subsequent training for Rui. "I feel like my style anyway is more kickboxing," he said.
Haggerty's "hit and don't get hit" style apparently started solidifying for 'The General' after the second Rodtang fight when he realized he'd better avoid heavy punches. Haggerty's hybrid style is mostly self-developed as opposed to something taught to him, though his coaches have helped tune it over the years.
The British fighter isn't too bothered switching between ONE's kickboxing and Muay Thai rulesets, nor the change in glove size affecting his ability to put Wei Rui away. His last knockout was using bigger gloves.
"Obviously the four ounce gloves are deadly, you know, one shot, one kill. You're going to fall with them, man. I've been hit with them a few times and it's not nice, but, it's the same with the boxing gloves really - they're only eight ounce gloves as well.
I mean, sometimes I don't wear wraps underneath. Not a lot of people know that. So I get like to get the knuckles, put the knuckles in, as violent as it sounds. So yeah, I've got trust in my power."
We joked that we may see The General in a bare knuckle fight someday, to which he laughed, "Yeah that'd be great."
ON WEI RUI
As we found out in our last interview with Haggerty, most of the film study in The General's fight camps is left to coaches like Christian Knowles. Haggerty's watched part of Wei Rui's last, controversial fight with former ONE Kickboxing champion Hiroki Akimoto. As usual, Haggerty is keeping his cards close to his chest, offering only a brief acknowledgment that his opponent is a fast, fit southpaw with a 70-3 record. He isn’t taking this fight lightly and feels confident in his track record against southpaws, citing his past success against fighters like Sam-A.
DEVELOPING PROSPECTS
Jonathan cornered his brother Freddie recently at ONE 170 where he went up a weight division and lost to Jordan Estupinan in Muay Thai.
"It was difficult, you know? It's always difficult. When he's walking out, I'm behind the back of the curtains. I'm like, I can't speak. I can't get my words out.
I'm nervous. Do you know what it is? It's normally I'm in control. I'm the one in there. I'm the one doing the fighting, but with him in there, I have no control. I know he's capable… it's just very nerve-wracking. Although he got the loss, I feel like he gained a lot of people's support and it was a win-win situation for him really moving up to a heavier weight, just to test himself.
Now he knows where he stands, he knows he can take the power of the flyweight and now he's moving back down to strawweight."
The General has also been active in the corner in the UK Muay Thai scene, coaching and developing the next generation with his father and brother. Even his presence is enough to give the Haggertys' group of local champions an edge.
“Back in the UK, I've noticed that the opponents like just staring at me instead of staring at my fighter. Yeah, I think it does help [intimidate the other corner] a little.”
Haggerty's advice for young fighters is simple.
"I'll be deadly honest with them. I'll look them in the eye and I'll just tell them, listen, it's not going to be easy. It's going to be some ups. There's going to be some downs, but you need to stick at it, you know, aim for the top. And when you're in that division, make sure you aim to fight the best in that division.
Because I know a lot of fighters out there, they get in a division and they don't want to fight the champion. You know, you need to be able to put your mind to it and fight the champion in that division… the sky is the limit. Take risks and prosper."
Speaking of risks, Haggerty briefly touched on his hints at an MMA debut, but frankly remarked he's had no time to train mixed martial arts. “Maybe late 2025 or sometime in 2026", he said.
THE GENERAL IN PEACETIME
Haggerty is staying busy outside of his fighting career. He’s preparing to launch an online training and fan portal, Haggerty's Academy, where fans can learn techniques, watch fight camp footage, and stay updated on upcoming seminars.
Lately, he’s also developed an interest in vlogging—particularly travel vlogs. He enjoys dining out with his girlfriend and exploring different countries. During his seminar tour, he especially loved visiting Australia and Italy, and he plans to return to Australia later this year for more seminars. However, his top dream destination is the Amazon rainforest.
