Dan Hardy: “HE’S A GREAT ATHLETE, BUT I’M A FIGHTER”


Two weeks before the highest profile fight in his MMA career, Dan Hardy spoke to MMA Weekly Radio about his opponent, Georges St. Pierre, and his mindset going into their Welterweight title fight at UFC 111 in Newark, New Jersey.

On being perceived as a huge underdog:

“I’m being counted out by about 98 percent of people in the world. I’m going into this fight with nothing to lose at all. That’s the difference, I can go in there and take risks, and I will take risks cause that’s the way I fight. I’m not there to eek out a decision, I want to knock him out, and that’s what I’m planning on doing. I’ve got four fights in the UFC now, and every time I was supposed to get my ass kicked. It hasn’t happened yet, so the underdog situation works pretty well for me because I’m coming out on top every time.”

On St. Pierre:

“He’s a great athlete and he goes in there to win, but the difference between me and him is, he’s a great athlete, but I’m a fighter. My intention is to go in there and have a good fight, and see what happens, and part of that is taking risks. I think that’s the part that GSP’s lost; he’s not willing to take that risk anymore. He don’t want to put himself out there in case he loses his belt again.”

“He’s under a lot of pressure in this fight, way more than I am. Cause he’s fighting a British guy, who’s had four fights in the UFC, come from nowhere, and I’m stepping in there with a damn good chance of putting him to sleep, and he knows that. All the pressure is on him.”

(source: MMA Weekly)

UFC Primetime St-Pierre vs Hardy

Part 2 of the Premiere of UFC Primetime St-Pierre vs Hardy


Part 1 of the Premiere of UFC Primetime St-Pierre vs Hardy

James Toney wants UFC champ Brock Lesnar first

what a nob!

Freddie Roach Thinks The UFC Is Just Using James Toney To Make a Point


Renowned boxing trainer Freddie Roach may not understand what this MMA jazz is all about, nor does he have much of an appreciation for the ground game (with the possible exception of Fedor Emelianenko’s armbars, I think they’re called), but he sees what’s going on with the UFC’s James Toney signing, and he doesn’t care for it. As he told Crave Online recently:

“I think they're using James as a way to say MMA fighters are better than boxers. If he fights a quality ground guy, once he goes to the ground he's gonna get killed. But If a guy chooses to stand up with James, James is gonna destroy him. That’s why they call him “Lights Out”. I really don’t think there’s one fighter in MMA that could stand with James.”

And thus, Roach exposes the great dark secret about the UFC’s latest maneuver. Signing Toney is just a ruse to make all boxers look inferior to MMA fighters. It is, at the very least, an interesting theory. It’s not without its problems, however.

UFC Learns the Hard Way That Title Fights = PPV Buys


Though all of the big-money fights scheduled for the spring/summer promise to turn their fortunes around, Zuffa has taken some serious hits lately. First we heard that WEC 47 pulled in a dismal 373,000 viewers, which was their second-smallest audience in two years — not exactly the level of heat you want going into your first pay-per-view card. Now, we hear that UFC 110 istrending at an estimated 215,000-240,000 pay-per-view buys, which follows very disappointing performances by UFC 108 and UFC 109. Sure, we all knew the UFC's fall/winter injury curse would have fans playing pick-and-choose, but the numbers are straight-up grim. Via BloodyElbow, here's how the UFC's pay-per-view cards have performed starting with the high-water mark of UFC 100 last July:

In 2009 the UFC averaged 620,000 buys per ppv event. If we look at the percentage each event was above or below that average we can definitely see a downward trend from 100.
UFC 100 1,600,000 + 245%
UFC 101 850,000 + 29%
UFC 102 435,000 -30%
UFC 103 375,000 -40%
UFC 104 500,000 -20%
UFC 106 375,000 -40%
UFC 107 620,000 +/- 0
UFC 108 300,000 -51%
UFC 109 275,000 -55%
UFC 110 240,000 -62%
Average with title on line 820,000
Average with non-title main event 370,000

MMA LIVE: 3-11-10


Newly-minted WEC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz checks in, as does UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones. Also, 1976 Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. analyzes the trend of boxers crossing over into
mma

UFC 112 TRAILER INVINCIBLE

Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Venue: Concert Arena (at the Ferrari World theme park on Yas
Island)
Broadcast: Pay-per-view

MAIN CARD

* Champ Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia (for middleweight title)
* Champ B.J. Penn vs. Frankie Edgar (for lightweight title)
* Matt Hughes vs. Renzo Gracie
* Rafael dos Anjos vs. Terry Etim
* Kendall Grove vs. Mark Munoz

PRELIMINARY CARD

* Phil Davis vs. Alexander Gustafsson
* John Gunderson vs. Paul Taylor
* Nick Osipczak vs. Rick Story
* Brad Blackburn vs. DaMarques Johnson
* Paul Kelly vs. Matt Veach
* Mostapha Al Turk vs. Jon Madsen*

* – Not officially announced