Mike Pyle defeats John Hathaway at UFC 120
On Saturday night at the Ultimate Fighting Championship's UFC 120 card, Mike Pyle was a 4-1 underdog entering his fight against John Hathaway. After three rounds of action, Pyle, the veteran,
was awarded a unanimous decision over the young gun, Hathaway. The win moves “Quicksand” Pyle to 21-7-1 while the loss is the first for “The Hitman” Hathaway, who falls to 14-1.
Going into the fight, not only was Pyle the underdog, but he was also the American coming across the Atlantic to fight the English-born Hathaway in front of the British crowd at London’s
O2 arena. Pyle seemed eager to play the villain as he walked to the cage to the strains of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”
With this fight, Hathaway was looking to take the next step up the ladder of the welterweight division of the UFC. The first major step he took in that progression was his May unanimous
decision win over Diego Sanchez at UFC 114.
Pyle, a former World Extreme Cagefighting welterweight champion took the fight to Hathaway after a short feeling out period with a nice takedown. Hathaway showed a lot of strength by walking
up the cage and reversing the takedown. The remainder of the round was dominated by the more aggressive style of Pyle.
The second round started with single strikes until Hathaway landed a strong right and followed it up with a knee that hurt Pyle. Pyle then took Hathaway down and slapped on an inverted
triangle choke. While he had Hathaway locked up, Pyle used his fists to bombard the exposed head of his opponent for the last two minutes of the round. Pyle dominated the round, but Hathaway showed a huge amount of heart by not submitting.
The final round started with the Hathaway’s head marked up from the strikes of Pyle. Pyle played the round safe; after taking Hathaway down he spent most of the round holding the Brit
down and delivering strikes when the opportunity presented itself.
When the horn sounded to end the fight, a dejected Hathaway looked like he knew that he lost the match while a grinning Pyle threw his hands in the air. All three judges scored the fight
30-27 for Pyle.
In his post-fight interview Pyle gloated about his victory.
“He’s not the first undefeated kid I handed their first defeat to. You know, everything Hathaway is good at, I’m better. Tonight I was able to prove that and I knew that coming in to this
fight that my wrestling was better and my hands were better. From my shorts at the weigh ins, to 'Born in the USA' coming out, I just rubbed it in their face and on top of that I just smashed their number one boy. He never had a chance tonight. Not even one
second,” said Pyle.
The loss might slow down some of the hype for the 23-year-old Hathaway and it will surely open the door for bigger fights for the 35-year-old Pyle.
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