Hardy: I'm supressing my inner serial killer

Dan Hardy is the former number 1 contender to GSP’s crown, after dropping a decision loss to the champ I don’t think anyone could have questioned how much heart this Nottingham resident has when faced with adversity.

Even though defeated, Dan will still go down in the record books as the first British fighter to fight for a UFC title.

We last saw him in action at UFC 111 against Carlos Condit. The Condit fight was a bout that saw Hardy fall to the mat due to strikes for the first time in his career. Losing by KO, “The Outlaw” is now set on a collision course to face another divisional stand-out in Anthony “Rumble” Johnson at UFC Fight Night “Ortiz vs. Nogueira on March 26th.

Here is what Dan Thinks about his next challenge.

“He’s tough; he is definitely one of the toughest guys in the weight division. He’s a big 170, he can punch and he has a good wrestling background so I think he is a good opponent for me. It’s a win I need to get to be back on track to where I want to be. “

I followed up with a generic question on whether or not Dan thought Johnson will have to shake the cobwebs following a year layoff.

Dan responded…

"Not really, I’m expecting the best Anthony Johnson there’s ever going to be. He wants to come back with a bang, especially since he lost his last fight to Koscheck. I think he wants to prove a point. He’s been out for a while with a knee injury and I’m hoping he comes back in great shape and that it’s going to be a good fight because I don’t want to beat a less than perfect Anthony Johnson. I want to beat him at the best he can get and I hope that he comes ready."

If you missed my interview with Johnson I released last week, then you need to check it out.

http://www.bjpenn.com/profiles/blogs/the-5-oclock-spotlight-anthony


In the write up “Rumble” stated that his stand up his best attribute.

When I spoke of this with Hardy I asked whether or not he agreed and where he saw this fight playing out.

“Well I would like a good stand up fight but I don’t know to be honest. It all depends on where the fight goes. I always want a striking fight, there’s no secret in that. My game is always going to be kickboxing because that’s what I’ve been doing since I was a kid. But you never know, people tend to say one thing and do something else, so as the fight progresses and he starts to realize that I’m beating him to the punch and he’s not catching me than I think he might switch up his game plan a bit. I’m ready for wherever it’s going to go. I’m motivated, I’ve been angry in the gym, improving and forcing myself to push and try and get better.

I feel like I’ve got a little bit more to give now and I feel like 2011 is going to be a good year for me. I think Anthony Johnson is a good opponent to show the world that I’m back and I mean business.”

As stated in the introduction of this interview, Hardy is a UK resident who up until recently trained in Los Angeles for a good portion of his UFC career. A small gym in Culver City named Punch Kick Grapple was the place that Dan found a home for his stateside training camps. “PKG” coupled with a 10th planet Jiu Jitsu regiment saw many a success for the outlaw.

However on the heels of his latest defeat, Dan explains his decision to go back to his roots, leave his LA home and train with his old team that consists of Paul Daley and the rest of Team Rough House.

“This camp I’ve gone back to the ways that work for me. A couple of years ago I changed a few things and I do think that they paid off for me in the past year. GSP was obviously a tough opponent but the Condit fight I have no excuse for. I should have won that fight 100 times in a row.

There were a few changes I made to my training camp but for this one I’ve taken it back to the old school at Team Rough House for 10 weeks and just trading hard punches. It’s been a tough training camp, I’m getting my ass kicked and been hard dieting and all that. Just making sure I’ve earned the fight and earned the win before I get in there and I don’t feel like I did that against Condit.”

I actually was not going to pour salt in Dan’s “Condit wound”, but since he brought it up I closed out this interview asking him to explain that loss and how it has impacted him.

Dan told me…

“I felt like I let myself down, I felt like I let my fans down. I didn’t have the respect for his, ‘roll of the dice’, is the best way I can put it. My intentions going into that fight was to just go in there and beat him to a pulp and show the world I was back.

I guess I got a little ahead of myself and I was a little too confident, a little bit too cocky maybe and I just kind of fed off the environment in the Arena and let it get to me a little bit. I just started chasing him with a left hook and that was obviously what he was looking for me to do so he could counter me.

Anyways, he was successful, but it was good, I needed that. The GSP fight was a learning experience and I kind of felt like a proved a little something in that fight because people counted me out, you know, quite clearly counted me out.

