From UFC.com
If fights were decided by polls, Dan ‘The Outlaw’ Hardy might be well-advised to give Saturday night a miss. Shoot a glance at the UFC.com homepage and you’ll discover that only 10% of UFC fans give Hardy a prayer of lifting the UFC welterweight championship this weekend. Stop and ask 100 people on the streets of New Jersey and only 10 will back ‘The Outlaw’ to pull off the upset against pound-for-pound superstar Georges St-Pierre in Newark.
Ask Hardy for his thoughts, and he’ll tell you that’s nine more punches than he’ll need to demolish GSP and change UFC history.
“Being considered the underdog in this fight is exactly the position I want to be in,” says Nottingham’s Hardy, who becomes the first Brit to compete for the belt at UFC 111.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. When you step into a fight as a favourite it takes some of the excitement and drama away from it all. It almost takes my interest out of the fight.
“If I’m looking at moving forwards in my career and reaching the top, I’m going to need to be the underdog in a few fights. That just shows you are taking risks and are prepared to go up against the best fighters in the world. I should always be fighting guys that are considered better than me. The moment you fight guys that are worse than you, you might as well give up.”
Englishman Hardy is the sort of character that doesn’t mind seeing bad press, lopsided polls or ominous predictions. So long as he’s being talked about, the Nottingham hero has a reason to train, talk and run a red lick of paint through his mohawk. A master of self-promotion, Hardy was designed for events like Saturday night.
“I do like the attention these sort of fights bring,” Hardy says with a laugh. “I like being involved in big events that get people talking. If I’m putting this amount of work in when I’m training, I like for it to be for a good reason at the end of it. Knowing that everybody is going to be watching this fight makes it even easier for me to get motivated and to train hard.
“I know all eyes are on me for this fight and, rather than feel any added pressure, I just feel extra excited. If I don’t perform to my best, the whole world is going to see it – they’re going to see me fail to put up a good fight. It’s my job to ensure that everything is in place for me to do my job and shock the world on the night.”
Hardy pounds on his promotional drum with the same vigour as his opponent’s head. Hardy can talk a great fight and he can wax lyrical with a self-assuredness that makes believers out of non-believers. He’s a joy to listen to at pre-fight press conferences and when being interviewed. He belongs on the big stage.
However, while many UFC fans would admit to raising a smile as Hardy spits venom at prospective opponents, they’re still unsure whether he belongs in the Octagon with St-Pierre on Saturday night. Hardy knows this, of course. He’s read it.
“I like to read people’s thoughts on my fights,” says Hardy. “I enjoy keeping in touch with what the fans are saying by reading the various websites and forums. People are free to say whatever they like. Ultimately, it doesn’t affect me in any way, whether it’s positive or negative. I take everything I read with a pinch of salt and think it’s great that so many mixed martial arts fans are talking about this great sport.
“I don’t mind if they all think I’m going to lose. I’m confident in what I can do as a mixed martial artist and, to be honest, a lot of fans don’t know what goes on inside my head or how I train for a fight. They only have one perspective on me as a fighter, which is fine.”
Taken as purely a fighter in the UFC, Hardy’s resume to date is blemish-free and unquestionably impressive. Since making his UFC debut in October 2008, the loquacious Brit has won four UFC bouts in a row and beaten Mike Swick, Marcus Davis, Rory Markham and Akihiro Gono. He’s wiped the floor with each in the verbal smack-talking stakes and then duly backed up his boasts with fists and feet.
Despite out-talking and out-striking every welterweight that has crossed his path so far, Hardy admits to being disappointed with the performances pitched inside the Octagon to date.
“I don’t like having any of the decision wins I’ve got on my record,” says Hardy, who has been the full route three times in his UFC career. “I’m never pleased when a fight of mine goes to a decision. My job is to get inside the Octagon and beat somebody up. That is all I focus on before a fight. I never go into the Octagon with the intention of just doing enough to take a decision win.
