Jonathan and Freddie Haggerty were born to fight. It runs in the blood. Their dad, an amateur MMA standout, built a gym from the ground up on Old Kent Road, turning a basement with a single bag into a proving ground. For the Haggerty boys, it became home.
"For me, it started with football at school," Jonathan says. A die-hard Millwall fan, his world revolved around after-school games until his dad’s gym took over. "At first, it [the gym] was just a small space, but he kept adding to it. I basically grew up there."
Freddie, eight years younger, remembers it differently. "My dad had stopped fighting by the time I started training. To me, he was always a coach, not a fighter. But he made sure I trained until I was eighteen, just so I’d know how to look after myself."
Jonathan took the lessons to heart. In his early twenties, he turned a promising amateur career into a professional endeavour, before defeating the legendary Sam-A Gaiyanghadao to claim the ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Championship. In 2023, he raised the stakes again, knocking out Nong-O Gaiyanghadao in the first round to secure the ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai World Championship.
Most recently, Jonathan returned to the ring five months after losing his crown in a 49-second bout (the toughest defeat of his career), to regain his title, outclassing top-ranked Wei Rui by unanimous decision. Now, at 28, Jonathan sits comfortably as the reigning ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing World Champion.
Faced with that kind of legacy, Freddie — once a West End dancer — could have gone a different way. Instead, he stepped onto the same path. A multiple-time British and two-time European Muay Thai Champion, he made his debut in the ONE Championship series in 2024, fighting under the same banner as his brother.
"I spent a lot of time dancing when I was younger," Freddie says. "Mum put me and my sister into it, and because I had contracts in musicals, I wasn’t allowed to spar. If I turned up with a bruise, the directors would freak out. But seeing my brother smash it, and having my dad as a trainer, made me want to fight more."
Jonathan always knew his brother had it. "100 percent. I knew from watching him hit pads. He was always the smallest kid in school but had the biggest heart. That told me he was built for it."
There was never competition though, just admiration. "He was more of an inspiration," Freddie continues. "Seeing him succeed, especially coming from where we’re from, motivated me. He’s always been an underdog."
Jonathan nods. "As kids, we’d play football with Christmas tree baubles in our tiny front room. It got physical sometimes, I had to pin him down."
Freddie laughs. "During COVID, we were playfighting, and he caught me in the face. Blood everywhere. Mum was hysterical, but I was still trying to carry on. The younger sibling is always tougher, you get roughed up more. Our youngest sister used to beat me up, and it made me stronger. Character building."
Strangely enough, and despite the eight year age gap, the two brothers had their first fully-fledged fights on the same day. "We were in Koh Samui for Jonathan’s first fight," Freddie says. "I was seven or eight, just messing around on the mats. One of the trainers joked that I should fight and I ended up actually doing it. I beat a kid about an hour before Jonathan fought."
Jonathan grins at the memory. "I’d had a few amateur fights by then, but this was my first amateur fight in Thailand. No shin pads or guards — Elbows were fair game. They saw Freddie had technique and just said, ‘Yep, he’s ready.’ During his fight, I was buzzing. I remember him jumping down with elbows. He was built for it."
But watching each other take hits? That’s different.
"It’s not nice," Jonathan admits. "But we know what we can take. In Freddie’s last fight, I was in his corner when I saw a hematoma swell up on his eye. That wasn’t easy to watch. But I knew he could handle it.
“The worst injury I had was a broken nose in round two against Sam-A,” he added. “It felt like jelly. I told my dad and coach I couldn’t breathe through it, but they just laughed and told me to get on with it.”
Freddie shakes his head. "It’s tough seeing him take damage, but I know he’ll bite down on his gum shield and push through. That’s the South London in him. Watching him fight Sam-A, who was running through everyone at the time, was inspiring. He gave himself a 0.01% chance of winning and still pulled it off."
The beauty of having a sibling in the same discipline as you is that you can both learn from each other, whether that’s Jonathan informing Freddie, or vice-versa. "Freddie’s last fight was huge," Jonathan recalls. "He stepped up in weight, fought on a massive stage, and gave it everything. He lost, but he won a lot of people’s hearts. His resilience motivated me for my next fight. It was a loss we saw as a win."
Despite having a fairly jam-packed training and fighting schedule, the two brothers still train together whenever they can. "I used to live opposite the gym, and Fred was nearby, so we trained together all the time," says Jonathan. "But I’ve moved to Bromley now, so it’s hit and miss. When we train together, though, it’s intense. Our dad always eggs us on.”
Freddie grins. "We’ve spent months training in Thailand together. I even flew out for Christmas one year just to be with him. It’s special, working our way up side by side."
Looking ahead, they want to take that bond even further. Jonathan even suggested the idea of opening his own training academy (The Haggerty Academy). For Freddie, though, at just 20, his eyes are very much on the immediate future. "We want to fight on the same show next,” he says. “I tried to get on the American card last year after my win, but it didn’t happen. We’ll make it happen soon."
After just one conversation with the Haggerty brothers, one thing is undeniable — they've got charisma, confidence, and grit in spades. Put those three together, and success isn’t really a matter of if. It’s just a matter of when.
