The origins of this year’s best nickname began early in the career of the man dubbed ‘The Hater Hurter’, Johnny Rees. And it may be best for the unbeaten middleweight prospect to explain it himself.
“A buddy I grew up with gave it to me after my second or third fight out here in Indianapolis,” said Rees. “I’ve probably had four or five grudge matches out here, and after every fight there would be somebody new saying ‘I want to fight that guy.’ We call those people who are trying to bring other people down ‘haters’. My buddy said ‘man, you just be hurtin’ them boys. I’m gonna start calling you the ‘hater hurter.’ After that it just kinda stuck with me.”
With ten wins, no losses, and all wins coming by way of submission or TKO, that’s a lot a lot of hurtin’ being dished out by the 25-year old, and though the grudge matches have disappeared as he’s moved up the ranks, what hasn’t faded is the Indianapolis native’s pure love of fighting.
“I grew up with two brothers, and we didn’t grow up in a bad neighborhood, but we grew up in a neighborhood of hard knocks with kids that were out running the streets and fighting every day,” he recalls. “I’ve been fighting since I was six, seven years old, just running around protecting my brothers, and I just grew to love it. I just loved the challenge of a one on one fight, and when I started paying attention to cagefighting five years ago, and I saw that there was a way to get paid for doing this legally, I immediately flung to it.”
Three years ago Rees put the gloves on and started training after putting in a day’s work in his carpet cleaning and restoration business. By October of 2005 he was making his pro debut with a submission of Gabe Holmes and was soon off and running. But by the time he notched his tenth victory, over Jeremy Wingler last November, the fight game had begun to become a lot more important to the father of two boys, and he decided to sell his business in order to spend more time on it.
“I wanted to take the fighting a lot more seriously, and I was having to run calls after I got home from practice several times and I wasn’t able to give it my full attention, so I saw an opportunity to get out and make some money, and I sold it to a friend of mine,” he said.
Earlier this year, Rees got a new full-time gig, building drilling rigs for Laibe Corporation, but just a month into the job, he got the call every fighter dreams of, but one which he wasn’t expecting at that precise moment.
“I assumed that the call was gonna come, and I was hoping it was,” said Rees, who was asked to take on fellow unbeaten Nate Loughran this Saturday night in Las Vegas on the Anderson Silva – James Irvin card at The Palms. “I set my goal to fight in the UFC a couple of years ago and I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t think it would happen, but I didn’t think it would happen this quick, to be honest.”
Rees accepted, but now he had a problem. How does he tell his new boss of just a month that he’ll need some time off to fight in the UFC? Surprisingly, it wasn’t a problem.
“They’re super supportive,” said Rees of his employer. “My boss, I had only known him for two weeks, and as soon as he heard about it, he bought 20 of the $350 seats the next day, and a bunch of the guys from work are going. He said ‘anything you need, let me know.’ It’s unreal. I wasn’t going to look for a full-time job just for that reason (possibly getting a fight in the UFC), but I got one, it (the fight) happened and I couldn’t believe when they said ‘we’re behind you a hundred percent. Do what you’ve got to do.’”
He did, working until 5pm every day and heading to the gym for an intense night of practice, aided by UFC vets Chris Lytle and Jake O’Brien, who would stay after their workouts to spar and roll with Rees. Lytle especially has been a Godsend for the UFC debutant.
“I look to Chris for advice a lot of the time,” said Rees of Lytle, who also has a day job, as a fireman. “Being a family man and having four kids, he helps me out a lot – he’s a good guy.”
The focus now shifts to Loughran, a fellow unbeaten prospect who, like Rees, has never let an opponent hear the final bell.
“I assume he’s a ground guy,” said Rees of the David Terrell-trained Loughran. “I know he has seven of his eight submissions on the ground, and I also assume he’s pretty well rounded, being 8-0. But I don’t mind wherever the fight goes. I love to stand and bang and eight of my ten wins are submissions on the ground also, so wherever it goes, I’m ready to rock.”
And unlike the old days, Johnny Rees doesn’t need a grudge match to get him going. Keeping the zero at the end of his record is motivation enough.
“I don’t like to get into that type of stuff (trash talking),” he said. “And now that I’m at the next level, I don’t need that. If the guy has something to say, that’ll just fire me up even more, but I don’t necessarily need that to get me going. Not being beat yet makes me push harder to keep my record clean. It’s definitely better than having a loss on it, that’s for sure.”
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