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"Ask
Thorpedo"
The
Jon Thorpe interview
by SFUK 20
December 2000
Jon
"Vanderlei" Thorpe : post chicken dinner
This
softly spoken young man has burst onto the UK MMA scene
in the year 2000. Entered 3 events, won three events,
conquering the mightly PIE warriors Danny Fitzgerald and
Keith Dace in the process. We rate Jon highly.
SFUK
caught up with him, and fellow London Shootfighters at
Nando's chicken restaurant in Kilburn. Extremely modest,
getting him to talk about himself is like getting money
from Usman*. Luckily, Alexis and Kamal were on hand to
tell you how good this guy is.
SFUK
: Jon Thorpe, step up to the mic. You're one of the outstanding
talents this year. What have you to say to that?
Jon
Thorpe: I don't know...I'm just looking forward to fighting
next year. That's what I'm aiming for. Get as many fights
next year as possible and see how I get on. There's one
in Holland, Millenium Brawl 2, Prague possibly, see what
happens.
Alexis
: We've got 4 competitions lined up for Jon within the
next 4 months. We want to keep Jon in good cardio and
good shape, keep him fighting, keep him active domestically
and internationally.
SFUK
: Just a little background about yourself, Jon, how old
are you?
Jon
Thorpe: 22, but I'm gonna be 23 end of this year.
SFUK:
Whoa. Young. And how long have you been training?
Jon
Thorpe: I've been training at London Shoot now for just
over a year. I did like Japanese JuJitsu, just basics
before I trained at London Shoot. Now I'm boxing and thai
boxing as well. It's going good.
SFUK:
Do you think your Japanese JuJitsu gave you any skills
that carried over into your fighting now?
Jon
Thorpe: Not really. I had really basic positioning before
I came to London Shoot, but in the year with London Shoot,
that's basically what I do in the ring.
SFUK:
Does that year with London Shootfighters including this
year that you've been fighting?
Jon
Thorpe: Yeah. I started training end of last October,
so I've been there just over a year.
Victory
at the Amateur Pancrase in April 2000
SFUK:
So in April you won the Amateur Pancrase after only 6
months of training.
Jon
Thorpe: Yeah, I won that, then I had a couple of injuries
that kept me out and a couple of shows were cancelled.
Then I did the Ring
of Truth.
Alexis:
Basically, with Jon, from the first day he got there he
was exceptional in the fact that he's a big guy and he's
good with his movement and he's not afraid of training
hard. Which is the difference between a lot of people
when they come. He gave it all he had and you know he
wants to fight. When someone wants to do something, the
more they want it the quicker thay get to do it.
SFUK:
To look at Jon, you'd think he came from an established
boxing or thai boxing background because he's so confident
standing up.
Jon
Thorpe: I've been doing standup for a while, but for a
year I've been training at London Shoot 2 or 3 times a
week, thai boxing 2 or 3 times a week, know what I mean.
Alexis:
Also the guys that train with Jon, all the guys at London
Shoot, all the kick boxing sparring partners....when it
comes to it, you train with good people and you don't
panic in sparring. That's why he gets so calm in the ring.
Jon
Thorpe: Where I get the confidence from is there's nothing
that can be done to me in the ring that hasn't been done
to me in sparring. That's from Alexis, Paul, Kamal, everything.
So when I get in the ring I think "shit, I've been
sparring with these guys, there's nothing this guy can
do to me". So far it's gone good ya know.
SFUK:
And how would you rate yourself in the UK scene.
JonThorpe:
Ah...I don't know....
SFUK:
Too modest to say anything?
JonThorpe
: Yeah, you know I'll just train for fights as they come.
It's not for me to say anything. I train with the best
guys, I have the best guys training me and I'll just take
as many fights as I can get.
SFUK:
Is there anybody you would like to fight out there?
Jon
Thorpe: It's not for me to name names, but I'll fight
anyone in the UK.
SFUK
: Go on. LOL
Jon
Thorpe: There's guys like Thomas Lamont who I was supposed
to fight but that got cancelled, so I'd like to fight
him. Glen Brown, I was supposed to fight him. There's
loads of fights I've had that have been cancelled, so
I'd like to fight them. You know it's such a small circuit
that eventually we'll meet each other.
Kamal
Lock : There's a rumour you wanted to fight Kamal Lock.
Jon
Thorpe; Yeah, but I think I've surpassed that level.
*laughs
all round*
SFUK
: Do you prefer pure Vale Tudo, or do you like to submissions
events, King of Kings rules...
Jon
Thorpe: I think I'm better suited to Vale Tudo. I've got
good basic submissions, but my submissions are better
for the Vale Tudo definitely. I set them up with strikes.
Alexis:
To be honest with you, I think we focus more on Vale Tudo
training. If we were focusing for different rules our
training would be different. But for the moment Jon uses
he knees really well, and we practise that a lot. He doesn't
just have good knees, well he does, but we practise them
real hard.
Jon
Thorpe: It's mixing the wrestling in with the thai boxing...
Kamal
Lock : I think he's a versatile fighter. He can change
and fight his own fight and not fall into his opponent's
style of fighting because he's an all rounder. So it might
be knees this time, it might be kicks another time, on
the ground another time. It doesn't matter, whenever it
comes he can do it all.
SFUK:
I think his recent fights say it all, knees, punches,
triangle.
