Dan Hardy will be flying the flag for England and the UK on Saturday night against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 111 - If he wins he'll be the first Englishman to hold a UFC Title Belt.
The build up has been great and the UFC Primetime programmes have been revealing - Dan did Taekwondo like me and trained with the shaolin monks in 2000 for a couple of months - quite the contrast to GSP who claimed that Hardy wasn't a "Martial Artist". Plus they showed Dan training with Matt Serra who was helping him with the ground game.
The majority of the UK will have no idea about this but I'm sure many hardened MMA fans will either be staying up late or watching UFC 111 first thing in the morning on ESPN.
Like previous fighters, Mike Swick and Marcus Davis, Dan Hardy is getting inside GSP and winning the mins games pre-fight. For me, the heart says come on Dan, you can do this, you know you can knock him out and you know your stand-up is better. The head says GSP is the total package - look at the way he dismantled BJ Penn for instance - if GSP is right on his game he should win.
Predictions: Frank Mir to win and get ready to face Brock Lesnar and, I'm going out on a limb, - shock of the night as Hardy wins and brings the belt back to England with him! Come on Dan!
UFC 111 Review
GSP was awesome - dominant from start to finish. I'm struggling to think if Hardy landed a shot on him. Patriotism blinded me in thinking Dan could possibly win, but one thing - Hardy has a huge, huge set of nads for going the distance and not tapping with the arm bar & kimura.
The fight's end result came as no surprise to anyone who has watched GSP fight before. GSP took Dan Hardy down at will, beating him up and just neutralizing him. After 4 rounds of dominance I was willing Dan to just let his hands go at the start of the 5th - just a flurry, or something to ruffle GSP. Great as GSP is, I was gutted that Dan lost.
GSP can do nothing more to cement his status as the best welterweight in UFC history. The only competitive fights for him lie in the middleweight division. As for Dan, he can be a great fighter in this division for years to come. His next fight should be against Jon Fitch or Josh Koscheck.
Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir:
Shane Carwin came into the fight with an undefeated 11-0 record, with none of his fights going past 2:11 seconds of the first round. Frank Mir came into the fight with a very impressive submission win over Cheick Kongo, in which we saw a new and improved Frank Mir.
The fight was supposed to be a pretty even match-up, and for a few minutes it was. Then Shane Carwin unleashed his unbelievable punching power, and dropped Frank Mir with a few clean left uppercuts. Now, a fight with heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar awaits him.
