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By: Chris Park, MMATorch UK Specialist
Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy made UK history last night by becoming the first man to step into the UFC Octagon in a bid to take a World Title back to England. On this occasion that was as far as the dream would go.
Georges St. Pierre successfully defended his title for the fourth consecutive time in a heavily lop-sided decision, which saw GSP execute his game plan with great success.
Despite being unable to prise the title from St. Pierre, there are many pros as well the cons for "The Outlaw" to mill over once he returns to the UK.
THE FIGHT: St. Pierre set the tone early with his first takedown of the round coming within thirty seconds. The crowd was cheering "GSP, GSP" as the Champion took side control before working his way round to take the Brits back.
Hardy showed calmness while trying to turn and worked his way back to his feet; only to be taken straight back down to the mat again.
St. Pierre smothered Hardy for most of the round before transitioning to an arm bar with: 24 left on the clock.
The champion fully extended the arm and twisted the challengers shoulder... The arm bar was fully locked in... The fight is over!... Or at least it should have been.
Hardy gritted his teeth and turned his way through and got back to his feet in an unbelievable escape. Hardy smiled as he walked towards GSP to engage once more. "Rush" landed his trademark Superman punch as the horn sounded, which just bounced back off Hardys granite chin.
How Dan Hardy escaped that DEEP arm bar is beyond me. St. Pierres surprised expression said all he was thinking as he saw Hardy "get out of jail" to just and come back and ask for more.
A lot of heart was shown by the Brit but it was easily a 10-9 or maybe even 10-8 round to the Champ.
The second round saw Georges St. Pierre follow his game plan to full affect: Shooting and completing the takedown before moving to side control and then onto the challenger's back. Hardy managed to shake him off before briefly winding up in his guard. As the fight worked its way back to the feet St. Pierre landed a right which Hardy took with little trouble.
St. Pierre completed another takedown and spent the final :20 inside of Hardy's guard. It was another round controlled by St. Pierre, and although he didn't really do any real damage, he was dominating Hardy and dictating everything that happened in the fight to that point.
Interestingly Greg Jackson told GSP that in the next round (the third) he should not pass his opponents guard. Instead "Ground & Pound, stand up to really rain that shot down." It was interesting advice as the third began.
Yet another take down was landed for GSP not even :15 into the third. Again. total domination from the Champion throughout this round. Once again, Hardy was able to stifle the attack and limit any damage to just fatigue and an accidental eye poke of some kind that seemed to briefly trouble the challenger. Hardy made a triangle attempt that saw GSP pass his guard and continue to dominate the final minutes of the third round, fully controlling his opponent on the mat.
As the fight moved into the Championship rounds it was more of the same as GSP took Hardy back to the mat. Once again he moved into full mount before taking Hardy's back. The Champion again showed complete control and with 2:00 left on the clock GSP began to work Hardy's arm into a Kimura.
It was in tight and Hardy's face expressed pure agony. He had to tap this time, right? Hardy closed his eyes and his expression changed. His face turned to almost a blank canvas as if he had gone somewhere else. Hardy went from displaying excruciating pain to blanking it all out completely, before popping his arm free.
How does someone endure something like that? For the second time in this fight "The Outlaw" risked a broken arm in order to not tap out on this historic occasion. I was willing him to tap, I was sure his arm was on the verge of snapping but once again "The Outlaw" demonstrated heart and guts like I have never seen before.
As (trainer) Steve Papps tried to pump Hardy up for the final round he told the Brit: “You’ve gotta hit him now. He’s not done what you’ve expected him to do. He’s not dominating you on the floor.”
While I think GSP had in fact dominated all four rounds, he had not inflicted a beating on Hardy in the way he has all his previous opponents. This was the message Papps was trying to put over to Hardy as he prepared him for the fifth and final round.
After a brief exchange on the feet, GSP scored yet another takedown. This one was greeted by boos from the crowd who appeared to have been hoping for a round on its feet. GSP once again worked the Kimura and briefly had it completely locked before Hardy freed his own limb, from going back to Canada, for the third time in the evening.
Joe Rogan piped up at this point to say: “If he won’t tap to arm bars or Kimuras, he’s gotta try and put him to sleep. At this point in time maybe Georges, if he really wants to finish (the fight), should look for a choke. Because I think he could break Dan Hardys arm and he’s not gonna tap.”
As the round came to a close St. Pierre scooped up the Brit and slammed him to the mat. As the sticks sounded he rolled to a knee bar for one last effort to finish the fight. It again was another dominant round for the Champion which will see this unbeaten run stretch to seven straight Octagon victories.
THE RESULT
Both Champion and Challenger embraced and displayed great respect towards one another and each others team. St. Pierre asked Hardy how he managed to stay in there, with Hardy pointing at his head, as if to say it’s all in the mind.