Alexis:
When it comes down to it, you take what you're given.
Another fighter takes you down, you work from the guard.
You work from whatever position you're in. And if your
train hard and work from your positions, as Jon says,
I don't really see what can go wrong.
Jon
Thorpe: I have an idea before the fight about where I
want to keep it. But at the end of the day, if someone
comes with me with something different that's not important.
I'm prepared for everything and that's what you've gotta
be. You never know what's gonna happen. That's what we
all do.
SFUK:
So you have serious ambitions as a pro fighter then?
Jon
Thorpe: Yeah, I'm not doing it as a hobby you know. I
work to train. That's all I wanna do. I want to get as
far as I can.
Alexis
: I hope Jon takes it seriously enough to not take any
silly fights he gets offered and keeps his career on a
gradual uprise. He's young, he's only 22, (note: Alexis
is 21!), he's not gonna take silly fights. There's no
point in him jumping into huge tournaments, he can, I
mean he's got offered to fight in huge tournaments, but
at the moment, let's keep it on a gradual level and when
the time comes, take the big fights. You want to walk
in there with the intention of winning at least.
SFUK
: Turning pro, was that a decision that you (Alexis),
pushed him into? Because that was quick.
JonThorpe:
We'd done the amateur one then...
SFUK:
Yeah but it was only ONE amateur event.
Alexis:
You're got to remember, domestically, and I won't say
this in a bad way, but the standard was definitely, we
thought, within Jon's grasp. That's why we pushed him
much faster.
Jon
Thorpe: I felt ready, ya know, I'd done fine with the
pancrase and just the training with these guys...
Alexis:
We had about 4 or 5 Vale Tudo fights in class as well.
Jon
Thorpe: They're the ones that no-one sees but they're
the ones that count. I fought everyone. Everyone's been
on the end of a beating from Alexis! But you need it,
there's no problem going in the ring after that.
Jon
v Keith Dace - photo by Levo
SFUK:
And how did you feel after your first pro victory?
Jon
Thorpe: I felt good. It was a good fight. Everyone that
Keith's fought he's picked up and dumped, Dexter, Ian
Freeman....so I knew I had to sprawl him and hit back
with knees. And that's what I did. It went well.
SFUK:
Keith caught you a couple of times...
Jon
Thorpe: Yeah, he did. I was a little bit hesitant with
my hands, you know every fight I'm a bit critical and
I was a bit hesitant with my hands. But in my next fight
at the Pancrase, my hands were a bit better so I just
like to keep improving with each fight.
SFUK:
Did the fact that you'd actually rolled with Keith, help
you size him up mentally?
Jon
Thorpe: Yeah, I rolled with Keith once, so I felt confident
that if it went to the ground I'd be able to handle it,
but I thought if I don't need to go to the ground I won't.
But when it went to the ground I managed to catch a triangle
so yeah it went great.
SFUK
: So you'd prefer to keep it standing with most people?
Jon
Thorpe: I haven't got a good shoot to take people down,
so I'll keep it standing. If we end up in a clinch then
work for a takedown if necessary. But I'm happy to keep
it standing at this level in this country yeah.
Alexis:
Just take the fight as it comes. Keith's a big guy though
so would probably be the best bet, coz Keith's arms aren't
as long as Jon's. Jon's confident in standing up, especially
in that fight.
SFUK:
Jon, we're interviewing you as one of the best new talents
of the year 2000. But who do you think are the best new
fighters to emerge this year?
Jon
Thorpe: I'd definitely say Michael (Johnson - London Shootfighters),
he jumped straight into the Amateur Pancrase, stormed
through that, won it, then had a really tough fight at
the Pro Pancrase. He had a sturdy opponent and he put
in a brilliant performance.
Alexis:
I'll take a little bit of responsibility for that. I thought
Michael's opponent had a similar experience, one or two
fights, ya know. But he's had far more than that. I was
a little bit upset with myself for letting that happen.
Michael did an excellent job, didn't get beaten, went
the distance and lost on points.
Jon
Thorpe: Chris Milward as well. I think he's another good
guy that's coming up from the Colleseum, a lightweight.
He's definitely a guy to look out for.
Alexis:
Chris Milward. If Leigh Remedios sticks at what he does,
he'll make a name for himself bigtime.
SFUK
: Leigh's almost like old skool now, the amount of experience
he's had lately LOL.
Kamal
: I just wanted to say, Jon Thorpe - natural talent. I
met Jon first at Fred Rado's Pancrase class at the Sobel
sports centre. I looked at him and thought -" woo
big guy, I'll go work with him". Great attitude,
it was really nice to train with someone who knew what
he was doing. His thai boxing skills were really good
and I thought "excellent". We got to spar on
the ground and I couldn't tap the bastard. I couldn't
tap him! I'd been like, you know, King Dick, tapping everybody.
SFUK:
So you'd not actually grappled before?
Jon
Thorpe: I'd done a little bit but...
Kamal
: He was just really strong on the ground and I said to
Jon, just out of respect "where do you train?"
And he said he'd trained a bit with Bas and Marco Ruas
when you'd been to the states. So I said to Jon "you
should come down to London Shootfighters". I pirated
him haha. There you are. Great guy, great friend, excellent
training partner. A natural talent.
SFUK:
That's it Jon. Thanks for the interview and good luck
in the year 2000.
Jon
Thorpe: Thanks a lot man.
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