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Dan Hardy is an English professional mixed martial artist who competes in the welterweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2004, Hardy fought in various promotions such as Cage Force and Cage Warriors before signing a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2008. He is the current Cage Warriors welterweight and light-welterweight champion. His nickname comes from the time he spent on the CageWarriors.com forums under the name “The Outlaw”. At the time, Hardy was looking for new training partners after his former coach and him could not see eye-to-eye. Hardy is currently ranked by Sherdog as the #4 welterweight fighter in the world. Hardy had been training in Tae Kwon Do since he was six years old. He moved on when taekwondo went down the Olympic route. He wanted real fights, so switched to Muay Thai instead. Hardy only became interested in Mixed Martial Arts after spending two months in China training with the Shaolin monks in 2002.[5] He then came back to England and competed in amateur MMA tournaments until his professional debut in 2004. Hardy is a member of Team Rough House alongside Paul Daley, Andre Winner and Dean Amasinger. Hardy has also spent time training at Xtreme Couture, Leicester Shootfighters and the Wildcard Boxing Gym.[5] He just received his Purple Belt in 10th planet jiu jitsu from Eddie Bravo. Hardy made his UFC debut at UFC 89, defeating Akihiro Gono via split decision. Gono was left swollen and bloody by several of Hardy’s left hooks. Gono rocked Hardy on more than one occasion. In the third round Gono pushed Hardy to the canvas and while there landed an illegal knee to the face of the downed fighter causing the fight to be stopped for a lengthy period. Hardy recovered and went on to win the split decision. The judges saw the bout 2928 (twice) for Hardy and 2928 for Gono. Dan Hardy beat Rory Markham at UFC 95 in the first round (1:09) by KO with a clean counter left hook. A follow-up shot on the mat brought in Kevin Mulhall to stop the fight. In his post-fight interview, Hardy retorted to Markham’s pre-fight accusation that he had weak hands by exclaiming to the ecstatic crowd, “No punching power? What do you have to say about that? Dan Hardy next defeated Marcus Davis via split decision at UFC 99 on June 13, 2009. The grudge between these two men began with the Irish-American Davis fighting in the UK against local fighters and defeating them all in spectacular fashion. Hardy stated that the UK was his home and he did not want Davis in it, building a fan base. It started to get personal when Hardy began openly insulting Davis calling him a fake Irishman and stating that Davis’ website “looked like a St. Patrick’s day gift shop blew up.” Afterwards, on an UK underground MMA website, Hardy encouraged fans to post photoshopped pictures of Davis in a homosexual fashion. The pictures upset Davis, causing him to confront Hardy at a UFC 99 press conference. The two continued to argue, but finally agreed to settle it in the cage. After a three round war, the judges at UFC 99 awarded the fight to Dan Hardy. Marcus Davis stormed out of the cage ignoring Hardy’s attempts to make peace. Davis told reporters that he wants a rematch with Hardy in Ireland or Boston. Hardy insists in his post-fight interview with Davis (and after the event to fans) that all of controversy was an effort to get Davis off his game-plan and nothing personal. On November 14, 2009 at UFC 105 he faced Mike Swick who replaced an injured Kim Dong-hyun.. At a press conference in Manchester Hardy and Swick discussed the winner of their fight getting a title shot against Georges St. Pierre. Hardy was the underdog coming into the fight, but managed to rock Swick early in the first round with a straight right hand which appeared to dent the American’s confidence. Swick appeared to be uncomfortable standing toe-to-toe with the Englishman and Hardy proceeded to rock him again in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Hardy won the fight by unanimous decision and booked his place as the number 1 contender for Georges St-Pierre’s Welterweight title. In being awarded the title shot, Hardy became the first British fighter in UFC history to receive one. UFC President Dana White confirmed at the post-fight press conference that the fight will most likely be held in Las Vegas. Dan stated in a post-fight interview with Sherdog.com that the next event in Las Vegas (UFC 109) in February was a little too early for him and he would much rather wait. Hardy is currently ranked the number 4 welterweight in the world by Sherdog.com. Hardy will fight Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title on March 27, 2010 at UFC 111 which will take place in Newark, NJ.

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