Jan-26-2010

Hague Leaving No Stone Unturned

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By Mike Russell

In Greek mythology, Theseus is best remembered as the man who was able to overcome an obstacle that seemed impossible. When he was a teenager, Theseus’ mother revealed that his destiny lay underneath a large boulder in a field near their house, and to claim it he would need to lift the rock, which would prove to be no easy task.

Failing miserably in his first attempt, Theseus allowed the stone to grow moss for a few years while he increased his strength by wrestling, boxing and hurtling smaller rocks. He invented a “scientific form of wrestling” that not unlike jiu-jitsu, allowed a more compact fighter to effectively defeat a much larger opponent using leverage and technique. Within a few years he had grown and developed enough that he was able to budge the boulder and claim his place in society as the future king of Athens.

Boyle, Alberta, Canada may be about as far removed from ancient Greece as it gets, but for Tim Hague, lifting boulders on his family’s farm in the small rural village inadvertently helped him realize his true calling, much like Theseus did centuries earlier. Like his Greek predecessor, Hague learned an invaluable lesson from his arduous labor – that behind every obstacle lays a reward if you persevere and work hard to get there.

“My dad liked to have clean fields, so we picked a lot of rocks out of them. My brother and I always had these competitions to see who could lift these giant stones and throw them into the woods. If you go to the farm now, there are thousands and thousands of twenty-pound and up rocks that we moved over the years all around the fields,” Hague recalls. “I was never too big into doing farm work. I thought it sucked and it was boring, but I knew that I had to get my work done. I actually enjoy work now because I know that hard work pays off. When I’m training and doing something most people dread like doing stairs, I push myself to hurry and get the job done and when I do, I push myself to improve on the last time I did it. I think the competitions I had with my brother are what set the stage for that.”

Besides building a strong work ethic, the years of heaving stones and hay bales around the farm also made Hague strong physically, which would prove useful in his future athletic pursuits.

“It really helped make me a strong guy. I powerlifted on my university team and without having ever deadlifted before, I threw some weight on a bar and said ‘That looks about right,’” remembers Hague. “When I added it up it was 400 pounds, which surprised a lot of people. I was just naturally strong from all of the rock lifting I did growing up.”

Standing in the shadow of the 26-year-old and his 6-foot-4 264-pound frame, it is surprising to learn that Hague wasn’t always the biggest kid on the block. Equally as surprising is the fact that the former teacher, who began studying MMA soon after graduating university, has only been training for a brief time.

“I’ve only been training four years and I didn’t have any martial arts background when I started. I played hockey and I was always the smallest guy on the team growing up. I had a growth spurt in Junior B and guys always wanted to step up and drop the mitts with me because I was the biggest guy on the ice,” Hague says. “I became more comfortable with fighting because of hockey, which is why I started training mixed martial arts. Making it into the UFC was definitely a dream come true, but I didn’t even have it in my mind when I started training. As I built my record I started to think it was a possibility if I kept winning and putting on exciting fights.”

Hague (10-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC), whose nickname “The Thrashing Machine” refers to a piece of farm equipment that is used to separate grain and seed from their stalks and is also a tip of the hat to former UFC and PRIDE juggernaut Mark “The Smashing Machine” Kerr, no longer has to deal with being the smallest guy in the room. He says being the biggest, however has its drawbacks as well.

“A lot of the time finding guys my size or bigger to train with is my biggest challenge,” he says. “Guys in the gym ask me sometimes why I’m holding back when I spar and I tell them ‘Because, if I hit him as hard as I can, he won’t want to spar with me any more and it’s tough to find big guys to spar with’.”

Listening to the quiet heavyweight speak during his interviews and talking to him on the phone or in person does little to dispel the stereotype that Canadians are overtly nice and polite to a fault. Although he says he doesn’t mind being a cliché Canuck, one stereotype Hague says he is doing his best to try to change is the brash, bruiser image fighters have been slapped with because of what they do in the cage.

“Most people say that I’m a pretty nice guy. I try to respectfully represent the sport. It’s who I am and it’s how I’ve always been. I think it bodes well for people who speak poorly of mixed martial arts and fighters to see that we aren’t all these rude and brash thugs like they think we all are. Sometimes people say I’m too nice though,” Hague explains. “I’m not really into smack talk; don’t get me wrong, I’m not afraid to tell it how it is – I just try to do it in as polite a way as possible. If someone wants to badmouth me, I have no problem backing it up. I’d rather just get in there and let the fight do the talking and not get too personal. That way we can leave it in the cage, let the best man win and then go get a beer together afterwards. We know what one another go through on a day to day basis in the gym so you can’t help but respect the guy you step into the cage with. For the most part, fighters are a tight-knit group.”

Hague’s next newfound drinking buddy will be former NCAA Division II All-American wrestler Chris Tuchscherer (17-2, 1 NC MMA, 0-1 UFC) who he will square off with at UFC 109 on February 6, and he says he is confident that he will be toasting his victory and not drowning his sorrows when the fight is over.

“It seems like he goes into most of his fights with the same game plan so I don’t think there will be anything I’m not prepared for. Being in the UFC, he might try something different, but every fight he seems to try to rush to get the takedown to side control and then he tends to grind out a TKO or lay on top to get a decision,” says Hague. “The UFC is looking for more exciting fighters, so he might come in and try something flashy like a slam, but I think everyone starts reverting back to what they know best when they start eating leather, so I expect him to try to wrestle with me. I brought in an ex-collegiate wrestler to help me train for this fight who weighs 270 pounds. He can’t take me down right now so I think I’m ready.”

Coming off a quick TKO loss to Todd Duffee in his last fight at UFC 102 in August – the first time he has been finished in his career – Hague says coming to terms with the loss mentally wasn’t tough to do and that the friendship he struck with his former opponent made it that much easier to swallow.

“It didn’t take me long to fix things to ensure that I don’t make the same mistake again [that I made against Duffee]. I just tightened things up and I fake my right hand and throw my left a lot quicker, so it isn’t easy to telegraph,” Hague explains. “I don’t think I got to show much in that fight. I give Todd credit. It was a great fight for him and it set his career on fire. One positive that came out of the loss was that I became friends with Todd Duffee and he invited me to come train with him some time and I plan to take him up on the offer in the near future.”

Friendship aside, Hague says he wouldn’t be opposed to one day sharing some more post-fight beers with Duffee.

“I think if we can both put together some win streaks, a rematch would definitely make for a good story.”