John Hathaway first suspected something was wrong when he noticed blood in his faeces.
Brighton’s Hathaway 35, was preparing to face Matt Brown at UFC 138 in 2011, but his discovery forced him to put training on hold.
Hathaway was one of Britain’s brightest MMA prospects at the time, the welterweight having won 15 of his 16 professional fights.
Feeling unwell, he went to hospital, where, following a number of tests over two days, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease – a condition whereby parts of the digestive system become inflamed.
The main symptoms of Crohn’s include blood in your faeces, diarrhoea, stomach aches and cramps, tiredness and weight loss.
“When they diagnose you with something like Crohn’s, they always say ‘well, it may never happen again, it may never flare up’,” Hathaway tells BBC Sport.
“You leave quite optimistic like, ‘oh, it could be all right and we can just continue with how I’ve been going’.”
Unfortunately for Hathaway, symptoms did flare up again many times over the next three years, derailing his career.
Hathaway was prescribed countless medications before he opted for surgery in which doctors completely removed his large bowel and built an internal pouch.
But, as Hathaway tells his story, what stands out is his positivity and it is this trait that inspired his remarkable return to action in October, where following an eight-year spell out, he beat Andre Ricardo at Oktagon 36.
Next, Hathaway will face Lukasz Siwiec on 17 June at Oktagon 44 in Oberhausen, Germany.
Of his attitude, he says: “Don’t give up on things. You can always achieve if you want it, dream it and work hard enough. You’ll get it, you just have to keep pushing and keep working.”
‘I never once lost hope’
After Hathaway’s diagnosis around 12 years ago, he continued to fight, winning two further bouts in the UFC despite being hampered by his symptoms.
He had to cancel three fights in that period, however, and so decided to take a break from sport.
“It was the last fight against Gunnar Nelson [in 2015]. I was devastated that I had to pull out because obviously my opponent had put in just as much effort as me,” says Hathaway.
“It didn’t seem fair of me. Obviously I was unwell, but I guess I then decided to take step back from competing, just in the interests of fixing myself.”
What Hathaway didn’t know was that stepping back would turn into eight years without competing.
“I was going through different medications,” he says.
“Sometimes it can take three months to start taking effect and then you could be great for another three months, but then you start getting run down a bit more and it flares up.
“All of a sudden, you’re like eight months on one medication and you find out eventually it doesn’t work and you are back at square one.”
With medication not working, Hathaway turned to surgery.
“I was in and out of hospital constantly so went down the surgery route. I have some big scars on my stomach from keyhole surgery – I had lots of holes in me,” he says.
Despite the setbacks, Hathaway says he never lost hope of competing again.
“I was still itching, training as much as I could. Obviously I lost an incredible amount of weight, I was just a bag of bones, but I was still in there, still doing stuff,” he says.
“I love the places I train and it’s those guys who got me back in it, the guys at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in London. I started being able to hang with some of the better guys and I thought ‘well, if I can hang with these guys…’
“I started watching this sport when I was 14. I was ordering MMA videos and magazines for birthdays and Christmas. I really do have a love of the sport.”
‘It would be lovely to compete in the UFC again’
Hathaway says the sport – and his goals – have evolved during time away.
“Everyone’s got better at everything. Now you have slightly less-extreme specialists as you used to,” he says.
“You used to have some incredible grapplers – I’m not saying there are fewer incredible grapplers or strikers now, but everyone can do everything.
“I’ve changed my mindset to just getting what I can out of the sport and enjoying it. My goal at the moment is to win this tournament – tournament-style things are what I’ve loved ever since I started.”
Despite not competing in the UFC for almost nine years, Hathaway is still under contract with the promotion – he says United States Anti-Doping Agency officials still drug test him every few months,
“It’s nice to compete under that branch so everyone knows I’m fit and healthy and everyone trusts what I’m doing,” he says.
“They [the UFC] were nice enough to not terminate my contract during my whole time off. They wanted to see where I am. Obviously the sport has evolved and their level is incredibly high, just like Oktagon. Winning would bring me closer to the UFC [as an option].
“If they have me at some point and everything’s right, it would be lovely to compete again there.”