This week at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Yan and Anatoly Malykhin presented Hutchinson the new vehicle. In a surprise ceremony outside their gym, former UFC champion Petr Yan gave his coach John Hutchinson his dream car—a pick-up truck.
Hutchinson traveled to Thailand to train in the middle of the 2010s. He started working as a pad man for mixed martial artists at the renowned Muay Thai gym. However, he developed a strong friendship with Yan and a few others. They started calling him “coach” and finally adopted him and had him corner them. Hutchinson was in Yan’s corner for his championship victory against Jose Aldo in 2020.
Yan spoke outside the gym and remembered their relationship, saying:
“I don’t know a coach more who woke up every day at 5.30 or 6am and called every to tell them ‘wake up, we need hard work’. He’s just an old school coach, you’re a legend brother.”
Yan and Malykhin are presently training with Hutchinson, the gym’s main boxing coach. They are training in preparation for their comebacks. The bantamweight will be meeting Sean O’Malley at UFC 280 next month.
Petr Yan opened as a 4 to 1 favorite in the bout – which is no surprise considering he’s a former champion and O’Malley has no victories in top 10.
“They’re like, ‘God, I don’t know. It’s a tough one!’ But if you ask the casuals it’s like, ‘Oh, Petr is going to smoke him. He’s a 3-1 underdog or whatever,’” O’Malley told Helen Yee.
“I’m a little surprised but also I kind of get it from other people’s perspective. But I believe I’m better than Petr Yan, and I believe I’m going to go out there and beat his a*s, so I guess I am kind of surprised.”
After receiving the vehicle, Hutchinson wrote on a post on Instagram:
“Today is a crazy day. So thankful for everything in life. Peter and Anatoliy [are the] best of the best, let’s go!”
Yan replied in a comment by complimenting his instructor even more and asserting that he should receive “more” than the gift he received now.