Former UFC welterweight John Howard sparred on occasion with alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. (Diamond Images/Getty Images)
A former UFC fighter sparred with one of the alleged Boston bombers, once broke his nose and wishes he knew what Tamerlan Tsarnaev had planned.
“I would’ve choked that man out and killed him,” Howard told AboveAndBeyondMMA.com.
Tsarnaev, who allegedly detonated two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon with his brother Dzhokar in April, worked out at Wai Kru MMA in Boston where Howard has trained for years. Howard says he and others who frequented the gym had no idea what the “really polite” Tsarnaev would become.
“He came here like he was a friend,” Howard said. “Basically a Trojan Horse — that’s how he came to us. We had no clue — we had no clue he was a radical or anything like that. He came in with open hands, handshakes — really polite, to a degree. Cocky but polite, you know? Not disrespectful. We felt betrayed, man, and it sucks.”
Tsarnaev, Howard said, felt “misunderstood” and like he didn’t have anyone in the U.S. to lean on.
“Before he became a terrorist, he was a Golden Gloves boxer in Mass. — he was a real good boxer,” the MMA veteran said. “But he felt he had no friends in the States. He felt he was misunderstood. If he took the time to talk to people and open up, maybe he would’ve changed his mind and maybe we could help him understand the way of life of Americans. But because he wasn’t open, he did what he did. And it sucks.”
Howard, who is 19-7 as a pro including 4-3 in the UFC, says Wai Kru has had its name tarnished and that Boston as a city is “not quite back to normal.”
“We’re not there yet, but we’re dealing with it,” said Howard, who is 5-0 since being released from the UFC in 2011.. “Right now people are looking for closure and reasons why this happened. But there’s still some time we need to take.”
Howard said he once broke Tsarnaev’s nose during a sparring session. But he would have done much worse if he had any idea the Russian national was planning terrorist attacks, saying he and his training partners “would’ve hung that man in our basement.”
“I wish I could’ve done a lot more,” Howard said. “If I had any idea — trust me — I swear to you that I would’ve risked my own blood, sweat and tears and I would’ve killed him with my bare hands.”
