John Hathaway has quickly been making his way up the welterweight prospect ranks and has gone from being an undercard fighter for the Cage Rage promotion to fighting in the UFC in less than a fifteen month span. A very big, strong and tall welterweight, Hathaway is still quite young and still filling out his body and there is a definite possibility that his future years may be spent competing in a different weight class.

One of the most impressive parts of Hathaway's game has been his ability to get the fight to the ground. Deceptively strong, Hathaway has displayed big slams and very good takedowns in his short career, which is in stark contrast to most British fighters whose wrestling abilities are perceived to be a weakness. Having relied heavily on his ability to take his opponent down in his career there are concerns about how Hathaway would fare against the better wrestlers in the division, but it should be noted that Hathaway was able to consistently take Rick Story to the ground and Story does possess a solid collegiate wrestling background. On the ground Hathaway shows good ground and pound techniques - making effective use of elbows, punches and knees to the body, and possesses a technical grappling game as he effortlessly transitions from strikes to submissions attempts. Hathaway is very composed on the ground and does an excellent job of controlling his opponent from top position while also doing an effective job of avoiding sweeps and any kind of submission attempts. Hathaway will need to work on his strike defense off his back, but displays an active guard - constantly looking for submissions, aswell as showing an excellent ability to use his submission attempts to sweep his opponents from his back, and overall has a ground game that flows very well and shows tremendous promise. On his feet, Hathaway makes good use of leg kicks and mixes up his punches and kicks well, but will need to continue working on his overall technique. Although he has been focusing on his striking of late, Hathaway still remains a little stiff at times with his punches coming in slightly flat, and overall his standup game is not quite at the same level as his ground skills just yet. While Hathaway displays a definite preference in taking the fight to the ground in his early career, he age, camp and learning curve suggest there is considerable room for improvement.

Alternating his training between ZT Fight Skool and the London Shootfighters camp, Hathaway has a strong group of trainers at his disposal including former British National Wrestling Champions Paul Ivens and Alexis Demtriades, and former World Kickboxing silver medalist Andy Zajac, aswell as well as solid training partners in James Thompson, Jean Silva, Mostapha Al-Turk and current Dream Welterweight Champion Marius Zaromskis. Hathaway has also trained with both American Top Team and 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in the past and appears to be taking his fighting career and training very seriously, which could only benefit his future development.