“If a fight goes to a decision, I haven’t done my job properly. I don’t think it’s acceptable to go 15 or 25 minutes and then wait for the decision at the end of it all. I need to be stopping these guys, and the frustrating thing is, I know I have the ability to stop every one of them.”
“People will always underestimate me, until they step into the Octagon with me,” says the Team Rough House standout. “Even Mike Swick admitted that he was shocked at how good I was. He didn’t expect that going into the fight.
“The only time I’ll stop being considered the underdog is when I’ve got the belt around my waist and have reached the top. Even then, I’ll still probably be picked against in fights with guys like Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch. That’s just the way the world works. You’ve got to prove yourself against everybody over a long period of time. I know this and I’m more than ready to keep proving myself.”
Some fighters would collapse under the pressure of the underdog tag. Self-doubt would start to creep in and they’d begin to question whether the fans and critics were, in fact, correct in their predictions. This is where Hardy sets himself apart from most other fighters in the UFC, though. He gets just as much satisfaction from the negative and damning pre-fight comments as he does from the positively glowing reports. Don’t think for one minute Hardy envies the position pre-fight favourite St-Pierre is in right now.
“He (St-Pierre) knows what kind of pressure is on him,” adds Hardy, 23-6 (1 No Contest) in his mixed martial arts career. “He’s an 8/1 favourite to win this fight at the moment and I think that just piles more pressure on him. He’s expected to go in there and defeat me. He’s got to go into that Octagon with the whole world watching, and he’s got to beat me impressively. He can’t afford to have another off-night. He had one against Matt Serra, and we all know what happened there. He knows it can happen – it’s happened before – and he’ll be feeling that kind of pressure again this time around. I’m allowed to just go out there and enjoy myself.”
Admitting he needs to be “100% better” than he was last time out against Swick, don’t for one moment think Hardy isn’t feeling the pressure to perform. The Nottingham striker has high standards and fully believes he has the skill-set and mindset to become UFC welterweight champion. Anything less than a victory on Saturday night will be judged as a disappointment in the fiercely ambitious Hardy’s book.
“I know I can win the fight on my feet,” says Hardy. “I know I can knock him out standing. That’s my game through and through. Although everyone thinks GSP’s striking is wonderful, he’s only effective with his striking because he’s so good at wrestling. He uses his wrestling to set up strikes and create space. He’s not a particularly good striker. The longer this fight goes on its feet, the better chance I have of putting him to sleep.
“GSP and his fans will think he can hang on his feet with me, but they’ll quickly face reality once I’ve tagged him a few times and his legs have buckled. It’s then that he’ll realise he can’t hang with me on the feet.
“He’s fought great strikers like Thiago Alves in the past, but GSP simply controlled him with his wrestling. He was able to make Alves wary of getting taken down and that completely shut down Alves’ striking ability. GSP doesn’t have the footwork or the technical knowledge to actually stand with an opponent and control the fight on his feet. He needs to keep looking for takedowns and to control his opponent on the ground.”
St-Pierre’s recent title defences have been demonstrations in control and sheer dominance. When your advantages are as good as St-Pierre’s, you do everything in your power to make your opponent fight your type of fight. He did that masterfully against both Jon Fitch and then Thiago Alves, making his two top challengers look like run-of-the-mill contenders in the process. He perfected the art of making very good fighters look horribly ordinary.
While similarly impressed by GSP’s vice-like grip on the division, Hardy has a slightly different take on the champion’s recent showings.
“He’s (St-Pierre) a lot more cautious now and is a lot more aware of the dangers of standing and trading with an opponent,” assesses Hardy. “He’s also now aware of how quickly a fight can change with one punch. If you look at his recent performances, you’ll see a man who is worried about stepping into range and trading punches with an opponent. He picks his shots very carefully, stays out of range and then shoots for the takedown. That’s the blueprint and he follows it to a tee.
