England Belongs to Dan Hardy

Dent · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:55 am

Practically all fighters visualize how an upcoming fight will go, walking themselves through everything from their entrance into the arena to the final bell or the moment when their hand is raised. Yet few will actually go on the record with such thoughts.

Dan Hardy, who faces Mike Swick in the UFC 105 co-main event on Saturday night, is one of those few.

“The walkout to the fight is gonna be awesome,” starts Hardy, and you can almost see him picturing the scene in his head. “I’m so excited about the atmosphere inside the MEN Arena. I heard last time that it was insane, and I’m happy to be a part of that, particularly so high up on the card. The other British fighters will have already done well and hyped up the crowd. As soon as the Octagon door closes, I’m expecting the first five minutes of the fight to be very fast-paced, back and forth, and that’s when I’m gonna find my range and start working that a bit. At the start of the second round, he’s gonna come out, I’m gonna land one on his chin and he’s gonna go fast asleep.”

That’s Dan Hardy, and it’s been this mix of charisma, talent, and bold confidence, as well as three UFC victories over Akihiro Gono, Rory Markham, and Marcus Davis, that have made him a British sensation as he heads into the biggest fight of his career. Perfect timing, one would say, but in the whirlwind that has been the last 12 months of the 27-year old’s life, he hasn’t had time to reflect on things just yet.

“I haven’t been able to sit down and give it that much thought because it’s been so fast-paced,” he said. “It’s just exciting. I always knew I had the potential to be pushing through the top ten rankings, and now I’m doing it and I’m getting my opportunity, so it’s real exciting.”

Well, that’s the fighting end of things, and there, Hardy has certainly made his presence felt with his highlight reel KO of Markham at UFC 95 and his gritty split decision win over Davis. But where things have truly taken off for Hardy is in the field of public perception, where he has gone from a relative unknown to a bona fide star in the UK. And to his credit, the Nottingham native has handled the crush of media requests and pulls on his time with the skill of an old pro, despite being a rookie at the whole fame game.

“I don’t really think you can prepare for it,” he said. “It’s either something you can do or you can’t. For me, I’ve always been kinda quick with my retorts in arguments and stuff, and I think that helps because I’m able to think on my feet, and when people throw questions at you, it’s quite easy for me to come back. Another thing as well is that I spent a lot of time kinda thinking through all the questions that I could possibly get asked and think of answers for them. So I do prepare myself a little bit, but I think a lot of it is naturally being able to talk nonsense constantly.”

Hardy laughs, but his ability to think quick and fire off at the mouth was what first propelled him into the spotlight as he had a fierce war of words with Davis before their June bout. It turned an undercard bout into perhaps the most anticipated fight on the UFC 99 card in Germany, and while Hardy was dismissed as a loudmouth early on, by the time he and Davis had finished fighting for 15 minutes, he had gained a legion of fans.

“I took a lot of heat during the Marcus Davis build-up but I think that’s because a lot of people were just becoming introduced to me then and they weren’t really sure how to take me,” said Hardy. “Whereas when the Countdown show came out and after the fight, when I had a chance to put across what kind of person I was a little bit, I think they understood that I wasn’t just a loudmouth that wanted to talk trash on everybody. And I think people just realized that I’m having fun, playing the game, and that my main concern is winning fights and entertaining the fans.”

And this time around, there has been little if anything in the way of incendiary exchanges between Hardy and Swick, who actually became friendly during a UFC tour of military bases in Europe. But is ‘The Outlaw’ a little disappointed that he hasn’t had a trash talking war with Swick in the lead up to November 14th?

“Not at all,” said Hardy. “Every opponent’s different and you’ve got to treat them as such. I spent a bit of time with Mike and we got on pretty well, so there was no point in just making up nonsense just to try and sell a fight. This fight’s all about putting the hours in the gym and putting on a show when the time comes.”

Of course there are some fans that expect every Hardy fight to be made into the grudge match to end all grudge matches. He accepts that perception, but is not willing to put on a show just for the sake of, well, putting on a show.

“I’ve always got a few comments to make, but the thing with Davis was because he reacted so badly to it, and it just started to snowball, so I just kept feeding the fire,” he explains. “I knew Mike wouldn’t bite if I put the bait out there, so we’ve not really gotten into that. I think if I was doing it for every fight, it would have gotten a little bit tiresome.”

It would, and truth be told, this is a fight that doesn’t need any extra fuel because stylistically, it’s pretty much a can’t miss in terms of compelling action. Hardy knows it, and to get ready, he’s been putting in long hours in the Rough House Gym, a spot which – like Hardy – has grown in notoriety over the last few months thanks to his exploits as well as those of guys like Paul Daley, Andre Winner, Dean Amasinger, and a couple of new additions.

“Rough House has been going for eight years now,” said Hardy. “We’ve put the work in and we’ve been training hard together, and now it’s getting to the stage where people are interested in the team. We’ve had a few guys come to join, like Ross Pearson and Nick Osipczak, and James Wilks has come down as well – he’s a good friend of the team’s. It’s just such a solid base of fighters, and it’s like a family. It’s like training with my brothers and the fact that we can stand together and basically say ‘hello world, we’re here now, we’re gonna start knocking people out,’ it’s real exciting. We’re all up and coming, we’re all young talent, and we’ve got bright futures ahead of us.”

The brightest future may end up being that of Hardy, but first things first, and that’s taking care of Mike Swick, the biggest name on the Brit’s ledger thus far and one who has seemingly hit his stride at 170 pounds after a brief acclimation process in the division following his stint at middleweight.

“I thought he had a bit of a slow start in the division just trying to get used to the weight and he seems to have found his rhythm a little bit now and he’s looking pretty sharp,” said Hardy. “But there is actually a third Mike Swick. There’s the one that takes people to a decision, the one that steamrolls through people, and then there’s the one that gets knocked out by Dan Hardy, and that’s the one that everyone’s gonna see on November 14th.”

Was that a rehearsed answer?

“That was top of my head, that one,” he laughs, but all kidding aside, he knows that this fight is serious business, especially since a shot at UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre may be in the offing for the winner. Hardy doesn’t want to look that far ahead though. Well, maybe just a little.

“My focus has got to be Mike Swick, and I’ve got to put him to sleep first,” said Hardy. “As soon as that’s done, I’ll wake up on the Sunday morning of the 15th, and I’ll get my GSP DVD’s out and start making some notes.”

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England Belongs to Dan Hardy

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