Joe Rogan spoke with Georges St. Pierre, who praised Hardy for staying in there. St. Pierre was dumbfounded as to how he hadn’t manage to tap Hardy and assumed that he must have made “stupid technical mistakes” when executing the arm bar. GSP added: “I thought he was made of rubber. Congratulations to Dan Hardy he did alot better than I did in my first title shot to Matt Hughes.”
Joe Rogan then spoke with the Brit after stating he was amazing he hadn’t tapped. Hardy told the crowd: “It was an honour to fight him I can see now why he’s the Champion. I wasn’t quite there tonight but I’ll be back.”
When Rogan asked how Hardy did not tap Hardy replied: "The one thing I do have above everything else, I might lack in technicality, I might lack in strength but there’s no quit in me I told you that- I don’t give up.”
Rogan then once more praise Hardy and the heart he showed as asked if he ever thought about tapping. Hardy replied; “I don’t know the meaning of (the word) tap.”
St. Pierre went back to his locker determined to figure out which part of his technique, when executing the arm bar, had let him down. Drilling the hold with Firas Zahabi; Greg Jackson stressed to the Champion that he executed the arm bar perfectly. Dan Hardy was just simply prepared to let St. Pierre break his arm.
LAY OF THE LAND: Let’s first address the cons for Hardy; at no point during the fight was he able to resist the Champion imposing his game. Hardy didn’t show much real takedown defence and didn’t attempt to sprawl and stuff any of GSP’s takedowns. It was indeed as one sided as the score-lines showed but this was no crushing soul stealing victory that we are used to seeing when GSP fights.
GSP put Hardy where he wanted when he wanted, but was unable to overwhelm and beat-up the Brit in the way he has with all his previous opponents.
St. Pierre dominated and beat Matt Serra into stoppage en route to reclaiming his title at UFC 83. His first defence was against John Fitch and for five long rounds a game Fitch took an absolute hiding, from GSP, who battered him wherever the fight went. Next was B.J. Penn who was smothered, dominated and pounded until he quit on his stool at the end of the fourth. At UFC 100 Thiago Alves was supposed to provide the deadliest threat, so far, to the Canadians reign. Alves was rag-dolled by St. Pierre and lost a five round decision. It was revealed afterwards that St. Pierre had badly damaged his groin at some point during round three.
Luckily for St. Pierre he had already crushed Thiago Alves to the point of no return and finished the final two rounds on auto-pilot. Had this injury not struck the Champion I have no doubt the referee would have stopped Alves, taking any more damage, at some point before the finish line
When these fights are compared to Hardy's then people will realise that, while Hardy was powerless to stop GSP, he did not take a crushing beating (like most predicted) by any means. He was out wrestled and had his game plan nullified, by a potential Olympic Wrestler, for about 90 percent of the fight.
SO WHAT’S NEXT?: For GSP I am not sure who is left for him to face at 170. Potentially Paul Daley, should he overcome Josh Koscheck, or Paulo Thiago? Other than that I can’t think of anyone the Champion can face. Should Jake Shields wind up in the UFC then that could be a potential match up.
I have no desire to see St. Pierre re-match any of his past victims. Paulo Thiago and Paul Daley are the only two top Welterweights that the UFC has left to face the Champ. I would much prefer him to move up to the Middleweight division. Not to face Anderson Silva but to make a run in the division.
GSP moving up would free up the division and make it competitive once more, while facing the likes of Damien Maia, Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen at 185 lbs. could provided the next step up for St. Pierre.
Dan Hardy can now dust himself off and begin a fresh challenge on the Welterweight division. Likely to face John Fitch or Paulo Thiago next, Hardy will be taken alot more seriously as a legitimate 170 lb. fighter after the heart he showed last night.
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Park's Analysis: Dan Hardy made the whole of England proud last night. I wrote in my preview article last week that one thing was for sure... He would not quit! Even I was stunned that he didn’t and found myself willing him to tap for fear his arm would break.
The mental strength that Hardy displayed backs up some of the lessons the Brit stated he learned from his time with the Shao Lin Monks. During the Primetime series Hardy recalled the experience and said: “At the point in a fight where somebody thinks I just can’t take anymore, I’m done- that just doesn’t occur to me anymore.”
GSP claimed he would be around 192 lb. come fight night so, with that in mind and the nature of this victory, the sooner he moves up in weight the better for all concerned. The 170 division will once again be competitive, and subsequently, so will St. Pierres career.
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Chris Park is the MMATorch UK Specialist. Please email any comments or questions to Chris at; mmatorchuk@gmail.com or look us up at http://www.facebook.com/mmatorchuk our new MMATorch Facebook home for UK Fans!
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