John Howard recalls his encounter with one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. | Photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
John Howard has not lost since the Ultimate Fighting Championship released him in 2011.
In an interview with the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show on June 10, he discussed the UFC, his brush with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Howard trained with Tsarnaev at Wai Kru MMA in Boston.
“The reason why he trained at my gym was because he was a good boxer,” Howard said. “He wanted a good sparring partner, and most gyms he went to, a lot of guys couldn’t hang with his boxing. He was beating guys up. The reason why he came to Wai Kru was because you had me as a UFC fighter and you had other good strikers there who weren’t scared to take a beating or give one. That’s how I knew him.”
Howard remembers one sparring session in particular.
“One day we was sparring and it got a little too physical,” he said. “Me being an MMA fighter and him being a boxer, it was like a little rivalry thing and we were boxing and we kind of went kind of hard one time. I give him credit. He was a good boxer, but because of the power I possess, I could put anybody down, I believe. What happened was, he got a little cocky. He was touching me up. He was getting the best of me. We went at it, and I caught him with my left hook, my famous left hook, and broke his nose.
“When I broke his nose, he covered his face,” Howard added. “His body was open, so I turned my angle and I hit him with a body shot -- with my right hand, a body shot, and I dropped him. That was the end of the sparring match.”
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