“I know he won’t want to stand and trade punches with me, as that lets me into the fight and, to be honest, it would have disaster written all over it.”
Having followed and studied St-Pierre’s career for years now, Hardy notices changes in the great French-Canadian.
“I think he’s now more realistic about what he can and can’t do inside the Octagon,” offers Hardy. “The defeat to Serra has shaken him up and forced him to analyse his own strengths and weaknesses as a fighter. He’s aware of these problems now and, as a result, is a lot more careful and cautious when he fights. That’s what works for him. It makes for less interesting and slower paced fights, but it still takes a lot of skill and discipline on his part. He’s still going out there and winning fights.
“When he first came on the scene he was a lot more dynamic, explosive and impressive on the eye, but ultimately that may have been his undoing. Now he just sticks to what he’s good at.”
St-Pierre is incredibly good at exerting control inside the Octagon, whether via the threat of takedowns or the literal motion of takedowns. Once GSP decides to shoot, chances are you’re going down with him. Very few welterweights are blessed with the kind of takedown defence needed to argue with St-Pierre.
While Hardy concedes there’s a good chance he’ll be taken down at some stage on Saturday, he’s also ultra-confident in his ability to take St-Pierre down – with a devastating shot to the chin, or head.
“I’ll hurt him at some point in this fight,” stresses Hardy. “I’m 100% confident that he’ll get hurt at some stage in this fight. I don’t think I’ll even have to catch him clean on the chin. I may rock or stun him with something that glances off the top of his head. I’ve got the power to switch his lights out if I land clean. The kind of shots I caught Swick with will end up hurting GSP, too, if I land them. I won’t need to land flush to put him in trouble. He will have to be very wary of trading with me.
“I’m hitting harder than ever right now and I know that one shot can do the damage. It’s unfortunate for GSP that I’ve also now acquired the skills to put the combinations together and set up the shot.”
In victories over Swick and Davis, Hardy was able to set up numerous counter-punches by simply drawing leads and working off his opponent’s aggression. He wound up both in the build-up to the fight and aggravated, taunted and baited the pair on fight night. He crawled under their skin, worked his way inside their heads and stole their game-plans. The machine-like demeanour of St-Pierre may offer better resistance, however.
“There are definitely ways to get under St-Pierre’s skin, as there are with any opponent,” says Hardy. “I just don’t think I’ll need to get under GSP’s skin. The pressure and the demons are already there inside his head. A lot of psychological warfare for this fight will just happen automatically, because of the pressure GSP is under to win impressively. He’s at the top right now and that means he’s got a lot further to fall than the rest of us.
“When that Octagon door closes, it’s a whole different story altogether. That’s when my mean streak comes into play and I become pure evil. He’s very skilled and physically able, but I just don’t think he has that same mean streak. He’s very capable of out-pointing somebody and bettering his opponents within the rules of the sport, but I don’t see him as a guy who looks to hurt opponents or finish them off. That’s where me and him differ. He’ll be trying to win the fight and I’ll be trying to take his head off.”
Hardy has visualised taking St-Pierre’s head off for the past four months. Most fans and critics believe that’s his only chance to win. One shot. One punch. ‘The Outlaw’ reckons that’s all he requires.
“I see GSP coming out into the centre of the Octagon and moving around a little bit with the intention of throwing a few shots,” begins Hardy. “As soon as he steps into my range, I’m going to punch him with something clean and then his kickboxing game-plan will go out the window and he’ll start trying to push me up against the fence and clinch me.
“I’m sure he’ll take me down and I’ll end up on my back and I’ll probably have to eat a few shots. I know this and I’ve accepted it. I’ll get back up again, though, and at some point in the fight he’ll step in for a shot or to throw something and I’ll catch him with a punch, whether it’s clean or glancing. He’ll go down and that will be the end of the fight.”
Hardy believes he knows something that 90% of people don’t. He’s happy with it that way. On Saturday night, they’ll find out what it is.
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