‘Submission in the first round’ was the main prediction for that fight and though I was up against it for the full 25 minutes I think I at least showed a bit of grit and determination. So you know maybe I didn’t treat that fight as the loss I should have treated it as.

The Condit fight, I didn’t have any respect for, like I said, his ‘roll of the dice’. I didn’t think there was a chance of getting caught. But it has put me in a place where, I certainly wouldn’t like to fight me now because now I’m suppressing my inner serial killer and I want to hurt somebody and Condit’s going to be at the top of my list until the end of my career.

I want to get that win over him and I’m determined to get that. I think this next fight is going to be a good step towards getting back to Condit and to the rest of the guys that I want to put a beating on. He certainly hasn’t gotten away with it.”

With the interview winding down, Dan laid a question on me. He asked me whether or not I had any insight on to Anthony Johnson’s current weight. Basically because most MMA pro’s and fans alike know that “Rumble” has missed weight in the past and has a reputation for cutting 50+ pounds to make the divisional 171 pound limit.

“Anthony told me he started his weight cut back in December, that he is taking this fight really seriously and his weight will be just fine come fight time,” is what I told Dan.

Mr. Hardy responded with…

“That’s good then because he’s a friend of mine so I don’t want to trash talk too much but I would feel bad taking the win bonus and a percentage of his purse.”

We both laughed and the call ended…



http://www.bjpenn.com/profiles/blogs/the-5-oclock-spotlight-dan

I'm a massive Hardy fan but this is a tricky fight. Rumble will, of course, have a huge size advantage but i hope Hardy can pull it off.

Hardy has done a Rumble and got FAT!



Plus he shaved off his mohawk

I hope Hardy wins though!

Oi Oi !!!

praying hardy wins he deserves a good result!

I'll be rooting for Hardy too, but it's a bit of a nightmare match-up for him. Johnson's gonna be much bigger than him, with heavier hands, and both are gonna want to strike.....


PS. yeah he's let himself go by the looks of it!!

im not a hardy fan but this fight excites me, hope they stay standing.

Dan Hardy was knocked out in his last fight, but upcoming opponent Anthony Johnson remains complimentary of the Brit’s standup game.

“He’s a great striker,” Johnson said recently on the Sherdog Radio Network. “He just made that one technical mistake with Carlos Condit, and Carlos capitalized on it and got the better end of the deal. Just because he got knocked out doesn’t make him a bad fighter. He’s still an amazing fighter. I still love watching the guy fight.”

Hardy and Condit fired left hooks on each other simultaneously. Condit’s was tighter and landed first, ending the UFC 120 matchup 4:27 into the first round.

The defeat was Hardy’s second in a row after losing a five-round decision to welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre at UFC 111. In that matchup, Hardy showed his toughness but was also unable to stay on his feet. Johnson may also look to take him down when they meet March 26 at UFC Fight Night 24.

“If I want to take it to the ground, I know I can,” Johnson said. “I can wrestle. I’m not saying that he can’t, but I think my wrestling is better. It’s more solid.”

Johnson also isn’t saying that he won’t trade with Hardy on the feet.

“Both of our striking [games] are solid of course,” he said. “We’ll see. I think it’s going to be a great fight.”

The 26-year-old Johnson is also coming off a defeat. In his most recent fight, Josh Koscheck submitted him with a rear-naked choke in November 2009. Johnson spent 2010 recovering from a torn meniscus. He doesn’t believe Hardy has experience fighting anyone like him.

“Not at all,” Johnson said. “I don’t think anybody in the UFC matches my style of fighting.”

Johnson had tied together three straight impressive finishes before losing to Koscheck. With a win over a former title challenger, he could move back into the mix of contenders at 170 pounds. He said the title is not on his mind right now, however.

“I just want to keep fighting and keep improving,” Johnson explained. “Like I said, I’ll make a statement whenever I’m a champ. That’s when I’ll know I deserve to be there. Not having one or two fights and automatically getting a title shot. I don’t want to take that road.”






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Anymore Hardy fans got a bad feeling about this fight ?

If Johnson can cut OK and doesn't gas, i have a bad feeling for Hardy, yeah.

I think this will either be an early Johnson KO or a later Hardy KO/UD.....

I'm picking Johnson, unfortunately...